>> Good morning. The time is
9:30 A.M. I'm Alex Pedersen
chair of the committee. Will th
clerk call the role. Completely
Herbold. Completely Morales.
>> Here. Councilmember Sawant.
Councilmember Strauss.
>> Present. Chair Pedersen.
>> Present.
>> Three present.
>> Thank you. I will announce
other council members as they
arrive. The proposed a again
will be adopted. Hearing no
objection the agenda is adopted
Good morning. Welcome to the
transportation Seattle public
utilities commission. First we
have a presentation on the top
to bottom review of the vision
zero traffic safety program.
Second the Seattle public
utilities solid waste plan
update back to committee for a
vote and finally we have an
early briefing on a requested
alley vacation in south lake
union for a future research
facility. At this time we will
open the general public comment
period. For our hybrid meeting
we have people signed up to giv
public comment both online and
in person. We have about 10
individuals signed up online an
about four individuals signed u
in person here. I will moderate
the public comment period in th
following manner. I will start
with the speakers that signed u
in the council chambers then we
will go to those who registered
online. The public comment
period is normally up to 20
minutes but I will if tend it
now to 30 minutes. Each speaker
will be given two minutes to
speak per our council rules. I
will call on two speakers in a
time in the order they are
registered on the council
website and sign in sheet in
council chambers. If you have
not registered to sign up to
speak and would like to, sign u
before the end of the public
comment period. Go to
Seattle.gov and use the sign in
sheet toward the microphone at
the front of the council
chamber. For remote speakers,
staff will unmute the
appropriate microphone and
prompt of you have been unmight
will be the queue. Press star 6
to begin speaking. For all
public commenters, speak by
stating your name and the item
that you are addressing. As a
reminder, public comments shoul
relate to an item on the agenda
or the oversight
responsibilities. Speakers will
hear a chime when 10 seconds ar
left of the allotted time. When
you hear the chime, wrap up you
public comment. If speakers do
not end the public comment at
the end of the allotted time th
speaker's microphone will be
muted. If you provide comment
remotely, when you complete,
disconnect from the line and if
you plan to continue following
the meeting, please do so via
Seattle channel or the listenin
options listed on the agenda.
The period is open. We begin
with the first speaker on the
sign in sheet. If you signed in
get ready and hear physically
get ready to speak. First
Kathleen Dunn followed by Rache
Shaffer. Pull the microphne
close to your mouth so we can
hear you loud and clear.
>> I am Kathleen Dunn in west
Seattle. I am here to talk abou
street safety. I'm part of the
old G I guess you call it in th
community of people who walk an
bike to get around in the city.
I have seen a lot over the
years. Since 1996. We have gone
out and crowd sourced safety
projects, the neighborhood
street fund and your voice your
choice. Thousands and thousands
of people have submitted safety
recommendations in those
programs. Those programs seem t
be deed dead. A lot of low
hanging fruit in the programs.
One is putting in four way stop
on the streets where people
speed up and don't see a
Pedersen at the other side of
the intersection. We have
freeways in west Seattle, one i
35th avenue southwest partially
Died due to delays, lack of
funding or fear of push back
from the driving community. We
stopped and didn't do the other
side of it. People live on othe
side. Parks are on both sides o
the street. It's a freeway.
People speed. The other is
admiral way. I live on admiral
way. The east side, I go up in
my car or bike and people are
going 60 miles per hour in a 25
miles per hour zone. At the top
they crash into people's houses
-- people live up there. They
need to cross the street. I
think we are afraid of road
dots. We are afraid of push
back. A fear throughout SDOT to
-- and a lot of what they call
public process of engagement bu
people scream and yell. At the
end when they put in a project
it dies way and nobody talks
about it any more. They accept
it. So, thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Next we have Rachel Shaffer
followed by Kevin trout. Welcom
Rachel.
>> Good morning. My name is
Rachel Shaffer. I work forecast
skated bicycle club and I get
around by biking, walking and
taking transit because I do not
own a car. I want to thank you
for questioning a briefing on
the vision top to bottom report
today. This maybe the report
that the department of
transportation needs but I'm no
sure that it's the report that
the public needs. The public
needs to see and know that
action is being taken today and
everyday to make sure that our
streets where we live, play,
shop and more are safe for us t
get around. You will probably
hear from many people today and
have heard from before. So many
people for whom getting around
Seattle without a car is a
struggle and constant worry.
SDOT reports there are 28 death
on the street last year. While
this is unacceptable and
devastating, it does not count
the ways that traffic violence
shows up elsewhere like through
life-changing and chronic injur
from being hit by a car or the
fear and anxiety of cross being
a street that you know is
dangerous but the only place yo
can ios. Or the struggle of
trying to focus at work when
this morning you had to yank
your kid out of the way on the
way to the bus stop from them
being hit as well. I don't even
ride by myself that much any
more because I am constantly on
high alert witnessing dangerous
driving behaviors around me and
anticipate which will come to m
next. No one wants to be a
statistic for leaving their
house. So, I'm asking you today
to hold the department ask the
accountable to the safe street
improvements in the report and
make sure that they act swiftly
There are good recommendations.
They have to be backed up by
actions, plop per funding, and
the political support from the
administration to make these
important decisions like slowin
down vehicles for people drivin
getting around safely. Thanks.
Next we have Kevin trout
followed by Gordon.
>> Hello and good morning,
everybody that is both here and
watching online. I am Kevin
trout. I live in Ballard. I am
member of the Seattle
neighborhoods greenway group an
concerned citizen to speak abou
vision zero and just street
planning more generally. It's
pretty wildly unacceptable in m
opinion that we have a city
built around street cars and
transit that is dominated by
cars and people and children
dying on the street here. It is
by choice frankly. I got to
speak here but I will wing it
because I feel passionate about
this. This is a series of
choices that have been made and
continuing to be made by member
of the administration, both the
mayor, SDOT as well as some
members of this council to not
fund and support due to -- I
don't know. Is it political wil
that you don't see, don't hear?
I'm hear to try to convince
thank you the voices of the
people driving cars don't need
to be the only voices of the
people that are actually
speaking right now. There are
people dealing with unsafe
conditions all the time on thes
streets. And I just think it's
completely unacceptable. It's
one thing if we think that --
this is the way it is. This is
series of choices that continue
to be made. That's completely
unacceptable. We have the
ability to make different
choices and, so, part of what
I'm inspired by is a city that
had a similar plan to make the
streets safer then actually did
something. That city is
Amsterdam in the Netherlands
that took this very seriously
and decided to make different
choices by redesigning streets,
resurfacing, getting different
right of ways for different
modes of transit. They made
remarkable strides. They didn't
mean to be the bike capital but
make themselves safer. That is
what we have the opportunity to
do here and I highly encourage
everyone to do so. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Next Gordon and
then we will go to our online
speakers.
>> Thank you. Good morning,
council members. I'm Gordon, a
Seattle neighborhood green ways
and I guess, this is a report
and if I had to give the report
a grade I would have to grade i
be incomplete. While it has man
good internal reform
recommendations it doesn't have
the action plan that gets visio
zero back on track choice what
everyone is hungry for,
including you all, I'm sure.
There is the 80-20 rule I'm sur
you have heard but I think ther
is an 89 rule. 80% of Pedersen
fatalities are happening on 9%
of our streets. Those multilane
arterials that are so busy and
divide the communities, 15 and
Ballard, 35th avenue southwest
like Kathy mentioned, MLK or
southeast Seattle where there
are so many crashes. These are
the dangerous streets that we
need to fix and this plan, when
it comes back to you in a final
form needs to contain bold
recommendations for how to do
that. As council I know the
executive has more authority
over this thing but holding the
executive accountable to fixing
those 80% of Pedersen fatalitie
on the 9% of our streets is
really, really key if we reach
vision zero and keep everyone
safe. Looking at a no on red
citywide and reinvest the
automated enforcement money, pu
that money back in the street
safety like daylighting
intersections, crosswalks, that
sort of thing. Then, third, do
we need some sort of Newcomb
pleat streets policy to hold
SDOT accountable to reforming
the internal priorities and
incentive structure around
safety. We have an outdated
streets policy. It's clearly no
working for us. Otherwise it
wouldn't be here this morning.
