Three new Seattle planning commissioners, recently appointed by the Mayor and approved by City Council, add valuable experience and expertise to the 15-member volunteer advisory body.

The Seattle Planning Commission (SPC) strives to have a balanced representation from the greater community with a mission of advising the Mayor, City Council and City departments on broad planning goals, policies and plans for the physical development of the city, to produce decisions that enhance the quality of life for those who live, work and play in Seattle.

The Commission’s work is framed by Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan and its vision into the 21st century, and by a commitment to engaging citizens in the work of planning for and working to reach these goals.

The new commissioners are Mahlon Clements, Thomas Eanes, and Jerry Finrow. Their responses to four questions about their thoughts and goals for their new positions are included below:

Mahlon Clements (Ballard)
--Associate Partner, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca; experience in public architecture, urban design and strategic planning. Involved in the creation of Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan and served as co-chair of the Ballard/Crown Hill Neighborhood Planning Association.

• What are your goals in serving on the Planning Commission?
  To help highlight (in a clear and cogent manner) the comprehensive and interrelated aspects of the important policy and projects the city is currently addressing.
• What do you believe are the most important planning decisions facing Seattle?
  The Central Waterfront and Alaskan Way corridor, the Monorail, and the future of BINMIC (the Ballard Interbay Northend Manufacturing Industrial Center) area (i.e., the appropriate commitment, or not, to the economic viability and future of that industrial area).
• What are your thoughts on how the Commission can best help Seattle be a vibrant and exceptional place to live work and play?
  Good ideas will rise to the top in an open and honest forum despite obvious individual agendas and egos. The Commission is ideally situated to host that forum and represent an independent voice of thoughtful analysis and reasonable conclusions. However, the Commission needs to choose a few important issues and address them well and not confuse our role with that of the actual elected officials who need to govern broadly and well.
• Other thoughts about the Commission, planning issues, etc.?
  (Response not available)

Thomas Eanes (Belltown)
--Principal for the Seattle office of Pyatok Architects; experience in affordable housing and creation of strong communities and has also worked on major public transportation planning projects.

• What are your goals in serving on the Planning Commission?
  To help maintain and strengthen the city’s commitment to affordable housing, and to contribute my experience to consideration of other planning issues now before the city.
• What do you believe are the most important planning decisions facing Seattle?
  • Preservation of housing affordability.
  • Implementation of public transit in ways that further the Comprehensive Plan’s strategy of encouraging higher density together with increased transit use.
  • Future use of land now zoned industrial.
  • Possible implementation of the mayor’s City Center strategy.
• What are your thoughts on how the Commission can best help Seattle be a vibrant and exceptional place to live work and play?
  The Commission can be an independent voice in the public interest to mediate the sometime conflicting interests surrounding growth and development, and to ensure that the public interest is appropriately served by both private and public development.
• Other thoughts about the Commission, planning issues, etc.?
  I am impressed by the depth and breadth of experience on the Commission and the willingness to tackle tough issues before the city.

Jerry Finrow (Eastlake)
--Professor of Architecture at the UW College of Architecture and Urban Planning; provides a valuable mix of academic and research experience focused on community development, on the redevelopment of brownfields sites, and on planning, design and development of housing.

• What are your goals in serving on the Planning Commission?
  I hope to continue the excellent tradition of thoughtful and deliberative planning development that has characterized the Commission in the past and bring my own experience and background in community planning.
• What do you believe are the most important planning decisions facing Seattle?
  There are many including future planning related to our various transportation projects and guiding the city as it continues to become a denser and richer urban environment. In addition, I think that the conflict between industrial land and other land uses will become an increasingly critical issue for Commission deliberation. Lastly, the future development of the Elliott Bay waterfront, while growing out of transportation issues, could help to define the future of Seattle in significant and important ways.
• What are your thoughts on how the Commission can best help Seattle be a vibrant and exceptional place to live work and play?
  The Commission has been a strong advocate for citizen participation in the planning process and maintaining this tradition is critical. The most important thing that the Commission can do is to continue to sponsor community planning workshops on topics of timely concern and to assist neighborhoods to become strong and vital centers of urban life.
• Other thoughts about the Commission, planning issues, etc.?
  The Commission needs to be actively engaged in leading public dialog on emerging planning issues, we need to make sure that the financial and staff support is provided in order for us to be successful.