Duwamish Valley Action Plan
Coordinating City Investments Across 7 Priority Areas
Read the Duwamish Valley Action Plan here!
The Dwuamish Valley Program (DVP) was formed in 2016. Two years later, the DVP created the Duwamish Valley Action Plan, a City-community shared vision for the South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods. The Action Plan is organized into seven priority areas: Healthy Environment, Parks & Open Space, Community Capacity, Economic Opportunity & Jobs, Mobility & Transportation, Affordable Housing, and Public Safety.
By applying the City's environmental justice guiding principles and the DVP's racial equity outcomes, the strategies and actions in this Action Plan work together as an environmental justice, equitable development, and anti-displacement strategy. If the City were to approach these strategies and actions in silos or without alignment to racial equity outcomes, the very injustices and inequities we are trying to address could be perpetuated.
Most of the opportunities, strategies, and actions in this Action Plan directly respond to the priorities of communities of color, immigrants, refugees, youth, limited English proficiency individuals, people with low incomes, and small merchants. Other actions and strategies respond to overall community priorities or reflect opportunities to embed racial equity strategies into planned or ongoing City work.
Seven Priority Areas
Healthy Environment
Goals include increased health of and amount of tree canopy cover and other green infrastructure, improved outdoor and indoor air quality, decreased incidence of asthma, and increased access to affordable, healthy, and culturally-acceptable foods in the Duwamish Valley.
Parks & Open Space
Goals include maximizing existing parks and open spaces, improving access to the Duwamish River, addressing open space disparities, and ensuring Duwamish Valley residents - particularly communities of color, immigrants, refugees, Native peoples, and people with low incomes and disabilities can enjoy high-quality places to recreate and access nature.
Community Capacity
Goals include centering the experiences of Duwamish Valley residents and their increased ability - particularly BIPOC, low-income, and other marginalized communities - to meaningfully influence the design of and participate in decision-making processes regarding City policies, programs, and services for the Duwamish Valley.
Mobility & Transportation
Goals include increased development of non-vehicular mobility options to achieve a safe, connected, and accessible Duwamish Valley, including safe walking and biking connections and improvements to freight mobility and transportation access that do not conflict with the residential community.
Economic Opportunity & Jobs
Goals include increased income, access to jobs, and youth pathways as important anti-displacement strategies, maintaining the industrial land base while encouraging cleaner industry, increasing opportunities for local jobs, and a thriving and diverse business district in proximity to the neighborhoods of South Park and Georgetown.
Affordable Housing
Goals include increased access to low-income and affordable housing that do not promote improvements that ultimately displace current residents, ongoing support of the Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition, and promotion of affordable commercial spaces, equitable development, and anti-displacement.
Public Safety
Goals include increased investments to promote safety measures while also proactively recognizing and mitigating the institutional and systemic issues related to over-policing of communities of color, low-income communities via the use of excessive force and racial profiling.