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No Land Use Committee Meeting on July 12
No meeting this month, but we will be back in August
In the meantime, consider participating in the ongoing HALA discussion:
https://hala.consider.it/
GCC Out and About This Weekend
Please stop by the Greenwood Community Council booth at two community events this weekend!
We will have new cool swag thanks to a Small Sparks grant from Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods – including magnets with our new logo and contact information and tattoos with the “Give Greenwood Some Love” graphic that was designed by a parent at Greenwood Elementary School. Please stop by and let us know what you’re thinking about the neighborhood.
We’ll be at both events this weekend:
- The Car Show on Saturday: We’ll be at the site of the new park just north of the Greenwood Library. If you come between 11:00-1:00 you can also participate in the Parks Department’s open house to kickoff planning and design for the new park!
- Celebrate North Seattle on Sunday: This is a big fun event you may not have heard of that takes place in the Oak Tree parking lot. We’ll be sharing a tent with the newly-formed Aurora-Licton Urban Village (A-LUV) group and others.
If you’d like to join us at the table and meet your neighbors, send an email!
June Meeting: Mandatory Housing Affordability
Implementing Mandatory Housing Affordability
The City has released its “Director’s Report” on MHA-Residential legislation and draft ordinance. HALA focus groups have begun to meet and provide input on HALA’s community generated principles which will form part of the basis for changes to zoning, design, and planning in certain residential areas. We will review the overall MHA Program, and discuss the proposed policies and ordinance for the MHA-Residential program.
Please join us at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 21, at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103.
AGENDA
7:00 Welcome and introductions
7:10 Committee Reports
Health & Safety
Transportation,
Land Use
Outreach
Call for volunteers
7:20 Housing Levee
7:30 Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA)
- Affordable Housing Context & Goals
- MHA-Commercial
- MHA-Residential
- Associated Polices and Ordinances
8:05 Open Question and Answer Session
8:25 Action Items
8:30 Adjourn
Resources:
MHA One Page Summary, Nov. 5,2015
MHA-Residential Director’s Report
Land Use Committee Tuesday, June 14 – Mandatory Housing Affordability
Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) Implementation
The City has released its report on MHA and HALA focus groups have begun to meet and provide input on HALA’s community generated principles which will form part of the basis for changes to zoning, design, and planning in urban villages. We will review the MHA, discuss the proposed principles and provide our input to HALA focus group members representing Greenwood adjacent areas. Join us at Couth Buzzard Books from 7PM to 8:30 PM.
DRAFT AGENDA:
7:00 Begin Meeting and Introductions
7:10 Review Development Proposals in Greenwood
7:30 HALA’s MHA + Community Generated Principles
8:20 Assign action items
8:30 Adjourn
No Meeting This Month
If you’re a fervent fan of community council meetings you know that our regular meeting would be this Tuesday May 17, and you will be crestfallen to learn that we have canceled this month’s meeting. I don’t know how to console you, except to note that you now have an evening free that you hadn’t planned on!
The GCC will meet as usual on the third Tuesday in June, June 21. Mark it on your calendar! Hope to see you then.
April Meeting – Crown Hill, Aurora-Licton and Lake City
We have a really interesting Greenwood Community Council meeting this week – representatives from Crown Hill, Aurora-Licton Springs and Lake City will present on how each of their neighborhoods is engaging with Seattle on how their urban villages should be defined. Each has taken a different approach to engage neighbors and neighborhood groups.
Seattle’s comprehensive plan attempts to guide development into designated urban villages. Originally this policy was intended to prioritize Seattle’s investments into designated urban village areas to make them great urban places; more recently policies focus more on incentivizing developers to invest in these areas by making zoning more flexible and reducing regulation. The implications for being in a designated urban village will depend on many pieces of legislation to implement the Comprehensive Plan and Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) initiatives, but neighborhoods are being asked now to weigh in on their boundaries.
I hope you’ll attend this weeks’s community council meeting to hear how our neighbors in nearby urban village areas are responding to these issues. The meeting may take action to support the Crown Hill Urban Village, Committee for Smart Growth recommendations (link) and to endorse a grant proposal that will be presented during the Transportation Committee report for the Aurora Crossings project (link). Here’s the meeting announcement:
– – – – – – – – –
The Urban Village Strategy
What is it and how should we redefine?
