There was a Lake Forest Park community meeting March 13 regarding pedestrian safety in the Sheridan Heights neighborhood. The following is a letter from Mayor Jeff Johnson of Lake Forest Park.
To: Concerned Citizens
From: Mayor Jeff Johnson
Date: March 19, 2016
Ref: Community Meeting
Thank you all for taking the time to attend a community meeting at City Hall last Sunday evening. It is extremely important to me to listen to concerns coming from our citizens. You all see first-hand the issues that need to be addressed, and I am interested in working with you to solve them. During the meeting, the Chief of Police presented information about the tragic fatality collision involving one of our own. My heart breaks for this family and our community. While the investigation is still ongoing, I urge us to all support the family through your thoughts and prayers.
As mentioned during the meeting, it is a priority of the City in the coming months to work on our Safe Streets Multi-Modal Transportation Plan. We will be taking a look at the entire city with regard to pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicle safety concerns. It is our hope to develop a plan to begin to address the issues in an organized and systematic manner. We will surely rely on citizens like yourself to help guide us along the way.
In the short-term, I have directed the Chief to work with the City of Shoreline up in the Heights to conduct emphasis patrols, conduct a speed study on NE 160th, and to partner with other City Departments to determine if there are other mitigation strategies that can be employed as we develop a longer-term approach to pedestrian/traffic safety.
Also during the meeting, we discussed my philosophy regarding the Commissions here in Lake Forest Park. It is my intent to take a step back to re-evaluate each of the Commissions, their mission, and their purpose. Community involvement within the City is not going away, I am trying to determine the best and most efficient way to involve our citizens in problem solving. Over the coming months, there will be more on this topic communicated to the community.
Once again, thank you all for attending the meeting, I greatly appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Jeff Johnson, Mayor
For those who did not know about the Community Meeting which the Mayor mentioned in his letter, it was planned by a resident as a result to a pedestrian fatality on a residential street. The meeting was not originally planned to occur at City Hall. The change in the location of the meeting was changed to City Hall because the planned location had no electricity as a result of the wind storm. Many of the issues would have been of great interest to all neighborhoods in the City. The Mayor also revealed in his letter to the Community that the City government is considering doing away with the Commissions which are not required by law. This means only the Planning Commission and the Civil Service Commission would remain. This is a huge decision which occurred without giving all the public a chance to weigh in on.
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