Are there policy levels that
council can implement to get
vision back on track and suppor
the work.
>> Thank you.
>> We will move to online
speakers. Get ready. First on
cord by Jordan. Go ahead, on
cord.
>> Good morning. I am on cord.
live in district 7 and like to
give public comment on vision
zero. The city does not make it
easy to get around without a
car. Last year over 70% of all
traffic fatalities in the city
were people walking or biking.
Since the vision zero review wa
initiated, 13 of our neighbors
died while walking or biking. W
must ensure all capitol project
have safety as a top level
success metric. In the
rebasically of Ballard bridge,
six lane arterial, SDOT spends
16 million turn the most
dangerous road in Ballard into
better racetrack. Over 90% of
Seattle's Pedersen fatalities
occur. This shows the street
ordinance needs to be stronger.
15th avenue through Ballard is
classified as urban village
main. That means a design of
these streets encourages slower
speed. Anybody that traveled on
15th knows this is not true. Th
SDOT team acknowledges high
speeds and high collision rates
on the corridor. Such data
should mean the repaving projec
is required to implement traffi
calming measures, right? Wrong.
The recommendation is to remove
Pedersen crossings deemed too
unsafe. Any rechannelly says of
the roadways dismissed. As the
vision zero reports states, we
must be willing to reduce trave
speeds to improve safety. Take
it further and not just willing
to but mandated to reduce trave
speeds to improve safety. Visio
zero is not a compromise but th
commitment to having serious
traffic injuries or fatalities.
We need our elected officials t
lead the effort on reshaping th
streets. It's time to reverse
the half century of the design
and make streets for people onc
again. Thank you.
>> Thank you. I want to note
that councilmember Herbold and
Sawant joined sus prior to the
start of public comment. Herbol
and Sawant are here. Next Jorda
followed by Katherine wells. Go
ahead, Jordan.
>> Good morning. Can you hear
me?
>> Yes.
>> My name is Jordan Von
involve. I am calling in suppor
of the recommendations made by
Seattle neighborhood greens waz
to improve SDOT vision zero
review which can be found in th
November 4th issue of the urban
I live on 34th avenue south in
Seattle posted at 25 miles per
hour. In the 11 years I lived
here, based on daily
observation, the average vehicl
speed is 35 and every week I se
cars doing 45 and sometimes 60
like the woman that spoke about
admiral way earlier. There is n
stop sign or traffic light for
nearly a mile. It attracts
speeders. I organized a petitio
to bring attention to the
problem that 100 neighbors
signed but it fell on deaf ears
My street will join rain near
south, MLK, Ballard northwest
and others as another death
statistic if something doesn't
change. When will SDOT stop
clinging to a vision of urban
living where the whims of peopl
driving cars is prioritized ove
neighborhoods, Pedersen and
bicycle safety, reduced vehicle
exhaust and the climate. Thank
you.
>> Thank you. Next we have
Katherine wells followed by
Wendy. Go ahead, Katherine.
>> Good morning, Councilmember
Pedersen. I'm Katherine wells a
member of west Seattle bike
connections and here to speak
about SDOT vision zero report.
It's scary when I see people
driving dangerously. It happens
regularly. I have been tail
gated and honked at on streets
that are supposed to be mostly
close to cars. A speeding drive
killed rob mason near Harbour
Island last summer and at his
memorial, car after car flew
past far above the speed limit.
I want our streets to be safer
than this. The vision zero
report outlines many of the
steps we need to take to
accomplish it like rechance
multilane arterials, banning
turns on red and prioritizing
safety in every project. We nee
heart ship and adequate funding
Thank you for your time.
>> Thank you.
>> Next Travis close followed b
Brittney. Go ahead, Travis. I
think we have Wendy next. Wendy
next followed by Travis. Go
ahead, Wendy.
>> Thank you. Good morning
Councilmember. I'm Wendy. I'm
community relations manager for
public services and vice chair
of [ Inaudible ] I'm here today
regarding the 2022 comprehensiv
solid waist plan update. By way
of background, solid waste
advisory committee is a
committee that represents local
community and stakeholder
interests and [ Inaudible ]
Solid management plan and
programs. I like to emphasize
the significant involvement in
the 2022 plan update and expres
the adoption of the plan before
you today. Since 2018, slack ha
received regular updates on the
plan development process and
reviewed, discussed and provide
comment on many key elements
contained within. In addition,
members contributed to the
public comment outreach campaig
to the risk of their own social
media platforms and individual
community and professional
networks. Slack recognizes the
2022 plan update as
comprehensive valuable update
for the solid waste plan. The
leader, [ Inaudible ]
Environmentally progressive
programs and planning, to move
upstream to zero waste they are
look being at the life cycle of
how products and packaging are
made, prevent solutions, reduce
carbon emissions and reduce
natural resources. The plan
includes racial equity, alignin
with zero waste policies [
Inaudible ] Explaining life
cycle for solid waste managemen
that focuses on upstream [
Inaudible ] And outlining the
limitations of the recycling
rate at the measure of waste
prevention. [ Inaudible ] Staff
in particular Stephanie trainer
and Jeff Fowler developing the
plan over the last four years
urging support for this
adoption. Thank you for your
time this morning.
>> Thank you. Next we have
Travis close followed by
Brittney. Go ahead, Travis.
>> Can you hear me?
>> Yes.
>> Thank you. Yeah, I'm Travis
close, Seattle resident,
district 6, Councilmember
Strauss district. I'm calling t
encourage the city to do more
for vision zero. We are heading
in the wrong direction. More
people are dying now than befor
on our streets. I don't have a
car here. I get around walking,
biking, taking transit and, you
know, it's anarchy on the
streets. Cars are going too
fast. We need to elevate this t
dealing so much more. This is a
crisis. We heard good
recommendations so far today.
Banning right turns on red. The
weren't legal until the 1970s
anyway. Need to have the safety
of our residents over the
convenience of a few. I think
that's one of the principles
behind vision zero. We really
want to make our streets safer.
I urge the city to do more and
to focus on the implementing th
message that we already know
works, slowing cars down and
focusing on the arterial roads.
Narrowing lanes. Doing things t
protect the people out there on
the streets. Thank you very
much.
>> Thank you.
>> Next, Brittney followed by
flora. Go ahead, Brittney.
>> Good morning. Good morning,
Councilmember, I'm Brittney and
I live in district 7 and
permanent Pedersen in your city
I live in bell town and work
downtown. I walk to work and
home everyday if I don't bike.
The problem is downtown and bel
town were desgned to get cars
in and out of the office faster
-- as fast as possible to not
inconvenience people in other
parts of the city and traveling
out from the suburbs. This
caused big issues when I try to
get around because I have to
watch out for cars because they
don't watch out for me. They ar
in a hurry. Not that I'm not in
a hurry but I will die if I get
hit by a car. The car and
driver, any passengers they may
have on a rare occasion will
survive and be fine. This is an
issue that is not being
addressed because we continue t
see that downtown with a right
turn on red continues to focus
on getting cars in and out as
people return to the offices. W
need to make sure that the
residents of downtown, over
100,000 feel safe to get out,
go to restaurants, local shops,
market, waterfront and our cart
To do this, we need to focus on
implementing vision zero but we
have to work on getting SDOT on
board to change their culture i
the way that they view traffic
and how people get around. Cars
were not here when the city was
originally built if you look at
pioneer square. We are go back
to a model where cars have a
moderate role in the city. Than
you for your time.