The Greenwood Community Council’s monthly meeting will be devoted to the urban village strategy, which forms the backbone of Seattle’s growth plans as outlined in the 2035 Comprehensive Plan. Guest speakers from nearby Lake City, Crown Hill, and Aurora Licton Springs will be present to share their experience engaging their community and developing a vision for potential changes to the zoning, boundaries, livability, infrastructure, and neighborhood planning in the urban village.
Please join us at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19th, at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103.
AGENDA
7:00 Welcome and introductions
7:10 Committee Reports
7:20 The Urban Village Strategy
- Introduction
- Lake City – Sandy Motzer
- Aurora Licton Springs – Leah Anderson
- Crown Hill – Deborah Jaquith
8:05 Open Question and Answer Session
8:25 Action Items
8:30 Adjourn
Resources:
April Meeting: The Urban Village Strategy
The Urban Village Strategy
What is it and how should we redefine?
The Greenwood Community Council’s monthly meeting will be devoted to the urban village strategy, which forms the backbone of Seattle’s growth plans as outlined in the 2035 Comprehensive Plan. Guest speakers from nearby Lake City, Crown Hill, and Aurora Licton Springs will be present to share their experience engaging their community and developing a vision for potential changes to the zoning, boundaries, livability, infrastructure, and neighborhood planning in the urban village.
Please join us at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19th, at the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103.
AGENDA
7:00 Welcome and introductions
7:10 Committee Reports
Health & Safety
Transportation,
Land Use
Outreach
Call for volunteers
7:20 The Urban Village Strategy
- Introduction
- Lake City – Sandy Motzer
- Aurora Licton Springs – Leah Anderson
- Crown Hill – Deborah Jaquith
8:05 Open Question and Answer Session
8:25 Action Items
8:30 Adjourn
Resources:
Crown Hill Urban Village Meeting, Nov. 5,2015
Land Use Committee Tuesday
Greenwood Land Use Topic Priorities
The GCC land use committee will meet at 7:00 this Tuesday, April 12, at the Couth Buzzard. The topic is Greenwood Land Use Topic Priorities
The City Council Land Use Committee appears to remain focused on HALA, while putting aside serious discussion on such topics as Design Review and ADA/DADU policies until 2017. We will reconvene, after taking a break in March, to set out the priorities for land use in Greenwood for the next few months and also discuss potential expansion of urban villages to the east and west. Our goal is to gather topics to tackle and spend some time studying existing development proposals.
Sound Transit 3 and Metro’s Long-Range Vision
Greenwood Community Council Transportation will not be meeting in April. Please check out Sound Transit and Metro Long Range Plan!!
April is a big month for our region’s two significant transit agencies. The Draft Plan for Sound Transit 3, a 25-year $50 billion proposal to expand our light rail network, was released for review and public comments. We also saw King County Metro release their release a draft of their Long Range Plan, a vision for vastly expanded service between now and 2040.
Both agencies are currently soliciting input from the public, and they will be joint-hosting a Community Open House at Ballard High School on April 19th from 5:30 – 7:30 PM. Both agencies also have very good websites for the respective plans and are seeking feedback through on-line surveys. (Sound Transit 3 Survey can be found here, and the Metro Long Range Plan survey here).
Join the Community Council on Facebook
We now have a Greenwood Community Council page on Facebook! (Actually we’ve had one for awhile, but haven’t advertised it until now.) Please visit and subscribe to get notifications for meetings and events – and post and respond to thoughts about the neighborhood. Visit us at: https://www.facebook.com/GreenwoodCommunityCouncil/
Special Meeting on the Greenwood Explosion
Reminder – this event is this Tuesday night.
This post has also been updated to include the meeting agenda and links to news and resources. Please help get the word out by forwarding to anyone you think might be interested.
GREENWOOD EXPLOSION:
How to Stay Safe, and
What Steps are Needed to Rebuild?
