Announcements: Development, Zoning, Public Meetings, Etc.

Recent Announcements

  • Protect Seattle's Trees and Urban Forest Take action to protect Seattle's trees and urban forest.  Follow these links to engage and for info to communicate to Seattle government officials:Friends of Urban Forests - Includes draft ...
    Posted Aug 13, 2019, 10:14 PM by PRCC Webmaster
  • Who should lead Seattle? Meet the candidates running for City Council in 2019 See the Seattle Times Article linked here.
    Posted Jun 4, 2019, 11:15 AM by CBF
  • SCALE Will Appeal MHA to the Growth Management Hearings Board: Press Release 5/19/2019 SCALE Will Appeal MHA to the Growth Management Hearings BoardThe Seattle Coalition for Affordability, Livability and Equity (SCALE) has decided to appeal the Mandatory Housing Affordability ...
    Posted Jun 4, 2019, 11:12 AM by CBF
  • Board Elections at the May 7th Meeting Click here for the flyer as a pdf.  
    Posted Apr 25, 2019, 9:13 PM by PRCC Webmaster
  • Cancelled Due To Weather: Tuesday February 5th Meeting Due to our bout with wintery weather, it is in the best interest of everyone to not be out and about in the cold and ice.  So the Community Council ...
    Posted Feb 5, 2019, 8:22 AM by CBF
Showing posts 1 - 5 of 107. View more »
PRCC officers may post announcements and information about current and local issues here.   Please subscribe to the PRCC email list by following the link to the left if you are interested in receiving PRCC updates by email. 
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Protect Seattle's Trees and Urban Forest

posted Aug 13, 2019, 10:14 PM by PRCC Webmaster

Take action to protect Seattle's trees and urban forest.  Follow these links to engage and for info to communicate to Seattle government officials:

Friends of Urban Forests - Includes draft revision for the Tree and Urban Forest Protection Ordinance


The Last 6000 - Help inventory the last 6000 trees in Seattle over 30" in diameter

Who should lead Seattle? Meet the candidates running for City Council in 2019

posted Jun 4, 2019, 11:15 AM by CBF

SCALE Will Appeal MHA to the Growth Management Hearings Board: Press Release

posted Jun 4, 2019, 11:10 AM by CBF   [ updated Jun 4, 2019, 11:12 AM ]


5/19/2019

 

SCALE Will Appeal MHA to the Growth Management Hearings Board

The Seattle Coalition for Affordability, Livability and Equity (SCALE) has decided to appeal the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) citywide upzone ordinance to the Growth Management Hearings Board and will submit the appeal by June 3. Issues include displacement of existing residents, preservation of trees, historic resources, and failure to consider alternative policies.
“We are not opposing growth or density,” SCALE President David Ward said, “but we are asking that the Growth Management Act be followed when it calls for balance between growth and livability. Each neighborhood has its own needs. Impacts should be evaluated on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.”
“Affordable housing for current residents should be preserved, and those residents not be displaced. Racial and social justice impacts should be at the forefront, not be an afterthought. Neither the City’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) nor the MHA ordinance acknowledged this duty to preserve livability while we grow,” Ward said. Ward is a renter in the Ravenna neighborhood.
“After 19 days of hearings and 11 expert witnesses, the City’s Hearing Examiner ignored almost all the evidence,” Ward said. The examiner found the EIS “adequate,” except for the City’s lack of any assessment of historical resources. The City Council adopted the MHA ordinance on March 18.
“We believe the ordinance violates not only the requirements of the State Environmental Policy Act, but also the Growth Management Act, so the next step is to appeal to the Growth Management Hearings Board on this broader basis,” Ward said.
SCALE is optimistic that the Growth Management Hearings Board will find in its favor and will remand the EIS and the entire upzone ordinance back to the City for planners to complete a true EIS that is thorough, transparent, accurate, inclusive and honest, and an ordinance that includes true neighborhood engagement and neighborhood-by-neighborhood planning for impacts and mitigations.
For More  Information :
See the SCALE website at www.scaleseattle.org.
Contact Frank Fay at media.contact@scaleseattle.org.
The goals of the state Growth Management Act (GMA) are defined in RCW 36.70A.020.

