Here’s what happened at January’s Fauntleroy Community Association meeting

| Fauntleroy | Neighborhoods | West Seattle news

Busiest week of the month for meetings – here are toplines from last night’s monthly meeting of the Fauntleroy Community Association board.

FERRY DOCK PROJECT: No new developments in planning for the Washington State Ferries dock/terminal replacement. Meantime, FCA has sent letters and petitions of support – with more than 700 signatures – to urge the City Council to renew its longstanding opposition to expanding the doc when it’s rebuilt. This week’s WSF community meetings were also mentioned (we just covered the first one, held at noontime today, and will publish our report later today; you can sign up here for the 6 pm Thursday meeting).

SDOT WALKING TOUR FOLLOWUP: What happens next after their tour four weeks ago with SDOT director Greg Spotts (WSB coverage here)? They haven’t heard anything yet.

NEW TRANSPORTATION CONCERN: In addition to fees going up this year for Restricted Parking Zone permits, the city is no longer issuing stickers to permit holders – your license plate will go into the system, and that’s it. So how will someone know to report a violator? it was asked. (Not to mention, it was pointed out, the restricted time period in the Fauntleroy RPZ is 2-5 am, and currently Parking Enforcement Officers aren’t on duty during those hours anyway.)

SAVE THE DATE: The annual Fauntleroy Food Fest – the FCA’s annual general-membership meeting, with attendance incentives including tastes from local eateries – is currently set for March 21st at The Hall at Fauntleroy (9131 California SW).

BOARD RECRUITING: They’ve had some attrition lately so will be going to the community soon to recruit new members.

The Fauntleroy Community Association board meets at 7 pm second Tuesdays most months, and anyone with an interest in Fauntleroy is always welcome, in person or online.

X-Little Lord January 11, 2023 (3:18 pm)

The Fauntleroy RPZ should be eliminated.

There are virtually no cars parked in the RPZ compared to everywhere else in Seattle. The RPZ in Lower Queen Anne (Uptown) is viable, as there is a need for street parking of residents and the the streets are well used, with parking taken up by residents. Same on Capitol Hill.
The Fauntleroy RPZ was brought by a highly localized and powerful NIMBY group (in 1979!) that did not like other peoples’ cars legally parked in front of their homes.

There was never a shortage of street parking in Fauntleroy.
Yes, there were many ferry commuters stashing a work car near the ferry dock.
So what?
That was 40m years ago before enhanced transit for ferry commuters.
Now, the streets of Fauntleroy are virtually vacant.
Few homeowners purchase the pass as most have off-street parking.
This is yet another argument of monetizing of all street parking.
The city should sell Fauntleroy RPZ passes for commuters with discounts or free parking for carpools. This RPZ area could accommodate hundreds of cars, cutting down on carbon footprint and costs of those commuting by vehicle.
According to Fauntleroy Community Org., “In July, they hit the streets at 4:00 am and tallied 70 vehicles with RPZ stickers south and east of the ferry terminal. At 2:00 pm, they found that only 39 of the 93 parked vehicles had stickers. To trigger an official study, the Seattle Department of Transportation requires that street parking be at least 75 percent full and that at least 35 percent of those vehicles be non-resident.”
That is 70 vehicles for the RPZ and woefully underuse of parking.

I vote January 11, 2023 (5:21 pm)

With all due respect to X-Little Lord, your assertions are opinion and do not reflect the facts in Fauntleroy. There IS a shortage of street parking in the RPZ 3 area and if it were not for observant and vigilant residents and occasional visits from Seattle Parking Enforcement, we would have many more RPZ violators and too many non-resident vehicles taking up valuable street parking space.The citation pulled from an FCA report at the end of your message was from 2018 when the neighborhood was seeking additional parking enforcement and restrictions due to increased pressure from vehicles parking all day in the neighborhood. Examples include commuters catching the C Line who park all day in Fauntleroy and ferry workers who do not take advantage of a parking lot available to them and instead choose to park in front of Fauntleroy homes. In addition, many streets in the area — particularly side streets — do not allow parking on both sides of the street. Regardless of daytime or nighttime needs, neighbors are not able to park in front of their homes on a routine basis. At the time that the neighbors did the RPZ count in 2018, SDOT informed us that it did not qualify for a more in-depth study performed by them. The problem is that SDOT’s rules for RPZ qualification are ever-changing and conflicting. Fauntleroy neighbors elected not to fight SDOT at the time.WSDOT Ferries did a study of vehicles using the ferry system in 2019 and 80% were single-occupancy vehicles. This has not changed since the 1990s . In addition, the total number of vehicles coming off the ferry is expected to increase by 250,000 by 2040. Relaxing the RPZ in Fauntleroy means that a significant portion of those vehicles would love to park overnight in Fauntleroy and avoid the ever-increasing ferry fares, lines and congestion. One reason why the RPZ has worked in Fauntleroy is that neighbors have been observant and vigilant about RPZ tags and stickers. Many Seattle neighborhoods have RPZ restrictions during the day which allow Parking Enforcement to read license plates under the new system of no visible tags; however, in Fauntleroy, do not expect Parking Enforcement to be monitoring our streets between the restricted hours of 3-5 a.m. each day. You can be sure that parking enforcement will be a very LOW priority for SPD during these hours since they are responding primarily to 911-related high-priority incidences. The RPZ system for Fauntleroy needs to stay in place and improved so that neighbors will be able to safely park their vehicles on the street in front of their homes.
- X-Little Lord January 11, 2023 (6:23 pm)
  