>> Thank you. Next we have flor
temple followed by Ely Andrew.
Go ahead, flora.
>> Hello. My name is flora
temple. I work for the business
association that serves MLK in
Rainier. I have three points to
make about the vision zero
report. First, I was very
surprised that the report did
not include significant data on
the effects of vision zero
projects implemented. Data
showing that they work, how wil
we continue to advocate for
these changes. How do we
convince drivers that the
changes are worth it and how
will SDOT continue to secure
funding. Second, how incomplete
the report looked. I'm not
advocating for rapid design but
using the default Microsoft wor
style made it feel like it
wasn't taken seriously. An
afterthought and that SDOT
didn't care enough to make it
readable for public consumption
Vision zero claimed that it
would prioritize safety over
speed yet in places where
speeding is the worse we are no
seeing changes. On Rainier we
see people speeding over 40
miles per hour and making
dangerous turns but the speed
limit is 25 miles per hour. I
research multiple receive [
Inaudible ] I am tired of
hearing those. I am a permanent
design changes but it seems lik
implementing the speed limit
would be a simpler and less
controversial option that visio
zero could undertake. We need [
Inaudible ] I encourage SDOT to
reach out to organizations like
mine that serve these arterials
that Gordon mentioned and work
with us to help make driver
education real to help reduce
these changes -- help reduce th
crashes in a simpler and quicke
and cheaper method M. thank you
>> Thank you. Next we have Ely
Andrew followed by Brie. Go
ahead, Ely?
>> Hi. My name is Ely Andrew an
I'm a resident of Seattle in th
central district, district 3.
I'm giving public comment on th
vision zero top to bottom
review. As someone who does not
rely on a car to get around the
city, this issue is very
important to me. I think that
the top to bottom review for
vision zero ways a good
initiative, it fails to propose
an action plan to create safe
streets for all. Moving around
safely in our city is a basic
right of all people in Seattle.
Enabling everyone to do so
should be the number one
priority in street design.
Furthermore, by doing so, we
will be creating a more
equitable city. Less of a fluen
are forced to face the
consequences of our unsafe and
unwelcoming street. They need t
be designed from the bottom up
with the most vulnerable and
less damaging street users,
Pedersens considered first and
least vulnerable and most
damaging, personal vehicles,
after ever other user. When we
trade human safety for vehicle
speed we do so in an inefficien
manner. Large amount of safety
for small gain in vehicle
speeds. When we prioritize [
Inaudible ] Over speed we are
able to do so impactfully by
trading small decreases in
vehicle speed and throughput fo
huge gains in human safety. For
they are more, street designs
have prioritize the safety
create more human scale
environments that people want t
live, shop and work in which
makes our city a better place t
be rather than just a place to
drive through. I urge SDOT to
work closely with the Seattle
neighborhood greenway group to
revine the vision zero review
for action table improving
solutions to make the streets
safer and more liveable places.
Thank you.
>> Thank you. The last online
speaker is Brie. I'm sorry if I
mispronounce that. Go ahead,
Brie.
>> That's okay. Thanks. I am
commenting on the vision zero
review as well. I live in
district 3. Our neighborhoods
are some of the most walkable i
the city. I have a walk score o
100 which you can't beat. But
even here people walking risk
their lives trying to cross
olive way or bore reason. They
have 25 miles per hour speed
limits but in fact they are
designed to move private
vehicles quickly through the
neighborhood instead of
supporting the people that live
and work here and need to be
able to walk, bike, use transit
and just live their lives in th
vicinity of these streets. Ther
are streets like that in every
area of our city as we have
heard from other commenters
despite the goals for vision
zero that the hazardous
conditions persist. I have been
advocating for more than 10
years. There are many planners
and SDOT staff know how to make
streets safe and want to do tha
but over and over again I have
seen them stymied by elected
officials and internal
engineering culture that
continues to value vehicle
throughput over the health and
safety of vulnerable people and
by vulnerable people, let's be
clear, anyone that isn't
surrounded by a metal box. This
has has a lot of goals for
safety, climate and equity. We
talk about them a lot but we ar
never going to reach those goal
if our actions don't match our
rhetoric. We need elected
officials to lead, to provide
the direction and political
support that let's the people
who know how to do it do their
job and need to hold SDOT
accountable, engineers and
anyone else at SDOT who hasn't
gotten the message, has the
metrics and incentives to ensur
that safety it is increased wit
every project, sacrificed. Ever
SDOT project needs to be
accountable to [ Inaudible ]
Thank you.
>> Thank you. That concludes th
list of online speakers and I
don't think we have any
additional speakers in the
chamber here. So, I want to
thank everybody for taking the
time to come here to speak and
also those who called. City
Council received many E-mails a
well focused on increasing
vision zero and I want to thank
people for taking the time to
send the E-mails in. We read th
E-mails. They are important to
us and we did the -- we make
sure that SDOT gets them as
well. So, let's go ahead and
move into the first item which
is vision zero. Will the clerk
read the full title of the firs
agenda item into the record.
>> Agenda item one, vision zero
traffic safety preview for
briefing and safety discussion.
>> Thank you.
>> As most everybody here knows
vision zero is Seattle also goa
to end traffic deaths and
serious injuries by 2030.
Shortly after the confirmation
as the new director of Seattle
department of transportation
last September, Greg spots
initiated a top to bottom revie
of vision zero and the safety
elements. I know that it was
supported by everybody here on
the City Council as well. The
number of traffic related
fatalities across the state hav
remained at unacceptable by hig
number with each death a
tragedy. In 2022 those killed i
traffic related incidents 16
Pedersen, eight people driving.
Four on a bike or scooter. Thes
are similar to the previous
eight Bearss years with
Pedersens comprising more than
50% of traffic related
fatalities. In 2022 the total
number of traffic fatalities wa
28 as compared to 30 in 2021. 2
in 2020. 26 in 29 -- or 2019.
Only 14 in 2018 and 24 in 17.
The average the past eight year
is 24 fatalities. The number of
fatalities of people
experiencing homelessness
doubled in 2022-2021. Last mont
the city received good news.
SDOT won $25 million federal
grant to make the streets safer
And the executive -- I know the
wanted additional time to
incorporate that funding into
the initial safety strategies.
appreciate them doing that.
Vision zero safety report was
made public on February 23rd.
Director spots is here with his
team to present the findings an
recommendations from their
review. So, good morning,
director spots.
>> Good morning. Can you hear m
okay?
>> Yes.
>> Great. Thank you, chair
Pedersen and good morning,
council members. I'm Greg spots
director of the Seattle
department of transportation.
Six months ago today was my
first day on the job at SDOT. O
that day, I commissioned a top
to bottom review of the vision
zero safety program. I am
pleased to have the opportunity
to discuss the review with you
today fulfilling commitments
that I made to the mayor,
council and public. The review
was conducted by two SDOT
staffers that are not assigned
to the core vision zero team.
Jonathan laser and Becky Edmond
both joining the hearing. In
September I asked them to
develop findings and
recommendations to help
strengthen the street safety
work. It's my responsibility as
director to decide which of
these recommendations to
implement and to identify futur
actions, so of which may be in
addition to those identified in
the review. I see the review as
a starting point for continuous
improvement. With the goal of
reducing crashes in which peopl
are killed or severely injured.
