Letter to the Editor: I hope the Point Wells project is not lost to us

Connie King was on the first Shoreline City Council and the first Mayor of Shoreline.

To the Editor:

I realize that I have little "local savings" in Shoreline now, having moved up north and being off the City Council for so long.  However, my heart is still in Shoreline and I have had years of experience working with new projects with Metro, the County and Shoreline. So here I am brazenly offering my suggestions on how to approach the Point Wells project.

The front page article on the 'developer" of Point Wells in the Everett Herald Friday was rather sympathetic, but it did show somewhat with whom everyone will be dealing. (See The Man with an ambitious plan). What really got me to write this was the comment that he has hired a "world famous" architect to design this project. Many of the local projects don't care to "do it right the first time'. We shall see what happens, but at least it appears that the owner cares to make this project special and hopefully worthy of the site.

Firstly, to have the neighbors approach with a "nothing but a park" attitude puts everyone on the defensive.  I would suggest that the Richmond Beach people meet with some of the City Council and come up with a wish list of what they would like on this site.  Woodway and Edmonds should do the same and then the three groups should meet and agree on a single compromised list. This would be recommendations from a formidable group and should carry a lot of weight.

Among some of the things on the list would be at least one and better two additional outlets.  I can't believe the Shoreline Fire Dept would approve a project of that size with out additional exits.

Next would be some way of dividing both new monies (taxes, sales $, etc) as well as a serious input into the project. Certainly 3 "groups" would be unwieldy but a representative from each group would be workable.

It doesn't appear that this man is used to "our" way of  working on projects, but making a unified list of wants and concerns for negotiations is certainly better than a sledge hammer.

Many years ago, I watched a wonderful plan for Aurora Village go down the tube because King County would not move on a single issue.  The plan was for a multi-theater with a food court.  Also they had promised art work at the corner of 200th and Aurora. There were other projects planned but this as the major project stopped the entire plan.I can only hope that this project is not lost to us as that one was. (Granted Costco is wonderful, but it's not artwork.)

Good luck to all who care about Shoreline.

Connie King

Arlington