The Greenwood Community Council’s monthly meeting is devoted to the aftermath of the blast that leveled part of our downtown. The response by our public servants and neighborhood volunteers has been amazing, and we honor everyone who has contributed.
This meeting will focus on the way forward:
- What steps do we all need to take to prepare for and avoid future disasters such as gas leaks, and
- What are resources for recovering and rebuilding after over the longer term.
Please join us Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at a special location: St. John’s Egan Hall, 120 N 79th St. just off Greenwood Avenue. The program for this event is still coming together, but we have confirmed speakers from Puget Sound Energy, the Mayor’s office, Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods and Office of Economic Development. We will also set aside time and ask for tributes for those who have stepped up this week to help the community, its businesses and their employees who have been impacted.
AGENDA
7:00 Welcome and introductions
7:10 How to stay safe from gas leaks and prepare for disaster
Speakers from Puget Sound Energy,
Greenwood CC Safety/Health Committee,
Q&A
7:40 Steps and resources to recover and rebuild
Speakers from Phinney Neighborhood Center, Dept.
of Neighborhoods, Office of Economic Development,
Q&A
8:20 Testimonials from the audience for those who stepped up
to help neighbors in a time of crisis
8:30 Adjourn
Here are some useful links and resources:
- Ongoing reports are found on PhinneyWood
- A list of fundraising and volunteer opportunities from PNA (and kudos to businesses that have participated!)
- Lists of recovery resources from PNA and the Department of Neighborhoods
- News articles from NY Times, CNN, NBC,
Seattle Times (1 2 3 4 5), King5, KIRO, KUOW, Q13 (1 2), KPLU, Puget Sound Business Journal, MyBallard, and the Stranger - Photos of the explosion and aftermath from SeattlePI.com (1 2), Seattle Times, KIRO
- Statement from Mayor Murray
- Support for firefighters and Greenwood business recovery from Governor Inslee
- Another loss for Greenwood: its food bank (Seattle Times)
- How the Greenwood explosion created a pressure wave (curbed.com)
- Know the warning signs of a gas leak before things explode (Everett Herald)
- Green Lake community council donates to Greenwood
Downtown Greenwood Disaster – here is how you can help
Dear Greenwood Neighbors:
All of us are shaken by the blast last night in our downtown. We thank the firefighters and responders for putting their lives on the line and their shoulder to the wheel today. When they’re finished, a sustained effort will be needed to help the businesses and neighbors affected, to reassure us that we’re safe from explosions in the future, and to rebuild downtown Greenwood with the strength and character that’s been lost.
If you want to help, read on. Here are two places you can turn right away. Tomorrow night you can help raise relief funds for businesses hurt by the blast at Naked City, and the Phinney Neighborhood Center has stepped up to pull together a website with a list of opportunities to donate or help. Please take a look. Thanks also to PhinneyWood for keeping us informed when it matters most.
The Greenwood Community Council will also try to pull a meeting together next week on Tuesday as usual, and we will work to bring city officials to answer your questions about what happened, how we can keep it from happening again, and what resources will be brought to bear to help rebuild and restore what’s been lost. Please stay tuned for more.
Rob Fellows, President
Greenwood Community Council
Greenwood Emergency Fundraiser at Naked City
Greenwood is resilient. Greenwood is strong. Our neighborhood has fought its way through adversity before, and we will do so again. Together, we are a phoenix.
Naked City and Taproot Theatre are teaming up to raise as much money as possible in a single day for those affected by the explosion in Greenwood.
100 percent of proceeds from every pint of Greenwood Phoenix Golden Ale sold at Naked City on Thursday, March 10th, open to close, will go directly to the PNA (Phinney Neighborhood Association) tax deductible support fund.
Additional donations are encouraged!! Please help us help our friends and neighbors.
Greenwood will rise up from this as we always do!
Bryan Miller
Web | Facebook | Twitter
And to find out other ways to help the Greenwood Community:
The Phinney Neighborhood Association has set up this community page, which they are updating to include opportunities to donate or volunteer to help the community and affected businesses recover from the blast.