Our entire department welcomes
stakeholder input on how to mak
the safety programs more
effective. In that spirit, we
will be presenting this review
at each of our advisory
commissions this month and
receiving feedback. My top
priority as SDOT director is to
incorporate safety in to all th
projects and programs torques
accomplish this goal, we will
create an organizational
structure that enables timely
and effective decision making.
During this presentation, you
will meet the leaders of our
safety team, hear a summary of
the review findings and learn
about five early momentum
actions that we intend to launc
this year. My deputy, Francis
say Stefan will begin the
presentation.
>> Good morning, Councilmember'
R councilmembers. I'm happy to
be with you today. I want to
begin by introducing the staff
here with me for presenting. We
have Jim curb taken, the
director of project development
and venue new Manny the traffic
engineer. They are key leaders
in my team and within the
portfolio directly within SDOT
and John laser, a professional
with many years of experience a
SDOT, director of interagency
programs and SDOT staff person
that provided the outside agenc
perspective in authoring the
review findings. We have many
other talented staff joining us
throughout the agency because
this is such a key issue and we
wanted to be here and present
and hear the discussion and
provide response to questions.
Vision zero is the part of
SDOT's work to make the street
safer and aligns with our core
values. The work we do on safet
is inex trickably linked to the
other values of when we advance
safety we advance those values.
The purpose of our meeting toda
is to provide you with an
overview of the recently
published top to bottom report.
We will include setting a littl
bit of context about street
safety nationally and locally
noting the important term that
we as an agency are making to a
safe systems approach to guide
all of our work and we will
conclude with highlighting our
five momentum building actions
that are outlined in the report
As Greg mentioned, this
expedited review was
commissioned to help understand
why serious injuries and deaths
on Seattle streets are on the
rise and to identify areas for
improvement. The report provide
an initial set of findings to
inform policies, practices,
decision making and funding. Th
review, it's not an action plan
So, that's why we are following
it up immediately with an updat
to the vision zero action plan
which SDOT will be completing
this year. The action plan will
incorporate the findings of the
review. It will reflect what we
are hearing from the community
and provide the much desired
specific actions and strategies
that folks and we are asking fo
to help move the needle on
safety. This report importantly
is being shared broadly with th
public and will be part of
discussions with boards and
commissions as we coconsider an
reflect on the findings and hea
from community members as Greg
mentioned. As this is happening
I want to reassure that SDOT
will not slow down on continuin
work to act on improving safety
now. We will continue to pursue
the many specific projects in
our work plan, see them to
implementation and continue to
advance the important policy
work through the Seattle
transportation plan and our wor
on putting together a future █
funding package for SDOT. Since
the days -- the days since the
report was released, we have
heard valuable feedback from th
community. We hear an interest
in evaluating the impacts of th
systemic reduction in speed
limits and agree it's an
important idea to evaluate, to
understand what is happening on
our streets and to particularly
look at arterials where so many
of the fatal and severe crashes
are occurring. We will be happy
to share that information out a
we consider the ways in which
that before and after
information can influence futur
projects, design changes and
operations. Second we heard a
desire to see transformational
proposals on the north-south
arterials. While this report in
and of itself is not a plan, we
are aware that those are key
pieces that we need to be
incorporating into other
planning and policy documents
including the STP and vision
zero action plan and look
forward to having those more
detailed conversations with the
public as we move forward into
those efforts. As I noted, we
know that folks are eager to
understand how the information
will be used. We will move
quickly into the vision zero
action plan update in '23 and
happy to share out more details
on timing in the coming months.
Thank you for letting me kick u
off today. I will pass it off t
Jim Kirk.
>> Thank you, Francis say. Good
morning, council members and
members of the public here
today. These next couple of
slides I will set some context
around vision zero. So, around
the country, cities are
struggling with transportation
safety. Fatalities hit a 16-yea
high nationally in 2021 and
Pedersen deaths have been on th
rise for many, many years. In
Seattle, trends are similarly
headed in the wrong direction.
There are more than 10,000
crashes every year in Seattle.
That's about 30 crashes that
occur every single day. Annuall
we see an average of around 28
deaths and 1680 serious injurie
and unfortunately, Pedersens ar
most commonly hit and killed on
our streets. These national
trends reflect years of policy
and priorities favoring
vehicles. To reach vision zero,
we must redesign the streets to
ensure that we accommodate
people walking, biking, rolling
or using mobility devices as
well as the movement of cars an
trucks. Next slide, please. As
has been stated many times here
already today the overwhelm
majority of serious crashes
occur on arterial streets and
most often on multilane
arterials like Aurora north,
Rainier south, MLK junior south
and lake city way south to name
a few. They have multiple lanes
and higher speeds which means
Pedersens have longer distances
to navigate between the curb
ramps and drivers have more
inputs to process as well. 93%
of Pedersen deaths occur on
these arterial streets and
speeding and failure to yield t
Pedersens are the top factors t
the crashes. Larger vehicles
influence the severity of
incidents when crashes occur.
From 2015 to mid-20 22, 14
people killed biking. 80% of
those deaths occurred where no
bike facility exists. Of the ma
on the right side of this slide
shows serious collisions in
Seattle from 2015 to 2021
plotted over the citywide equit
map. This demonstrates clearly
the fact that people are more
likely to be killed in
disadvantaged areas of the city
To reach vision zero we have
work to do with communities in
the Rainier valley, so who, lak
city and other neighborhoods.
Next slide, please. SDOT
programs and projects originate
from many different sources. Th
Pedersen master plan, bicycle
fast H master plan, transit
master plan, Vick shop zero
program, levy to move Seattle
and other sources. Vision zero
program delivered projects
throughout the city on streets
like Rainier south and 12th
avenue. Vision zero funds
provide support for projects
like the Martin Luther King
junior way south protected bike
lane project that will build
bike lanes and Pedersen safety
elements starting this spring.
Thanks to recent budget
increases, the vision zero
program will deliver more safet
projects than ever including
five levy projects in 2023. The
aim to implement the safe
systems approach and enhance
safety for transit useers,
people walking, biking and
everyone that use the roadway.
Safety treatments include
redesigns or rechannellyzation
of arterial streets to create
safer speeds and narrow crossin
distances for Pedersens, leadin
Pedersen intervals to give
people a head start.
Implementing no turn on red at
traffic signals. Enhancing
Pedersen crossings with marked
crosswalk signs, refuge islands
Increasing visibility at enter
seconds by installing curb
bolts, no traffic signs buildin
and repairing sidewalks and
Pedersen paths, building
protected lanes and speed humps
to name a few. With that I will
pass it over to the city traffi
engineer Venu.
>> Good morning. The U.S.
department of transportation,
the safe approach is based on
six principles shown in the
graphic to the right. It starts
with the mind-set that an accep
I believe [ Inaudible ] Users
that are human can make
mistakes. That leads to crashes
that -- on those crashes the
goal is zero to eliminating
that. The safe system approach
concerns five elements of a saf
system. Safe for people, safe
for vehicles, safe for speeds,
safe for roads and post crash
care. Integrated and holistic
manner. SDOT [ Inaudible ] In
the safer speeds and next slide
Before the top to bottom review
we at SDOT have a grand
application for safety streets
for all. This team was differen
than those connecting the top t
bottom review. Adopting a safe
system approach more broadly.
Location of spot and corridor
projects were selected from
within underserved communities
and prioritized with existing
action plans. These projects
focus on safe access with
sidewalks, signals, goes safer
Pedersen crossings, implementin
-- curb ex things, beacons, saf
bicycling access, bike lanes an
regular speed management
especially for traffic calming.
Through street funding, we have
another opportunity. Significan
safety corridor for us. [
Inaudible ] Into all aspects of
the project. That I turn to my
colleague Jonathan laser . John
we cannot hear you, sorry?
>> If we can't hear John, can
someone else take over his part
We still can't hear John. If
anybody else can assist.
