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| Devon Vose Rickabaugh Photo by Jerry Pickard |
Shoreline City Council Meeting 12-2-13
By Devon Vose Rickabaugh
Set-backs for commercial buildings
Following a hearing from concerned residents from a Richmond Highlands neighborhood group, the Council voted to direct staff to bring an ordinance back on January 6, 2014 reversing the ordinance that ruled commercial buildings could be set back from the road zero feet in a neighborhood transition zone. The City Planning Commission had unanimously voted to institute a 15 foot set back from the road. But on advice from Councilmember Will Hall who had worked as Planning Manager for Snohomish County, the Council voted to reduce the footage to attract more commercial building to the town center which is a council goal.
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| Shaun Kerins, Michelle Dotsh, Robin McClelland, Mike Bachety Richland Highlands residents Photo by Devon Vose Rickabaugh |
Shaun Kerins, a neighbor from Richmond Highlands, said the zero setback proposed for the Ronald Commons development on Linden Street does not fit with the single family neighborhood. Karen Tolliver said she had lived in the neighborhood on North 179th Street. for fifty-seven years and the proposed zero setback would devastate the quiet, private feel of the neighborhood. She said it would bring more traffic and lower her property values. Michelle Dotch said her dental practice at N 179th and Linden could be dwarfed by a building of several stories high with a zero setback, making it hard for patients to find her business. Robin McClelland said that “Our neighborhoods are our most important asset. No neighborhood should be made to feel threatened or undervalued in the name of progress.”
Shoreline Planning Manager Paul Cohen commented that in the interest of encouraging business“single family protection has rubbed up against commercial development”. He showed several areas which could be affected by the setbacks. Some of the neighborhoods were on wider streets where a shorter setback might work better than the 60 foot road on Linden.
When the City Planning Commission revisited the codes in October, they determined that the zero setback did not meet the city’s code and should be replaced by the fifteen feet they had originally recommended and that the neighborhood had expected would stay in place.
Councilmember McConnell said she hadn’t followed her own advice to back up the Planning Commission on their unanimous recommendations. She said she wanted to “gain back the trust of her community” and would vote to return to the 15 foot setback. She said it is a citywide issue.
Mayor McGlashan said he wasn’t happy with either setback and would like to look at maybe an eight to ten foot setback.
Metro service cuts
On November 7, 2013, King County Metro Transit released their proposal for system-wide service reductions in response to a significant funding shortfall. Because funding for service operation is heavily reliant on sales tax revenues, the recent economic downturn has greatly impacted Metro’s budget. Over the past five years, Metro has raised fares, implemented service changes to improve efficiencies, utilized reserve funding, and enacted a two-year congestion reduction charge (in the form of a vehicle license fee). However, many of these were one-time measures and without additional funding, Metro will need to make significant service reductions beginning in June 2014.
Of the twenty six Metro Transit routes serving Shoreline:
- Eleven would remain unchanged
- Seven would be modified
- Three routes would be retained, however, their service in Shoreline would be eliminated
- Five would be eliminated
Details of all proposed cuts can be found online.
The service cut proposal shows the full breadth of service cuts across the system, representing 600,000 hours or approximately 17 percent of Metro’s current service. In addition to these cuts, approximately 45,000 additional service hours that are funded by the State as mitigation for the construction on the Alaskan Way viaduct will also be eliminated, as the contract for this service will expire. The system-wide cuts would occur over five consecutive service changes, beginning in June 2014 with the elimination of the viaduct construction mitigation service. Subsequent cuts would then occur in September 2014, February, June and September 2015, with approximately 150,000 hours eliminated with each service change. The Council directed Councilmember Roberts on the Sound Cities Association (SCA) to approve King County Metro Guiding Principles for making the proposed cuts.
Police arrests
Shoreline Interim City Manager Debbie Tarry announced that Shoreline police arrested four suspects in the recent car prowl and burglary cases in Richmond Beach and Innis Arden. She said a large amount of stolen property was recovered and will be released after processing. “We wanted the community to be aware that good police work happened over the weekend.”
Where was council member Hall at this meeting? He's the one who foisted the citywide zero setback for commercial development next to single family homes on everyone?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I very much like the concept of Ronald Place and would hope that in their effort to help others they consider working to get along with the neighbors. No one wants to have a huge vertical wall looming over them. Don't the existing neighbors, who are by the way taxpayers who will be forever supporting this non-taxpaying development, deserve to be treated better! Maybe Ronald Methodist should rethink their approach to ramming good deeds down the throats of the neighbors if they want the project to be well received by the community.
And City Council learn from this; rescind their unwise, zoning revision and return to the zoning setbacks that were developed over a 3 year time period to be as balanced as possible.
You don't gain back trust.
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