City Council Candidates Forum coming to Magnuson Park

October 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The Northeast District Council invites you to a City Council Candidates Forum on Monday, October 17, from 7-9 PM. The forum is being held at Magnuson Park Building 406 (The Brig).

Confirmed candidates as of October 4th are as follows (names linked to campaign sites; “I” stands for “incumbent”):

Position 1: Bobby Forch and Jean Godden (I)

Position 3: Bruce Harrell (I) and Brad Meacham

Position 5: Dale Pusey and Tom Rasmussen (I)

Position 7: David Schraer

Position 9: Sally Clark (I) and Dian Ferguson

The King County General Election date is November 8, 2011 (when mail-in ballots are due). Statements from all candidates are available at the King County Elections website.

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Public Hearing on the Roosevelt Neighborhood Rezone, Monday, Sept. 19 (UPDATES)

September 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment

UPDATE (Monday, September 26): You can now watch the entire Roosevelt Rezone Public Hearing here, on the Seattle Channel’s website.
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Tonight at the Roosevelt High School Auditorium (1410 NE 66th St), the Seattle City Council’s Committee on the Built Environment (COBE) is holding a public hearing about the Roosevelt Neighborhood Rezone.

Photo by Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times. Used with permission.

This is everyone’s chance to speak his/her thoughts and concerns to members of the City Council directly (for two minutes); however, written comments can be sent to Councilmembers up until the vote is taken (late this year, or early 2012).

And rumor has it all nine Councilmembers will be in attendance.

This public hearing starts at 6 PM, with sign-up for speakers opening at 5:30 PM.

For those of you who cannot attend, you have three live-tweeters to choose from: Us (@RavennaBlog), the Roosevelt Neighborhood Blog (@Roosiehood), and one of Seattle Transit Blog’s writers, Bruce Nourish (@brucenourish).

If you ARE attending tonight’s hearing and would like to contribute to the Twitter conversation, we’ll be using the hashtag #RRzone. Folks at home can follow along here.

More information about the Roosevelt Neighborhood Rezone

Today’s edition of the Seattle Times included a piece about the rezone, primarily from the neighborhood’s point of view: Neighborhood embraces change — but fights to save a view

Seattle Transit Blog also posted a piece today, detailing density proponents’ frustrations with the neighborhood’s plan: Roosevelt rezones up for discussion tonight

UPDATE: The Roosevelt Neighborhood Association has two a final document detailing their latest wishes for the rezone: “Sustainable, Livable Roosevelt”

The Chair of the Ravenna-Bryant Community Association, Andrew Miller, has laid out the RBCA’s position on the Roosevelt Neighborhood Rezone.*

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*Full disclosure: I am the Chair of the RBCA’s Communications Committee, which means I update the association’s website and assist with the newsletter. You can find the full list of Board Members and Committee Chairs here.

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Fate of old Fire Station 38 to be decided by City Council; public comment period begins

April 15, 2011 by 4 Comments

Now that the new Fire Station 38 (4004 NE 55th St) fully operational, it’s time to determine the fate of the old one (5503 33rd Ave NE).

Your new house?

From today’s press release (from the City of Seattle’s Department of Finance and Administrative Services; emphasis mine):

With new facilities now in operation, the Department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS) will recommend to the City Council the sale of two historic former fire stations: Fire Station 37 in West Seattle and Fire Station 38 in Ravenna Bryant.

Proceeds from the sale of the two properties – through a competitive process for fair market value – would be returned to the Fire Facilities and Emergency Response Levy Fund. The levy program includes land sale proceeds in its funding plan.

FAS has published its recommendation, and is collecting comments for 30 days.  FAS will then transmit its recommendation, based on the formal evaluation called for in Council Resolution 29799 and amended by Resolution 30862, to the Council. The City Council is expected to consider the future of the buildings as early as June.

If sold, the Fire Facilities and Emergency Response Levy Fund (which paid for the new fire station’s construction) could be refilled to the tune of a million dollars — the property was appraised at just over a million dollars in 2009, according to King County property records.

The building itself was granted landmark status in 2004; therefore, changes in the structure are limited and the city’s Historic Preservation Program must be contacted prior. (Read the full Seattle Fire Station No. 38 Landmark Nomination Report (pdf; 26 pages!) for more information on the history of the Fire Station 38 and the surrounding neighborhood.)

Comments about the sale of old Fire Station 38 are due by May 18, and will be incorporated into documentation presented to the City Council. Send your comments to Rich Gholaghong via phone (684‐0701), by e‐mail (richard.gholaghong@seattle.gov) or by regular mail (Rich Gholaghong, FAS Real Estate Services, P.O. Box 94689, Seattle WA 98124‐4689).

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At the FAS’s Real Estate Services’ homepage, a variety of documents detailing the sale recommendations and next steps are available. I have also linked to them here, for your convenience:

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