>> I can do my best to
approximate John having read th
reports thoroughly and doing th
work I need to do to digest the
to make sure that we implement
them. While John is doing that,
I will begin. So, one of the ke
findings of the report is to
look at the way in which vision
zero and the system systems
approach can spread into every
project and program that SDOT
does. I think we have come -- w
have done a lot of work to make
sure that we have established a
program and staffing but we
could do more in the area of
making sure that the programs,
such as maintenance and that we
are -- we are in the design
process and in the maintenance
efforts that we do, that we are
considering how vision zero can
be incorporated, whether -- as
we implement the projects. We
identified or John and Becky
identified that there are --
there is a need for facility
design guidance -- sorry. John
and Becky's review identified
the need for clear and stronger
guidance on facility design.
There are many complex decision
that go into a project design
that includes state and local
regulations, local policies and
procedures and certainly
decision making. With stronger
guidance, we can make faster
moves and faster decision makin
toward safer project designs.
That leads me to clarifying
internal pathways. SDOT is a
large agency that does a lot of
good work to make sure that we
are considering complete street
in each of the projects and we
also are trying to do innovativ
work and that can make decision
making more complex. We want to
make sure that we are
considering all the different
model users on a project as we
make a decision for complete
streets and make sure that we
are using the best practices
that we are aware of for
engineering and operations. Tha
has some complexity until
decision making. [ Inaudible ]
The faster we can proceed with
vision zero work and improving
safety on our streets.
>> Thank you.
>> There is John.
>> Can you hear me now?
>> We can. Thank you for jumpin
in. I apologize for the delay.
Thank you. I want to highlight
the last -- number 4 on this
slide. It is important. We
highlighted the changes that
reduce the vehicles speed and
convenience are challenging for
us as a city. And we really nee
leadership support to
consistently put safety first.
Next slide. Thanks. The next fe
categories focus on expanding
our use of smaller scale proven
interventions. Funding can be a
significant barrier for us and
we need better information what
it will cost to implement
changes more broadly or
citywide. We need to plan and
budget accordingly for
maintenance for placement or
upgrading of shorter life asset
like paint and posts. Number 8
automated enforcement earned it
own category because we have ne
opportunities to expand proven
opportunities in automated
enforcement but working hard to
understand and address equity
impacts of expanding the auto
mad enforcement system that we
have. Next slide, please. These
last four categories focus on
strengthening the culture and
organization for this work. We
identified in particular we
identified numerous ways that w
can work with other city
departments, partner agencies a
well as the communities that we
serve and other organizations
and institutions to leverage an
built on their work. So, while
within the safe system framewor
we have the most direct control
over safer streets and safer
speeds, we can work with many o
our partners to effect other
elements of the safe systems
approach. Many of the
recommendations in the report,
there are 100, many of them wil
require additional work to
develop or implement. I will
turn it back to Jim at this
point to talk about some of the
areas where we have enough
information and resources and w
are planning to move forward.
Jim?
>> Yeah, thanks, John. I think
as most of you know, there are
five momentum building actions
coming out of the top to bottom
report that are intended as
early actions we can roll out
relatively quickly without
needing additional funds. An
roll those out while we are
working with the community to
develop a new and more robust
vision zero action plan. The
first is implementing no turn o
red where Pedersen vehicle
collisions happen most
frequently in the center city.
Until 1959 the city of Seattle
prohibited right turns on red
entirely. In 1975 the federal
energy policy and conservation
act required all states to
permit right turns on red to
reduce fuel consumption and
provide an estimated travel
times savings of 1 to five
seconds for vehicles that are
turning at signals. Restricting
turns on red can reduce Pederse
vehicle conflicts by 92%. And i
Seattle, right turn on red
crashes account for 9% of all
collisions for people walk bein
at signals. We will get started
this month with the installatio
of no turn on red in downtown a
dozens of intersections in the
center city with consultation
with stake holders. Next slide,
please. In addition, we will be
moving forward with acceleratin
the installation of leading
Pedersen intervals. This proven
safety improvement gives people
crossing the street a head star
before drivers get the green
light. This is a small change t
the signals that increase
visibility and reduce collision
and injuries which is important
because about 40% of serious an
fatal collisions occur at
signalized intersections. As
many of you know, we installed
the safety upgrade to about hal
of our [ Inaudible ] 48%
reduction in people getting hit
by turning cars by people in
these locations. I will pass it
to Venu for a couple of other
actions.
>> Thanks, Jim. We will partner
with sun transit for improvemen
of a series of projects on
Martin Luther King junior way
that include but not limited to
train bell volume. Evaluating
signals. Launching the 50
campaign and making it easier
and more convenient to cross th
street at stations.
>> next slide. [ Inaudible ] 20
reduction in intersections with
red light cameras and 50%
percent reduction in crashes at
school zones. [ Inaudible ]
Future expansion in
neighborhoods with many
fatalities and serious injuries
We continue to have
conversations with our work
group and enforcement. We
acknowledge the recent outer
recent OPEEDS. We look forward
to more guardian vision. With
that, I will turn it to Rick.
>> Thank you. I'm about to talk
about you. Something that was
clear to me in reading the
review is the need to align
authority, responsibility and
accountability at the highest
level for safety. The city
traffic engineers are a crucial
role at SDOT for transportation
engineering and operations.
>> I'm going to clarify the
focus of the work to be on
safety of our street system by
giving the city traffic enginee
the department role of chief
safety officer. I'm lifting up
the role to directly report to
deputy director Stefan who will
be providing the chief safety
officer with the necessary
resources and staffing to embed
the safe systems approach in al
SDOT projects, programs and
decisions. I plan to be
vigorously and personally
engaged in the work providing
leadership and support are the.
That concludes our presentation
for today. We are looking
forward to additional public
meetings later this week and
month circulating the review
findings with the advisory
boards in other public forums.
We encourage the public to
provide feedback at the public
meetings or online link and
public input helps inform the
update to the action plan and
development of the Seattle
transportation plan. We look
forward to implementing the fiv
momentum building actions as we
work on the other work streams.
With that, we are ready for you
questions.
>> Thank you, director spots an
to your team. Thank you for
being proactive once you were
confirmed to make this a
priority to improve traffic
safety. I appreciate the
patients of the committee
members. We have lots of
comments and questions. I will
go first here. First we did
receive dozens of E-mails. Whil
it was a form E-mail it had som
important points and requests.
So, I want to read those into
the record so people that took
time to send those in know that
they are heard then I will go
into some of my comments and
some of those are similar. But
the -- it said to request a
timeline of the plan to ban
right turns on red and increase
leading Pedersen intervals
including where these
interventions will be located
and why the plan is only for
downtown when the city own data
shows the safety measure would
be of benefit citywide and I
know you will have a response t
that later. Request a time line
for the release of the vision
zero action plan and demand
aggressive action. How will the
results of the department's
internal process improvements t
lead with safety be demonstrate
to the public and request a
progress report on the
department's internal process
changes. So, that is from
E-mails that all the council
members received. Hopefully we
can address some of those. I
wanted to note inspect reading
the review, I am definitely
looking forward to more quickly
increasing the automated
enforcement and bringing people
inside because people
experiencing homelessness have
been a larger percentage of
traffic fatalities the last
couple of years. I know we will
address more of that. In terms
of funding, I do want to note
that we do have a funding optio
that we hope to be exploring
later this year in terms of
transportation impact fees that
could generate tens of millions
of dollars each year which we
can use for transportation
projects which would free up
money for additional vision zer
projects. I want to put that ou
there about transportation and
back fees. I hope people are
open to those as we explore the
in the future. I know that
colleagues will have some
comments or questions here. Let
me look at the screen. Go ahead
We have councilmember Morales
and Strauss.
