Neighborhood groups unite, want role in mayor's development plans

Friday, May 2, 2003

By KATHY MULADY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The City Neighborhood Council joined other community groups yesterday in urging Mayor Greg Nickels to involve residents in development decisions that could have dramatic effects on their neighborhood plans.

The council, which is organized under the city Department of Neighborhoods to represent Seattle neighborhoods, offered to clear its agenda May 19 and devote the time to meeting with Nickels.

Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis said the Mayor's Office had received the letter, but he hadn't checked calendars yet. Neighborhood groups throughout the city are uniting to protest what they say is an effort by the mayor to abandon neighborhood plans in favor of fast-tracking development in some parts of the city.

In the past two months, Nickels has announced plans for South Lake Union, Northgate and the University District that he says will spark growth, bring new jobs and improve city infrastructure. He is expected to forward legislation to the City Council in the next couple of weeks.

"We think that the actions the mayor has taken are very consistent with the neighborhood plans," Ceis said.

Some residents say the planned development is overwhelming. About two dozen neighborhood activists and residents attended a news conference yesterday announcing the formation of a neighborhood coalition to fight Nickels' plans. Their first meeting is scheduled for May 31.

Diane Sugimura, director of the city's Department of Design, Construction and Land Use, said the city has just started the required 10-year update of its comprehensive plan. The update, which requires public involvement, is expected to be finished by the end of 2004. But residents of the affected neighborhoods say by then it might be too late.

"We need to know what is going on now and how it effects us. No neighborhood stands on its own. We are all interconnected," said Lisa Merki, co-chairwoman of the neighborhood planning committee for the City Neighborhood Council.

Ceis said there already has been lengthy community involvement, including meetings with individual groups and communitywide meetings at which the city has presented its plans and asked for comments and mailings.

There will be time for more public comment input when the City Council considers Nickels' proposals.

But neighbors who spent months, even years, working on plans for their neighborhood say the mayor should not ignore that.

P-I reporter Kathy Mulady can be reached at 206-448-8029 or kathymulady@seattlepi.com

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