Respectfully submitted to District 6 Councilman, Dan Strauss, and the Seattle City Council by the West Green Lake Community Group
Please know we greatly appreciate you and your team for all your efforts.
AND we want to be on the record in support of what we believe will bring about increased density, affordability, and livability for current and future generations throughout the city through a fair process.
We request that the City Council:
1. Require citywide information to be sent citywide, to all residents, businesses, and religious institutions. Many groups and most individual citizens we have asked are not aware of these impending changes to our city. (Council has said they were frustrated that this had not been done, and tenants and property owners alike are understandably angry.)
2. Demand that there be no more “secret meetings”, invitation-only briefings, of special interest groups to the exclusion of other voices.
3. Require citywide and specific district/neighborhood target numbers for increased units and density.
* No one can know or comment on whether we are over- or under-density targets if we don’t know what the targets are.
* No comparisons are offered to consider density already added or contemplated under existing zoning regulations. An abundance of ADUs and DADUs, as well as multi-resident building permits, are already in the system, as Seattle’s own graphics show.
4. Update baseline future needs for capacity given current dramatically fluctuating trends, e.g., corporate migration and downsizing, and national and international future conditions. (Seattle Times, 5/19, “Seattle’s population boom is pretty much over.”) Additionally, pre-emptively and carefully plan for future infrastructure needs to support such capacity.
5. Require actual measurable affordability that is fairly distributed throughout the city, including in traditionally affluent areas.
6. Structure for diverse populations, from singles to families and multigenerational living throughout the city. (e.g., with a growing aging population, protect the needs of the elderly in rest homes forced out by new landowners converting Medicaid rooms into high rent apartments. https://m.kuow.org/stories/i-don-t-want-to-be-alone-80-seniors-seek-housing-as-assisted-living-facility-closes-doors-in-seattle
7. Include additional public open space (parks, etc.) where there is higher density and easy access for regional visitors – not just by foot, bicycle or transit – to existing parks.
8. Structure a balanced approach to both parking and transit. Less driving does NOT mean fewer cars. Access by car is needed for those within the city and to accommodate visitors.
9. Aggressively protect existing tree canopy and existing green space for physical and mental health and to mitigate the effects of climate change.
10. Respect the previously mandated “gradual transitions” between zones to minimize harm (e.g., shadow effects) to smaller adjacent structures. (See our reasoning for citywide gradual transitions, using Northwest Green Lake as an example for your neighborhood, here.)
11. Revisit, review, re-do EIS. Current environmental impact statement is incomplete and needs review.
12. Stay open to careful and thoughtful foresight. It is unacceptable to say that if one didn’t register concern last year, new (or missed) issues cannot be addressed now due to bureaucratic procedure.
Thank you for all you are doing.
West Green Lake Community Group