>> Councilmember straws had his
hand up first.
>> You can go first.
>> I have several questions? Go
through them all and then --
thanks. Good afternoon or
morning, everybody. Director
spots, nice to see you. I do
want to start by acknowledging
some things that SDOT has gotte
right. Two great examples of
what I think community members
are looking for when we talk
about rapid response are the
changes that were made to fourt
avenue to address safety and th
temporary bike lane that was
installed at so to after the
Spokane street bridge closed.
It's a demonstration that we ca
do things quickly in order to
address safety. But clearly we
need to do a lot more and bette
and faster. But I think it
reflects on the priority that
our new director has and I know
director spots many of the
conversations we had in the las
six months it's clear that this
is a priority for you. I want t
acknowledge that and thank you
for the shift that the you are
starting to make. I also need t
express extreme disappointment
that the review begins with a
priority to phase in the no
right turn and the Pedersen
intervals downtown in time for
tourist season and MLB play off
games. You know, 56% of traffic
fatalities were in the south en
last year and, so, the fact tha
there is no mention of that and
that there is a focus on a
baseball game is really tone
deaf. And I hope to continue
working with the department to
address the needs that we have
in parts of the city that have
been most acutely impacted by
the lack of safety
infrastructure. So, I do have a
few questions. Of some of them
were answered as you went
through the presentation. I
wanted to start on slide 10. On
of the key takeaways is that yo
really need to be incorporating
vision zero into every project.
I wonder if you can talk about
how project design -- the way I
read this and I will say I'm no
a traffic engineer but the wayI
read this, project design can b
considered complete even if it
doesn't have safety measures in
it. So, I'm trying to understan
how a project can proceed
without safety measures and be
considered complete and I feel
like what I got from the report
is that it's because of costs
very often F. that is the case
then cost is a priority and not
safety. So, I'm wondering if yo
can talk a little bit about som
of the elements that go into
considering a project complete
-- a project design complete?
>> Sure. This is -- this issue
has a lot of moving parts that
I'm trying to address with the
whole team. I talk about
bringing the whole of SDOT to
important places and problems
and opportunities. I think at
times in the past there is lots
of different programs that have
lots of different funding
sources and different out comes
that they are driving. For
example, there is a program to
pave arterials. In the past,
that program has kind of
operated on a pure asset
management basis what street
needs to be paved at this time
without thinking paving it give
you an opportunity to rethink
how you are channellyzation,
Pedersen crossings, rethink the
bicycle use on that street. So,
we will make a series of reform
and improvements internally to
make sure that, like, all our
projects and programs are reall
ending up with a safer out come
as one of the project outcomes
without thinking if somebody ca
bring additional money to that
project, then maybe we can do
something. I am finding that it
can be challenging in the
projects I'm interacting with
halfway into design to bring
those safety improvements even
if I can find other money for
those improvements. Thwart of
the idea of elevating the
traffic engineer to be the chie
safety officer is most of the
designs end up running through
that shop for review. And if
that group is reviewing it from
a safety lens, that can help
lift up the outcome. There is a
lot we will be working on to
improve that.
>> Okay. Thank you. So, my next
question is, you know, I know i
Rainier and sounds like based o
comments that we heard this
morning in west Seattle, too. W
have implemented road diets par
way on some streets. Sexual
Columbia city on Rainier it was
dramatically impacted the numbe
of crashes that are hang which
is great but it wasn't
completed. It's only a few
blocks. The call are mentioned
similar situation in west
Seattle F. we know that a road
diet works to slow down traffic
why are we only doing something
like that halfway?
>> You know, I spend a lot of
time on those couple of blocks
in Columbia city. I think it's
one of the most wonderful urban
villages in the whole city. It'
not only safer but activated,
fun, streeteries. Lots of
Pedersen activities. A bunch of
vibrant businesses. Says a lot
what we can accomplish on the
streets for people. Streets are
a place to go, too, rather than
just pass through. I would like
to do that in many more places.
Often we have to apply for
competitive grants. I'm excited
we have $50 million from the
state to start doing a project
like that on a portion of
Aurora. But, yeah, that is the
vision to work with communities
to find more opportunities to
make these multilane arterials
safer and wonderful places that
draw community rather than
divide the communities.
>> It sounds like a lot of this
is about funding. So, we will b
having that conversation a lot.
I'm sure. Can you talk about
what safety improvements we hav
tried that ended up being
ineffective? I'm particularly
interested as you indicated in
the presentation, how we move
from administrative controls to
engineering controls which woul
seem to be more impactful in
getting us to the out comes for
safety that we are looking for.
>> So, you know, a critique of
the top to bottom review, addin
that slide what we were hearing
early, it didn't have a comb
from hen safe -- maybe this is
how much time we had. But didn'
have a comprehensive analysis o
each type of intervention that
has taken place in Seattle. I d
think that it's clear to
everybody those type of
interventions like the narrowin
in Columbia city have worked.
But a very particular analysis
that people want is, hey, you
reduced the speed limit on thes
arterials. Did it change driver
behavior. If so, did that cause
a reduction in crashes. We will
do that analysis. The report is
not a beat all, end all. We
submit it with humility and
openess to taking input. We wil
do that analysis and try to
figure out where those reduced
speed limits changed driver
behavior and where they didn't.
Perhaps that is places where we
should consider utilizing the
increased authority for
automated enforcement made
available by the state.
>> It looks like John wants to
--
>> Thanks, councilmember. Greg,
I wanted to add that one of the
things that we found was that
educational programs or -- we
don't have good measures of the
effectiveness of education
programs and some agencies are
moving away from education
programs as an emphasis
altogether. I personally have a
gut instinct that our work with
schools and schoolchildren in
elementary school and middle
school potentially have long
lasting results. One of the
recommendations of the report i
to work with the University of
Washington or other institution
of higher learning to help
evaluate some of the educationa
efforts to figure out what is
effective to put the dollars
where they make the most
difference. Thanks.
>> I have one more question,
chair if that's all right.
>> Yes.
>> Thank you. Well, thank you
for that, John. I think my next
question is sort of related,
which is around automated
traffic enforcement. Driver
behavior is part of the issue
here, one of many. And, you
know, I appreciate the
conversation that you are havin
with the streets and with the
equity team in the department
around the issue of automated
traffic enforcement. I don't
think any of us want police
involved in traffic stops,
certainly not communities of
color. We don't want communitie
of color to be overly surveille
and a lot of tension around tha
issue and it is people of color
being killed by inequitable
impact of the street design and
our lake of safety
infrastructure. And, so, I'm
interested in pursuing the
automated traffic enforcement
and figuring out how to lower
the impact on low income
families. There is conversation
happening about having a slidin
scale, fine or having, you know
a first warning, but I do think
that this is something that we
really need to consider. I want
to restate my interest in havin
any revenue from citations that
are issued reinvested in the
neighborhoods where the need fo
safety trucks is greatest. As
the person representing the
south end where most of the
traffic fatalities happen, I
have to say that I'm over it,
this question. How we enforce
spokespersons, how we enforce -
enforce speed limits. No matter
your race or income you need to
be a safe driver so that you
don't kill your neighbor or you
neighbor's kids. I want to
continue the conversation with
how we do this but it's
important that we do this soon.
>> Thank you. I look forward to
partnering with you on finding
path forward through the comple
issues. I appreciate your
thoughtful leadership on this
topic.
>> Thank you. That's all my
questions, chair, thank you.
>> Thank you, councilwoman
Morales.
>> Go ahead, councilmember
Strauss.
