CITY BUDGET: Noise enforcement, bus-lane crackdown cameras, and other proposed changes to be discussed Tuesday
The next list of possible city-budget changes is out tonight – in advance of a discussion with the full City Council (meeting as the Select Budget Committee) tomorrow morning – and there are some items of West Seattle interest.
These two are proposed by our area’s Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who is chairing the budget committee this year:
‘SPD ENFORCEMENT OF VEHICLE NOISE AND CRUISING ON ALKI’: That’s the title for the budget proposal spelled out in this document, though it doesn’t actually order or fund enforcement – it would order this:
By February 23, 2018, the Seattle Police Department is requested to submit a report to the Councilmember representing Council District 1, the Chair of the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, and New Americans Committee, and Council Central Staff Director on SPD’s enforcement policies and practices with respect to vehicle noise and cruising in the Alki neighborhood during the warm-weather months.
This was teed up by the recently announced results of this survey. The report would also be required to include “identification of and consideration of emerging technological approaches to vehicle noise
enforcement,” possibly a reference to something proprietary that’s being worked on by an entity including a citizen who made repeat appearances at local community-council meetings over the past year-plus. The proposal also notes that Fauntleroy also deals with vehicle noise issues, and that this report should address “how approaches to noise and cruising enforcement” could be applied there and elsewhere, too.
‘AMEND THE DELRIDGE MULTIMODAL CORRIDOR PROJECT CIP … AND IMPOSE A PROVISO’: This one is more-bureaucratic, as the title suggests. You can read it here. It would put a spending lid on the Delridge Multimodal Corridor Project, which is currently largely focused on the Metro Route 120 conversion to RapidRide H, until a council committee sees its 10 percent design and then passes an ordinance to lift that lid.
Speaking of Delridge RapidRide:
‘IMPLEMENTATION OF MOVE SEATTLE BRT CORRIDORS’: This one (read it here) would ask SDOT to report by next July on ways to make sure Delridge RapidRide and the six other “bus rapid transit” projects in the works happen, despite “the uncertainty with federal transportation funding under the current administration.” Councilmember Mike O’Brien is proposing it.
Not West Seattle-specific but also of interest:
‘AUTOMATED ENFORCEMENT OF BLOCK-THE-BOX AND TRANSIT-ONLY LANE VIOLATIONS’: The latter comes up often in WSB comment discussion – suggestions for cameras to catch bus-lane violators. This proposal (read it here), also from Councilmember O’Brien, would require SDOT to report by next March on what it might take to implement them, as well as cameras to enforce “block-the-box” intersection violations.
HOMELESSNESS RESPONSE: A variety of proposals are on Tuesday’s list of possible changes, including:
–Add $1.2 million for four more authorized encampments (locations not specified), proposed by Councilmember Kirsten Harris-Talley
–Add $450,000 for two more authorized encampments (“one in each Council District that does not currently contain an authorized encampment”), proposed by Councilmember Kshama Sawant
–Proviso on “unauthorized encampment removals in certain areas,” also from Councilmember Sawant. This would basically prohibit removals “except when the persons or property are on school property, active rights-of-way including sidewalks and stairways, activated park spaces, City utility rights-of way, or controlled-access areas of City-owned property, or unless authorized by future ordinance.”
-“Proviso on unauthorized encampment removals,” from Councilmember Herbold. This includes various provisions to ensure that removals follow the laid-out rules for prioritization, including:
(1) Objective hazards such as moving vehicles;
(2) Criminal activity beyond illegal substance abuse;
(3) Quantities of garbage, debris, or waste;
(4) Other active health hazards to occupants or the surrounding neighborhood;
(5) Difficulty in extending emergency services to the site;
(6) Imminent work scheduled at the site for which the encampment will pose an obstruction;
(7) Damage to the natural environment of environmentally critical areas; and
(8) The proximity of homeless individuals to uses of special concern including schools or facilities for
the elderly.
And there’s much more in the 50+ proposed changes – some of which will likely get big citywide scrutiny – these are just a few of the items that caught our eye. The discussions start at 9:30 am Tuesday, and will continue in a 2 pm session; if you have something to say and can get down to City Hall (600 4th Ave.), there are public-comment periods in both. You can e-mail council@seattle.gov too. And if you just want to watch/listen from wherever you are, it’ll all be live on seattlechannel.org (and cable channel 21).
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