The Growth Management Hearings Board process can take up to six months for a decision.
The purpose of the Seattle Coalition for Affordability, Livability & Equity (SCALE) is to defend and promote affordability, livability, and equity in Seattle neighborhoods as informed by public participation of the residents themselves in each of Seattle’s unique neighborhoods.

Board Elections at the May 7th Meeting

posted Apr 25, 2019, 9:03 PM by PRCC Webmaster   [ updated Apr 25, 2019, 9:13 PM ]

Click here for the flyer as a pdf.  

Cancelled Due To Weather: Tuesday February 5th Meeting

posted Feb 5, 2019, 8:22 AM by CBF

Due to our bout with wintery weather, it is in the best interest of everyone to not be out and about in the cold and ice.  So the Community Council meeting is CANCELLED.  We will let you know if there is a new date this month.

Looking forward to our next meeting Tuesday March 5 at 7pm,, we will host our City Councilman Mike O'Brien.  Mike is sponosr of Backyard Cottage policy revisions which effectively changes singles family zoing as we no experience it.  Mike is also a strong proponent of height increases to new buildings (55 feet in our neighborhood)  to try and create "affordable" housing.  Both proposals have considerable controversy so this would be a chance to ask question directly.  So mark your calenders next month.  

Alice Poggi
PRCC President

Amendments to Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) Legislation Submitted by PRCC to the Seattle City Council

posted Jan 15, 2019, 8:41 PM by CBF   [ updated Jan 24, 2019, 10:32 PM by PRCC Webmaster ]

The City Council has begun final discussion of the proposed Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) zoning changes that would increase height and density throughout neighborhoods, ostensibly to facilitate the building of some affordable units.  There has been considerable effort made by neighborhoods citywide to refine the City's proposal so that it better respects and is more consistent with the unique character of each neighborhood.  The City Council was accepting proposed amendments to the MHA legislation until January 15 at 5 p.m.

In light of the condensed time frame, as announced by the city over the holidays, the Phinney Ridge Community Council Board of Directors held a special meeting on January 14 to adopt several amendments, generated from earlier discussions, that it has now transmitted to the City Council for consideration.  These amendments focus on accepting growth in the Greenwood/Phinney Urban Village, encourage a mix of unit sizes in new construction so as to better accommodate families, call for retaining existing code requirements for new buildings built outside the Urban Village, and seek to protect and increase the tree canopy.    

We will be requesting that Mike O'Brien, our District 6 City Council representative, sponsor these amendments and facilitate discussion on the merits of each of them.  The amendments submitted by PRCC are attached below and are posted here in our Important Documents archive.  

| Attachments: OBrien_PRCC_MHA_Amendments_01-15-2019.pdf

Suggested MHA Amendments Approved by PRCC Board

posted Jan 15, 2019, 9:44 AM by CBF

The Phinney Ridge Community Council (PRCC) held a special board meeting on the evening of January 14th to develop amendments to the Seattle City Council's Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) legislation.  To meet the 5 p.m. January 15th deadline imposed by city the PRCC board voted to suspend the workflow outlined in its advocacy policy document (https://drive.google.com/drive/u/5/folders/0B2QjsBCM2Zj2cUtNR0J5WkxRNmc). The PRCC board then adopted several amendments to the MHA legislation that will be submitted to the city council for consideration.  The themes of these suggested amendments have been previously presented by board members at recent PRCC monthly public meetings.  The MHA amendments adopted by the board and transmitted to the city council will be available at our website soon.

Template for Contacting the Mayor and Council Regarding Elimination of of Single-Family Zoning

posted Dec 23, 2018, 8:07 PM by CBF

Please use and/or adapt the following for your own email to the Mayor and Council as you see fit.  A PRCC Board Member drafted this text.    