>> Thank you, director spots,
John, great to see you,
Francesca, I'm taking a moment
because this presentation is
pretty emotional for me,
especially -- adding to emotion
yesterday, I visited a [
Inaudible ] They are in the
hospital. This this was the
second time I visited Harborvie
since [ Inaudible ] I went I --
director 1309S when I met with
you I shared the story. Walking
out of the doors of Harborview
hospital 18 years ago was not
guaranteed for me. When I look
at the front patio between the
hospital and helipad I see wher
I took my first steps in my new
life. I'm not sure sharing my
story will create the gravity o
life and death. I'm not sure wh
else listens knows what it feel
like to not know if I would eve
leave the building I was in. No
knowing if I would ever step
foot out the door. Statisticall
speaking I should not be alive.
I was hit by somebody driving
their car at approximately 35
miles per hour with their foot
on the gas. If the I had not
reinflated my punctured lung th
medics would have arrived to
find me deceased. Let me pause.
For all of my colleagues who
wonder why I'm happy everyday o
approach life with a positive
demeanor when I'm mad or when
you offended me, it's not
because I am not offended or
upset. I'm regularly passed off
I keep a positive demeanor
because everyday is a bonus day
for me. Because my presence wit
you was not guaranteed. I am
still activated right now
because being in that hospital
room yesterday brought back som
really serious emotions for me
about the fact that I didn't
know if I would leave that
hospital. If you could pull up
slide six. I thank you for
having slide six and share this
is incomplete map. On the --
yep, there we go. My serious
injury is not on this map. And
that serious injuries impacts m
everyday. These data points are
not dots on a map or numbers in
excel sheets. These are lives,
mothers, fathers, sisters,
brothers, children. When public
commenters spoke of people
living with chronic pain from
injuries sustained on the
streets, I am that physical
representation. These are not
anectdotal stories. This is me.
I live with chronic pain that
could have been avoided by
completing the missing link wit
the infrastructure built today.
The stops at intersections with
deep slopes, the list of those
requests from my district alone
doesn't fit on one page. The
same with crosswalk requests or
conductivity plan for the
brewery district that is cut of
by high speed streets, market
and leery, 15th and 8th. My Di
strict doesn't have the highest
level of collision and deaths.
Aurora, lake city way, Rainier,
Martin Luther King. These are
the places that need our
attention right now. Lastly
before I get to my questions, w
often wait for deaths to happen
for the data to snow us we need
to change the streets. That's
what I'm told. That we can't
make an intervention or change
because the data doesn't suppor
it. This must stop. We need
preventative change. Also, I
have seen decisions made based
on data that injuries, not
significantly as deaths. A
serious injury is not enough
data to make changes. This must
stop. This type of approach say
to me your district six
councilmember that my chronic
pain and brush with death is no
enough data to make a change in
our streets. And my story is
repeated across the city as the
dots on the map indicate. I wil
just say, again, stepping out,
when I view Harborview
hospital's front porch between
the helipad and the hospital,
that is where I took my first
steps of my new life.
Statistically and physically
speaking I shouldn't be with yo
today. So, you can stop sharing
the screen if you would like.
Thank you for listening to my
part of this presentation. Let
me get to my questions. I know
that colleagues and others may
have questions, too. But how
will we fix these corridors
causing the majority of deaths.
MLK, Rainier, lake city, Aurora
What is the first step?
>> Thank you, first of all,
councilmember for sharing your
personal story and I'm so sorry
that happened to you. I'm happy
that you recovered and I enjoy
could lap bore rate wearing you
We work together on this issue,
I will be informed by what you
shared. One of the things that
impresses me about the man who
will be our chief safety office
is he systematically going
through the policies to revise
them so that we can make
interventions in more places. H
is going through each of the
policies and finding ways to
make these techniques more
actionable in more places and
get away from that very old
school way of looking at it tha
you described. There is a whole
lot of different reforms that w
will make internally and new
types of programs and projects
to launch to make the multilane
arterials safer and also to
build the capacity to respond t
community concerns like you
raised in Ballard. I think one
of the differences between LA
and Seattle that I have noticed
is there is not really a sort o
discretionary pot of funds, eve
small one to make a quick
response to a community safety
related request. I think that i
something that this committee
and our department cocoa labor
rate on in future budget cycles
There should be a way to get
people out on overtime in the
weekend and get something put u
that the community wants. Right
now it's hard because most of
the programs are kind of data
driven and the elements are set
a long time in advantage. I
would like to build that
capacity. We will be
collaborating with you closely
on these issues.
>> Thank you, director terroris
my questions are not coming fro
a combative place. I realize th
emotion contained within me at
this moment is intense and, so,
that inten is not at you. What
do see and what gives me hope i
that we are changing how we
approach vision zero. We are
changing how we approach our
city streets and how we create
safety. So, I know that the --
see you as a partner and I want
to thank you, that, Venu and
John and Francesca as well.
Within the department's interna
progress and improvements
leading to safety, is there a
Wawa that you can share it with
the public? Is there something
that you may want to return to
the committee in six months and
then kind of a separate and
secondary question is does the
City Council need to strengthen
the complete streets ordinance
or wait for your leadership.
This is a question about how do
we partner together?
>> I definitely think we should
return in six months and every
six months there after N. my jo
interview with the mayor, I was
reflecting on the presentation
that was given on vision zero t
this committee last May and I
felt it could have been
stronger. I hope this one was a
little bit stronger and more
robust with you are seeing the
top leadership take ownership o
this issue today and going
forward. I think regular
presentations are important. I
intend to have a robust
communication strategy as we
roll out changes, projects,
programs and report back on the
five early momentum actions. An
I'm looking forward to future
dialogue and collaboration
whether there are policy change
that could help our efforts.
>> Thank you, director. When yo
answer councilmember Morales
question, you talked about
coming on board, making this
directional change and projects
being underway. The how do we
address that. In my
neighborhood, 15th avenue is
being repaved and it's taking
the efforts of Seattle
neighborhood greenway, I believ
a 16 page memo that was
fantastic and some of it was
doable and some of it wasn't. A
lot of it was -- a lot was stuf
that I was asking for for a lon
time. How would a project and
specifically crossing 51st
across 15th then the southeast
corner of the Ballard bridge,
how would a project like this b
different under the new
prioritization?
>> It would have been different
if we were scoping it today. Ou
change is it was scoped and
budgeted and largely designed a
long time ago and the community
outreach was based on the plain
vanilla paving project. We want
to collaborate with your office
on trying to enrich it at this
late stage or even create
additional enrichments after a
contractor does the paving and
other forces that condominium
contribute to the elements. I
appreciate the community effort
that occurred around that and
that's what caused me to invite
the whole staff to take a walk
with me across the Ballard
bridge on a rainy morning and w
took a lot of notes and I tried
to issue a call to action and I
hope that will result in
enhancements.
>> That's wonderful. Thank you,
director. The last two question
-- I know, chair your I have
taken up too much time. What ar
the barriers in Seattle for
passing a no right on red
policy?
>> Oh, you know very interestin
thing we have been hearing,
right, we said how whether
letter we start no right turn o
red in highly Pedersen downtown
If you look at a map of Pederse
crashes, they are clustered in
downtown and a big cluster in
the U district and many along
linear boulevards but almost
every intersection in downtown
had a Pedersen crash or two.
And, so, what about no right
turn on red in my urban village
or no right turn or red on my
section of Aurora. Our answer
is, yeah, what about it. Let's
get into it. Talk, meet, look a
it. So, if starting to roll thi
out creates a demand for lots
more of it, we will keep doing
it. Yes will continue growing
it. I think it will be
wonderful.
>> Great response. I was gettin
technical here. Is it a
director's executive policy
decision or do you need
legislation. What is the
mechanism in which we use to
create this policy?