  Born and raised in Fauntleroy, I am quite familiar with the neighborhood. Please share with me the specific streets that you claim where there is a lack of on street parking? Not my opinion, factually the group’s own damning research counts only 70 vehicles parked in an area that has hundreds, perhaps thousand of vacant spots. This contradicts I-Vote’s claim. Fauntleroy entitlement is evident in I-Vote’s claim, “Regardless of daytime or nighttime needs, neighbors are not able to park in front of their homes on a routine basis.” Only in Fauntleroy are these problems, as everywhere else in Seattle, people are not given special parking directly run front of their houses. Has anyone ever heard of homelessness RV s fowling Fauntleroy? Fauntleroy is still in the fifties mentality when someone has the audacity to write, “neighbors will be able to safely park their vehicles on the street in front of their homes.”
- Kyle January 11, 2023 (8:02 pm)
  
  The example of parking during the day and catching the c line or parking during a shift are allowed. The only restriction is overnight parking. Which is meant to not allow Vashon residents to leave their car for the work week in Faunterlory over night and just walk onto the ferry. This ends up contributing to more single car ferry riders and more vehicles idling and lining Faunterlory way. But hey FCA is against expanding the dock too.
- Jon Wright January 11, 2023 (8:37 pm)
  
  I’m always amazed at the chutzpah of people who think they have some divine right to the public right of way adjacent to their residence.

Curb Appeal January 11, 2023 (3:54 pm)

So we’re paying for parking permits but the city isn’t using that money to enforce the parking zone the permits were purchased for. I hope people stop buying permits. Why are fees going up if the city isn’t spending the money on the zone they were purchased for?

X-Little Lord January 11, 2023 (4:21 pm)

Where did Curb Appeal get the idea that the money was to be used for parking enforcement in the RPG?
And in fact parking enforcement does work the Fauntleroy RPZ, just not at night.
In terms of enforcement, we should all be concerned about lack of parking enforcement in West Seattle, where many parking laws are being ignored because they are no longer enforced.

hj January 11, 2023 (4:24 pm)

Where can I sign a petition to support dock expansion?

WSB January 11, 2023 (5:18 pm)

Unless folks on Vashon have started one, I haven’t heard of any. You can certainly start one.
Fauntleroy fairies January 11, 2023 (10:00 pm)

I like that idea! Where can we sign? And how about a petition to expand Cove Park? (which many leading the “Save Children’s Cove Park” opposed when the city received the adjacent residence from King County, a few years ago). The white home north of the ferry dock is public — why not put it to use to benefit the public instead of renting it out to keep the public from accessing the beach? Cove park would be so much nicer if it was one lot wider! OR they could expand the dock to the north, acquiring some parcels to make more room, and relocate Cove Park. They could build the new dock while operating the old dock. King tides are foreshadowing future sea level rise—some of these homes are facing a risky future. Change is hard, but it’s coming. How can we better adapt to the future and make this ferry dock renovation an asset instead of a liability?
- Ivan Weiss January 12, 2023 (8:11 am)
  
  After 46 years of commuting between Vashon and Fauntleroy, the attitude of some Fauntleroy-area residents continues to baffle me. I have sat with them at ferry meetings and community meetings, and at the 34th District Democrats meetings, and have tried to make sense of their attitudes toward the ferry dock, which are all over the place, and at many times appear contradictory.
  
  The lines along Fauntleroy Way are intolerable, I hear. The cars block driveways and access to Lincoln Park (true). U-turners create a traffic hazard (true).
  
  Expand the dock, then, I suggest, and take another 100 or so cars off the street, and thereby at least mitigate the problem. That suggestion sets another group off. Can’t do that, they say. What about the “nearshore environment,” whatever that is? What about Cove Park? What about this? What about that?
  
  Fine, I say. Then you’re willing to live with the long lineups, and the hazards we agree they present? No, they say, we don’t want those either. Pressed further, eventually it comes down to “We just wish that damn dock would go away and those damn Vashon people would find some other way to get off their damn island.”
  
  Well I have two pieces of news for them. The first is that the dock isn’t going away. It was there before any of them, and any of us, were. The second is that Vashon isn’t their problem. Kitsap County is. Development and population increase on the Southworth side of the triangle is far outstripping development and population increase on Vashon, and the calls for dock expansion are being made to accommodate the Kitsap commuters. But they can “drive around.” Vashon can’t.
  
  I’m afraid there are no good answers for the Fauntleroy. NIMBYs, or any answers that will satisfy some of them. Just like “we made our choice to live on an island,” and therefore we have to live with the consequences, so “they made their choice to live near a ferry dock” and will have to live with those consequences. It’s my guess that most of them can and will adapt to whatever comes, just as we have. Only the hard core of diehards refuse to. Isn’t that always the way of it?
Makes.sense January 12, 2023 (9:31 pm)

I live in Fauntleroy, am a member of the Fauntleroy Community Association and would gladly support a petition to expand the dock. The ferry lines have gotten terrible, especially during the summer. It feels dangerous to bike or try to cross the street to get to Lincoln Park. You can’t blame the people taking the ferry. It’s a simple matter of limited space. Expanding the dock is the best solution for the most number of people. Who’s going to start this petition??
- Kyle January 12, 2023 (9:54 pm)
  
  Hopefully you will? Your FCA leaders keep sending letters and petitions supporting the opposite.
  - Ivan Weiss January 13, 2023 (12:44 pm)
    
    Thank you Kyle. I agree 100 percent. The FCA NIMBYs are the ones who are making the situation worse for the very neighbors they claim to represent. There might not be any “good” solutions for the ferry dock’s neighbors, but it’s pretty clear to me, at least, that expanding the dock – and I mean widening it, not only lengthening it – is the least bad solution.