GCC Transportation Committee Meeting on Neighborhood Speed Limits, Mon., March 7th
Please join the Greenwood Community Council Transportation Committee for our March meeting, on Monday March 7th at 7:00 PM at Flying Bike Brewery in Greenwood.
Out topic will be a discussion on speed limits on neighborhood streets and we’ll be joined by our neighbors from Greenwood-Phinney Greenways to discuss their work around advocating for speed limit reductions on neighborhood streets.
I hope to see you there!
February Meeting: Growth and Affordability
Growth and Affordability
February Membership Meeting
Tuesday February 16, 7:00 – 8:30
Greenwood Library
8016 Greenwood Ave. N
There is broad agreement that housing affordability is one of the most critical issues we face as our City grows and becomes more prosperous. Last year, Mayor Murray developed an action plan and community engagement is expected to ramp up this spring. In preparation for engagement on this important issue, GCC will facilitate an open and interactive community forum on growth and affordability.
The intent of the meeting is to outline Greenwood’s key affordability issues and questions, discuss opportunities, and lay the groundwork for further focused study by committees and feedback to the City. Please bring your ideas/questions and be prepared to share them with your neighbors. We hope to see you there!
Agenda
- Welcome/overview of meeting agenda (7:00 PM)
- Overview of upcoming GCC meeting topics
- Overview of committees and Board
- Committee Reports – Committee Chairs (7:05 PM)
- Land use
- Health and Safety
- Transportation
- Outreach – call for interested volunteers
- Guest Speaker, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways (7:10 to 7:20)
- Speed limits, Gordon Padelford
- Growth and Affordability (7:20 to 8:30)
- Introduction
- Identify core issues/questions
- Discuss opportunities
- Summarize key points and develop focused actions
- Meeting Close (8:30 PM)
Please note that the Library’s garage closes at 8PM, so if you park in the library you will need to move your car before then.
Land Use Committee Tuesday on HALA
HALA Engagement
The GCC land use committee will meet at 7:00 this Tuesday at the Couth Buzzard. The topic is HALA Engagement.
In a follow-up to our previous meeting, we will review the report issued for the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) that puts forward 65 recommendations to consider. In response to the HALA report, the Mayor has issued a “roadmap” to make Seattle affordable, including 20,000 new homes for low- and moderate-income people, over the next decade. Potential changes included rezoning within urban villages and expanding urban villages, among many others. The City is also currently soliciting participants for HALA focus groups.
Greenwood Community Council Transportation Committee Meeting, Feb. 1, 7:00 PM – Growth, Congestion and Parking
Change is afoot in Seattle. That’s the refrain that precedes a lot of conversations these days whether the topic is housing; public safety; business development; or transportation. Where many of us feel the stresses that growth and change put on the city is through our day-to-day movements and in dealing with the increased congestion of more cars and more limited parking.
So what is to be done? What are the common goals for mobility and access that we all share?
Join members of the Greenwood Community Council and the Phinney Ridge Community Council on Monday February 1st at 7:00 PM at 74th Street Ale House for a discussion around mobility and specifically parking for personal vehicles. We’ll use examples from the neighborhood as a jumping off point to discuss existing city parking policies.
We hope to see you there!
January Meeting: Open board meeting, vote on backyard cottages letter
Open GCC Board Meeting – All Welcome
Tuesday January 19 at 7PM
Greenwood Public Library
This month’s Greenwood Community Council meeting will be an open board meeting covering a number of topics. Anyone is welcome, and there will be time in the meeting to speak to any issue you feel the community council should be following.
We will also vote on proposed correspondence about pending legislation on backyard cottages. You can see a draft here, and your opinion will be welcomed at the meeting.
Proposed Agenda
- Committee business and meeting plans
- Transportation
- Safety and Health
- Engagement (no report)
- Land Use
- Proposed letter on accessory dwelling units/background cottages
- Aurora-Licton Springs urban village expansion?
- Plan to engage community in discussion of HALA and Comp Plan
- Discussion – is committee structure working and how to improve/change it
- Open mike for community concerns
- Review upcoming membership meeting plans
- Volunteer opportunities and board openings
- Adjourn
Land Use Committee Tuesday on Affordability
Housing Affordability in Seattle
The GCC land use committee will meet 7:00 next Tuesday at the Flying Bike brewery. The topic is Housing Affordability.
