Citizens' Master Agenda
LIVABLE SEATTLE's first action in 2007 was a Four Point Plan recommendation to City Council in response to the then proposed Multifamily Code Update, which thereafter was withheld from Council until 2009. Meanwhile, an obscure posting on the city's Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) laid forth a far-reaching, interconnected Action Plan calling for increased density through changes in land use regulations: See Action 5 @ http://www.seattle.gov/archive/climate/docs/SeaCAP_plan.pdf
Note: Increasing density in the interest of affordability must first answer realities reported here: http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf
Seattle continues a long-standing practice of piecemeal updates collectively altering the city's demographics and neighborhoods without recourse, the very practice that the Growth Management Act is to preclude. Mid 2008, LIVABLE SEATTLE responded again with the following document, which was also adopted by the Seattle Community Council Federation.
A Citizens' Master Agenda for Seattle
1) Reaffirm the city’s commitment to the “urban village strategy” of the Comprehensive Plan (“Toward a Sustainable Seattle”) that the city enacted to fulfill its obligations under the state’s Growth Management Act:
Basic principle: Inside villages -- focus vibrant, well supported new development. Outside villages --conserve and reuse. Neither is happening. The City is less environmentally sound, not more.
a) Clearly define the meaning of “sustainable” and the “urban village strategy.”
b) Investigate deficient “concurrency,” urban villages not building out livably, almost all neighborhoods rapidly losing character, affordability, livability, and rapid, massive loss of mature trees, permeable vegetated areas, and other critical assets.
c) Reconcile land use plans with updated capital financing per the Growth Management Act.
d) Implement and closely monitor the reconciliation for effectiveness and prompt correction.
classic apartment building (pre or post Seattle's original 1923 code)
townhouse (pre 2002 ownership boom)
multi-plex (pre 2010 Update)
2) Get buildings to fit in and add up to livable communities.
a) Revisit the purpose and principles of zoning.
b) Start with a minimum regulation of form: Yards and lot coverage (“open space”), heights, and parking (placement and amount.)
c) Inventory and reuse existing housing.
3) Fix planning errors promptly and prevent more.
a) Fix errors in townhouse and single family standards and their permitting.
b) Fix non-pedestrian-oriented L4 (‘82 holdover) in urban villages.
c) Make Design Review more effective and efficient for citizens and developers.
d) Make SEPA function correctly.
e) Monitor for effectiveness and fix errors promptly.
4) Grow an informed and resourceful citizenry.
a) Take full advantage of the internet to inform and facilitate participation.
b) Enable critical thinking on ecological impacts, e.g., carbon cycle (fast and slow), water cycle, mega-role of soil, resource cycles, and the biosphere.
c) Enable critical thinking on human health and social impacts, e.g., disparities, equal access, affordability.
d) Expand Seattle’s “managing for results” program to more effectively monitor & self-correct assumptions that are wide of the mark.
e) Rethink advisory and neighborhood governance systems to eliminate redundancy, compartmentalized thinking, and the present choice between futility and full-time professional citizenship.
2008