HALA REZONING: City Council briefing Monday; comment deadline; Admiral workshop reminder

| Development | West Seattle housing | West Seattle news

A few notes today about the city’s proposed rezoning for the Mandatory Housing Affordability component of HALA (the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda):

COUNCIL BRIEFING MONDAY, WITH DEADLINE FOR PUBLIC COMMENT: On Monday morning, the City Council‘s weekly briefing meeting at 9:30 am will include a HALA briefing. The documents related to the briefing are already linked to the meeting’s agenda. Two of them announce a date for the end of public comment: June 30th. It’s in this memo, and on the last page of the briefing slide deck – here’s a framegrab:

(The briefing documents note that only 600 people have used the hala.consider.it site, which has drawn complaints about user-unfriendliness.) Earlier this week, we reported that City Councilmember Lisa Herbold had learned the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the MHA rezoning was expected to go public in May rather than March. Some community groups including the Junction Neighborhood Organization and Southwest District Council have asked for an extra six months to comment; the draft rezoning maps went public in October but without a clear citywide announcement of what they were and who they would affect. The city now says its upcoming outreach will include going door-to-door:

The City will be going door to door in our Urban Villages to answer questions and leave
information about ways to comment on the draft proposals. The doorbelling will take place in March
2017 and will focus on the single-family homes that will be changing to multifamily.

That’s an excerpt from the memo for Monday morning’s briefing. Public comment is not taken during council briefing meetings, but you can attend at City Hall, or watch live via seattlechannel.org (online or cable 21).

ADMIRAL MEETING REMINDER: One week from tomorrow is the Community Design Workshop for the Admiral Residential Urban Village, 9:30 am-12:30 pm at West Seattle High School. It’s the Admiral version of the well-attended Junction meeting last week (WSB coverage here). Here’s the official city weblink about the meeting (child care provided, by the way); if you still don’t know whether your neighborhood is proposed for rezoning, explore the citywide interactive map.

Matt February 3, 2017 (11:54 am)

8 months for the public comments after the preliminary maps and then another 3 months to lobby council before they vote on MHA. Overall, 3+ years from HALA’s rollout to the vote on MHA. If you don’t weigh in, it isn’t for lack of opportunity. So do it today.

CMT February 3, 2017 (3:00 pm)

I absolutely echo your call for people to weigh in. However, in fairness, the maps identifying the areas to be rezoned were not released until late October, with no direct notice to those in the rezone areas. Many people are still learning that there streets are targeted for a rezone from single family to potentially 40+ foot apartment buildings. Yes, people that read the WS Blog have had notice but there are a lot of affected residents that may not read the blog. So addition to weighing in, take a moment to make sure your neighbors know what is being proposed and how they can weigh in.

Matt February 3, 2017 (6:09 pm)

The maps have been out for MONTHS, and covered extensively by just about every media source-online, radio, the Times, TV. There are meetings all over the city. OPCD has a website for feed back. A phone hotline for feedback. A email address for feed back. There is Twitter, email newsletters. They’ve sent postcards, and now is going to go DOOR to DOOR informing single family residents.

What is it going to take? Skywriting? Naked people only wearing sandwich boards with large zoning maps on them stationed at every corner?
- CMT February 3, 2017 (8:20 pm)
  
  Whatever – there is a disconnect as plenty of smart people are just now finding out.
- chemist February 3, 2017 (8:49 pm)
  
  Maybe they could have posted some pre-printed maps on boards in the neighborhoods, like campaign signs in planting strips.
  - Steve February 3, 2017 (9:30 pm)
    
    Or on your “democracy” vouchers!
- WS Guy February 3, 2017 (10:28 pm)
  
  They really should have started by asking the neighborhood where best to apply MHA before creating maps.

Free eech February 3, 2017 (3:36 pm)

I am still challenged reading the proposed changes

can someone kindly educate me on the street boundaries that will go from single family homes to 40 feet condos, perhaps also using land marks, how far up California does that go with 42 and 44 th

my 75 year old eyes can’t read their map

WS Guy February 3, 2017 (10:07 pm)

Starting from the North, for only those on 42nd or 44th,

– the block to the west of the Lafayette playground

– the block to the east of a new large residential project between Hanford and Hinds, on 42nd.

– behind Courtesy tire from Edmunds to Dawson, on 42nd

– from Raymond to Graham, on 42nd

– behind the Starbucks from Fauntleroy to Holly, on 44th
- Free eech February 4, 2017 (11:05 pm)
  
  Thank you ws guy