The debate over housing affordability rages on as rents, property values, and cost of living continues to rise for most people in Seattle. Affordability and livability have increasingly become drivers of public policy as terms like “Grand Bargain”, “living wage”, “HALA”, “rent control”, “incentive zoning” and “equity” join the vernacular. We will explore the recent trends in housing cost and availability to inform a discussion of solutions and tradeoffs that have been proposed by community groups, the City, and developers alike.
Join GCC at the Flying Bike on Tuesday!
No Greenwood Community Council meeting this month – it’s holiday time!
Join us instead at the Flying Bike Brewery on Tuesday at 7:00. No meeting, no agenda, no appeals. Just meet others active in Greenwood.
And whether you come or not, enjoy the holidays and stay safe!
Update on Greenwood Community Council Transportation Committee
Greetings friends! The Greenwood Community Council’s Transportation Committee has been on hiatus for a while from our usual monthly meetings, BUT, we’re going to gear-up and get rolling once again in 2016!
Please take note that our next meeting will be held on Monday, January 4th, 2016 at the Flying Bike Brewery.
The topic for this meeting is To Be Determined, and we’d love your input as to what topics, initiatives, projects, etc. the Transportation Committee might take up in 2016. Please reach out to Ben Mitchell at bmitch1536@gmail.com with any suggestions.
Take care and have a great December and New Year!
First Meeting of the new GCC Outreach and Engagement Committee
First Meeting of the new Greenwood Community Council
Outreach and Engagement Committee
7:00 PM this Wednesday December 2
Chocolati, 8319 Greenwood Ave N
(If you’re getting this in your email, it’s because you’ve indicated an interest in neighborhood outreach and engagement sometime over the last couple of years. If you’re still interested, read on! If not, you can click on “manage your subscriptions” at the bottom of this email to remove your name from the mailing list)
This Wednesday we’ll have the first meeting of a new Greenwood Community Council committee on neighborhood outreach and engagement. This committee will focus on bringing new voices into neighborhood discussions, helping people who don’t normally go to meetings get their voice heard, and help develop common ground on issues that polarize people and problems needing resolution in Greenwood. That’s my clumsy way of introducing it – what we actually do will depend on the interests of whoever shows up.
Please join us – everyone is welcome! Whether or not you can make it Wednesday, if you’re interested let us know by filling in this survey monkey survey (though you can skip the questions about regular meeting dates because we’ve picked a regular meeting date – the first Wednesday of each month).
Proposed agenda:
- Introductions
- Survey results – to get conversation started
- Interests and ideas – around the table
- Summarize, action items – what to focus on first.
- Future meetings, meeting location, etc.
Note that I have not reserved space at Chocolati; we’ll just try to carve out enough room to sit together where we can hear. If you arrive early, please see if you can find some defensible space for us.
November Meeting: Pedestrian Issues
Pedestrian Issues in Greenwood
November Membership Meeting
Tuesday November 17, 7:00 – 8:30
Greenwood Library
8016 Greenwood Ave. N
Join the Greenwood Community Council to hear from guest speakers and engage in discussion of pedestrian and safety issues including sidewalks, safe routes to schools, dedicated facilities for non-motorized transport (e.g. the Interurban Trail), Seattle’s update to the Pedestrian Master Plan, and more.
The recent passage of the Move Seattle Transportation levy will see new investments in Seattle’s pedestrian infrastructure; and Greenwood and North Seattle are sure to see many new pedestrian-focused projects in the coming years. Come out to hear from representatives from the Seattle Department of Transportation, as well as community members engaged in various pedestrian issues.
This will be a great opportunity to hear about projects that are going on right now, chime in on your issues and priorities, and find out how to be engaged. We hope to see you there!