Dear friends and neighbors,

I generally try not to send political emails to you, but I thought this issue was important enough to make an exception.

I'm forwarding an email that I suggest you read from the Queen Anne Community Council. It concerns a proposal by District 6 City Council Member Mike O'Brien to eliminate single-family zoning in the City, and replace all single-family neighborhoods with triplex zones. 

His proposal would allow three-story triplexes or duplexes plus two-story backyard houses on single-family lots of 3,200 square feet or more, would eliminate all parking requirements for these structures, would allow absentee landlords and speculators to own them, and would allow up to 12 unrelated persons to live on every single-family lot. Although the proposal has sometimes been characterized as simply an effort to ease restrictions on "backyard cottages" and "in-law" apartments, in fact it is a wholesale elimination of single-family neighborhoods. 

This is not a strategy that will produce more "affordable" housing. The City's own Environmental Impact Statement characterizes the proposal's effect on housing prices as marginal. Also, the legislation could well mean displacement of lower-income persons as speculators buy up small, relatively affordable homes in less well-off neighborhoods. This is especially true with the proposed elimination of the current requirement that homeowners with in-law apartments or backyard cottages live on site. Council Member O'Brien initially said that he would retain some form of owner-occupancy requirement in the legislation to prevent speculation, but that requirement doesn't appear in the final version. (There's also the issue these new units being used for Air BnBs rather than housing.)

You should also be aware of three more things: 1. The City already allows backyard cottages and in-law apartments in single-family zones;  2. the present rules could be fine-tuned and relaxed with more sensitivity to design and context but without a wholesale elimination of single-family neighborhoods; and 3. According to the Queen Anne Community Council, Council Member O'Brien has rebuffed their proposals to reach a compromise solution.

Written expressions of concern and opposition will only be effective if enough people send them. If you are concerned about this proposal, please take a few minutes to write to the mayor and council members. This legislation could pass early next year, so the time to write is now.

council@seattle.gov (all council members)
mike.obrien@seattle.gov (Mike O'Brien)


PRCC Board Letter to Mayor Durkan: Community Concerns Regarding Proposed DADU/AADU Legislation (Dec 20, 2018)

posted Dec 23, 2018, 7:55 PM by CBF

Please see our December 20, 2018 letter (linked below and attached) to Mayor Durkan expressing concerns of the Phinney Ridge Community Council (PRCC) Board regarding the proposed Detached Accessory Dwelling Unit (DADU) and Accessory Dwelling unit (AADU) legislation.   

| Attachments: Community Concerns Regarding Proposed DADU+AADU Legislation - PRCC Board Letter to Mayor Durkan 12 20 18 FNL letter to mayor.pdf

CM O'Brien at Ballard District Council Meeting Dec 12th 7:00 p.m.

posted Dec 9, 2018, 2:13 PM by CBF

View this email in your browser
NOTE CHANGE OF MEETING VENUE:
Nordic Museum
Market St.
Seattle, WA 98117

Dec. 12, 2018   7:00 - 8:30 pm

Meeting Agenda

7:00 - 7:10p. Introductions and Community Information Sharing

7:10 - 8:20p. Mike O’Brien, Seattle City Councilmember, District 6
This will be your opportunity to hear CM O’Brien describe current programs and issues he and the City are dealing with, and how they may specifically impact the Ballard community. Among the topics to be discussed are the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) plan, the plan to allow more density into single family neighborhoods with ADUs/DADUs, homeless encampments, transportation issues, as well as the just passed 2019 budget. There will be time for Q and A, which will be facilitated to allow questions on a variety of topics to be covered

8:20 - 8:30p Other business/Discussion
 
Ballard District Council has been an active coalition of Ballard and Crown Hill organizations for over a quarter century.. Originally established under auspices of the City of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods we are now independent of the City and incorporated as a Washington State Non Profit. We continue our mission as a forum for community engagement, discussions and information sharing.

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