Notes from Shoreline City Council Meeting April 9, 2012

Shoreline City Council Meeting April 9, 2012

By Devon Vose Rickabaugh

Plastic bag ban

One of the main issues at the council meeting was whether or not to ban plastic bags in stores within Shoreline. Council member Solomon said that since Shoreline is working toward being a sustainable city he recommended adopting an ordinance like Seattle and Bellingham have. Council member McConnell said that Shoreline is doing a good job of recycling now and “I don’t want to spend resources and staff time on a ban.” Several members of the public said that recycling bags causes the recycling machines to gum up and requires extra work for the employees. Council member Eggen said the world is inundated with plastic and recycling is not a solution. He said “We would have to stop producing it.” He said that he would like staff to investigate whether the plastic is harming the environment. Council member Roberts said he didn’t think the issue needed further investigation and he didn’t expect “Staff to go out and reinvent the wheel here.” Mayor McClashan said there is confusion about the issue. He directed staff to ask the business community for their opinion and suggested the council members submit questions to the city manager for information and a possible survey of the public. Then staff would bring the information back to another council study session.

Animal Control Services

The council voted to send a nonbinding agreement to King County to extend the contract with the Regional Animal Services of King County rather than developing Shoreline’s own animal control service at this time. The county employee who oversees animal control for the county said that they had made improvements based on input from cities like Shoreline and that he thought the service would be much more efficient. The council had questions regarding cost which will be addressed after the county knows how many cities will retain the service. With the nonbinding agreement the city can choose to pull out and develop Shoreline’s “in house” animal control service when the update comes from the county.

Growing Transit Communities task force

The council voted to join the Growing Transit Communities (GTC) Task Force. As a member of this consortium Shoreline will have a seat on the committee which will give the city oversight and input into planning the new light rail service, bus rapid transit and other transit investments with the goal of creating jobs, services, and affordable housing closer to the transit.