Agenda
- Welcome/overview of meeting agenda (7:00 PM)
- Overview of upcoming GCC meeting topics
- Overview of committees and Board
- Committee Report Outs – Committee Chairs
- Land use
- Health and Safety
- Transportation
- Outreach – call for interested volunteers
- Guest Speakers, Pedestrian Issues
- Pedestrian Master plan – SDOT
- Greenwood/Phinney Greenways – Lee Bruch
- Update on Interurban Improvement Project – Keith Bates
- Audience Q&A
- Poll areas of interest
- How to stay involved
- Meeting Close (8:30 PM)
Please note that the Library’s garage closes at 8PM, so if you park in the library you will need to move your car before then.
Sorry for bad links in the recent post on community engagement!
I’ve had comments already from people having trouble linking to the survey monkey page from the email they received on “GCC Looking for Help in Community Engagement.” There are two problems, one of which I need help to fix.
In the meantime, let’s try a more direct approach I hope you’ll try. The survey is located at this address (if it doesn’t show up as a link, you’ll need to copy/paste into your browser): https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y6YGSPJ
You can also go to the website (where this message will also be posted) and follow links from there. Links from the website are working fine; it’s only links from mail messages that are not. The website is located at https://greenwoodcommunitycouncil.org
In case you’re wondering what’s wrong, there are two problems. One is that people who follow the link from the mail message are getting a page of error messages in their browser. This seems to be happening all of a sudden for all links from GCC email, including the “manage your subscriptions” link. This looks like a website database problem that I’ll need help to fix.
The other problem some people are having is that links in community council email messages link to the GCC website, which then redirects to the website the link points to. Some people’s browsers give them a message in this case warning of spam. It isn’t, but I will look into whether there’s another way to embed links.
Sorry (and embarrassed) about the inconvenience!
GCC Looking for Help in Community Engagement
The Greenwood Community Council exists to facilitate and amplify neighborhood involvement and engagement. I always have a slightly different answer when asked my personal opinion about what the Greenwood Community Council does, but this week I’m thinking we’re about place-making and community-building – which often involves dialogue and advocacy with the city and developers.
Ultimately we’re effective only to the extent that we engage all sorts of people and understand the many perspectives among our neighbors. And here’s a surprise — most people don’t like meetings! Face-to-face dialogue is still important and far more conducive to dialogue, learning and solutions than polarized, anonymous blog comments – but we also need to break out of the meeting paradigm and find other ways to engage people in the way they’re most comfortable, and to reach people whose voices may be neglected.
To that end, we are looking for people who are interested in helping to engage the community more broadly than we can through traditional meetings. If you’re interested, please take a few minutes to fill out this surveymonkey survey.
The survey asks what types of activities and outreach you’re interested in or think are needed. It also asks whether you are willing to be on an engagement committee (I know that’s ironic) and will sample availability to find possible meeting times that could work out for everyone. If you have other thoughts after filling in the survey, let me know that too.
On another note: We are looking for a new chair of our outreach and engagement committee. (We are also looking for a new community council vice president.) If you have any interest in taking on either of these, please let me know. The committee chair is responsible for setting up committee meetings (or delegating that of course) and participating in monthly board meetings.
Thanks!
Rob Fellows
Greenwood Community Council
Land Use Committee meets tonight
Sorry for the late note. The land use committee will meet in a working session this evening (Nov. 10), 7PM at the Flying Bike brewery, to review upcoming proposed projects at 90th, 84th, and potential urban village boundary adjustments that DPD has initiated.
10/25/15 Board Retreat – Minutes
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How to Post a Meeting
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Speed Candidating / GCC Meeting Canceled Tuesday
The Speed Candidating event planned for this month’s regular GCC membership meeting has been canceled. Please use the time to read the voters’ pamphlet, look at online resources and
You can find links to all campaigns, and to your voter pamphlet at the King County Elections website.
Candidate Forum Monday
Meet the candidates who would represent our neighborhood on the new district-based city council. Please help get the word out!
Candidates for City Council districts 5 and 6 will face off This Monday at the Taproot
7:00 – District 5 candidates
Debora Juarez and Sandy Brown
7:45 – District 6 candidates
Catherine Weatbrook and Mike O’Brien
The Taproot Theatre is located at 212 N. 85th Street in Greenwood. Sponsored by the Greenwood Community Council.