>> I don't think we need
legislation but I can get back
to you with more specific
answer. It takes time to put up
signs and manufacture signs. So
we will begin with the cluster
in downtown. But we are really
eager to work with the council
members on finding other
clusters, high Pedersen cluster
or corridors where this would b
a good idea and keep going.
>> The transportation expert
Calvin Chao might have an
expert.
>> Thank you. I just wanted to
note that the state bill that
focused on no turn on right did
not make it through session. So
it's not currently being
discussed at the state level. M
understanding is that the type
of legislation that would be
necessary to have it be a
defactor policy, how all traffi
would work. So, without that
authority, the only way to
really do this is
administratively by assigning
the intersections to make the
movement not allowable.
>> Thank you. Last question,
chair. Thank you for your
patience with me. I have heard
requests across my district for
automated enforcement from
Seaview to leery to third. How
do we expand automated
enforcement? Do we have to go
back to the legislature or
something we can do today?
>> So, there is various types o
automated enforcement that
headquarter allowable and that
got significantly liberalized
last summer. Each requires a
legislative action at the city
level. We will bring forward
authorizing legislation to the
committee later this year along
each of the new lines of
authority. When we do that, we
have to make mindings about how
certain locations qualify under
the conditions in the state law
and then after that, we would
have the authority to roll thes
things out. That is an area of
great collaboration for us in
the committee going forward.
>> Thank you, director. Thank
you to your whole SDOT team.
Colleagues I will end where I
started. For me, I didn't know
if I would leave the hospital
bed or step foot out of
Harborview hospital again. I am
a different person today than I
was before I was hit by the
driver. That's why I have a
positive demeanor even when we
might not be happy with each
other. So, director spots, Venu
you have given me renewed hope.
I want to go faster. Thank you.
>> Thank you councilmember
Strauss. Councilmember Herbold.
>> Completely Councilmember
Strauss I am grateful for your
demon nor but saddened how you
came to have it. I don't know i
my question is different than
the one that councilmember
Strauss asked as related to two
issues. One, no right on red
policy. The question I have and
I thought was the question that
I was hearing from councilmembe
Strauss was rather than doing
the piecemeal projected, the
piecemeal approach where people
come forward and say we want
this area to have this
restriction, why not just do a
citywide no right on red policy
via an ordinance, legislative
change? That is one question. A
it results to red light cameras
to say probably automated
cameras, there is the issue tha
you raised and that I have been
asking -- a question for a
while, which is, yes, the state
granted additional authority to
expand the types of auto made
camera enforcement to different
types of locations. And that
will require new authorizing
legislation. What does state la
say for our existing authority,
for our existing authority
around red light cameras and
school speed zones. Is there a
fixed number that we are
authorized -- fixed number of
locations for the things that w
are authorized to do or can we
expand that. The follow-up on
that question, we talk a lot
about the cost of prioritizing
safety in in our transportation
projects and how in order to
fully
THAT THERE ARE ADDITIONAL COSTS
WITH DOING SO. WE HAVE A CERTAI
PERCENTAGE OF THE REVENUE
ASSOCIATED WITH OUR AUTOMATED
CAMERAS BEING DEVOTED TO TRAFFI
SAFETY PROJECTS. AND I THINK
THAT IS ONE WAY THAT WE LOOK TO
ADDRESS CONCERNS THAT PEOPLE
HAVE STATED ABOUT, UM,
DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACTS OF
AUTOMATED TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT I
BY MAKING SURE THAT IF WE'RE
DOING ENFORCEMENT VIA CAMERAS,
THAT THE REVENUE THAT WE
GENERATE IS PUT BACK INTO THOSE
COMMUNITIES. SO THEY'RE SEEING
THE BENEFITS. AND SO I'M
WONDERING, I THINK THE DOLLAR
AMOUNT RIGHT NOW, I MEAN THE
PERCENTAGE IS ABOUT 20% OF THE
REVENUE GENERATED. IS THAT
ANOTHER ISSUE THAT WE SHOULD
RETURN TO? I KNOW THAT WILL HAV
AN IMPACT ON THINGS THAT ARE
AVAILABLE FOR GENERAL CITY
PURPOSES IF WE DEVOTE MORE TO A
LARGER PERCENTAGE OF THE REVENU
FROM AUTOMATED TRAFFIC
ENFORCEMENT. A LOT OF WORDS,
JUST TWO QUESTIONS. THEN I HAVE
ONE OTHER QUESTION TO ASK THEN
I'LL TAKE A PAUSE IF I COULD AN
THEN I HAVE JUST A COUPLE
DISTRICT SPECIFICS. THE QUESTIO
ABOUT THE TIMELINES FOR SORT OF
NEXT STAGES, WE KNOW THAT ONE O
THOSE STEPS IS NOT ALL PRIVATE
DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES AT SDOT.
APPRECIATE THAT YOU AGREE THAT
COMING BACK TO THIS COMMITTEE
EVERY SIX MONTHS TO REPORT OUT
ON RECOMMENDATIONS WOULD BE
USEFUL. BUT I'M WONDERING AS IT
RELATES SPECIFICALLY TO THAT
ITEM, REPORTING ON INTERNAL
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES.
THEN THE OTHER ITEM WHICH IS OF
COURSE RELATED WHICH IS THE
BROADER VISION ZERO ACTION PLAN
WHEN CAN THE PUBLIC EXPECT TO
SEE THOSE DELIVERABLES. SHOULD
WE EXPECT WAIT FOR SIX MONTHS O
ARE THERE DELIVERABLES, DO WE
HAVE A SCHEDULE OF DELIVERABLES
THAT, UH, WILL HOPEFULLY ALLOW
US TO HEAR, UM, ABOUT, UM, A LO
OF THINGS BEING DONE WHEN YOU
COME AND TALK TO US AGAIN IN SI
MONTHS.
>> OKAY, WELL LET ME TRY TO WOR
THROUGH THOSE AND SEE IF I
REMEMBER THEM ALL. I SHOULD HAV
BEEN WRITING THEM DOWN. I THINK
WE STARTED WITH BLANKET NO RIGH
TURN ON RED VERSUS NEIGHBORHOOD
BY NEIGHBORHOOD. I'M INTRIGUED
BY THE INTEREST ON THIS
COMMITTEE AND THE POSSIBILITY O
CITYWIDE NO RIGHT TURN ON RED.
WE CAN LOOK INTO THAT AND
EXPLORE THAT WITH YOU. WE WERE,
YOU KNOW, STARTING FROM A MORE
SORT OF CAUTIOUS AND INCREMENTA
APPROACH OF STARTING IT WHERE W
HAVE VERY HIGH CONCENTRATIONS O
PEDESTRIANS. I WALK TO WORK
EVERY DAY FROM SOUTH LAKE UNION
TO THE MUNICIPAL TOWER AND I
OFTEN FIND THAT THE CROSSWALK I
BLOCKED THE ENTIRE TIME BY
SOMEBODY WHO IS POSITIONS
THEMSELVES TO MAKE A RIGHT TURN
ON RED AND THEY'RE BLOCKING A
PEDESTRIAN PHASE AND THEY CAN'T
EVEN TURN ANYWAY. I'D LOVE TO
SEE THAT REDUCED SO PEOPLE CAN
CROSS THE STREET SAFELY. WE'RE
ACTUALLY, WE WELCOME THE
DIALOGUE ON LOOKING AT THAT IN
CITYWIDE MANNER AS WELL. YOU
KNOW THERE'S A SLY OUTSTANDING
THAT WE HAVE TO REPORT BACK TO
YOU ON ON THE AUTOMATED
ENFORCEMENT. WE'D LIKE TO MAKE
COMPREHENSIVE REPORT BACK TO YO
AT THAT TIME ABOUT WHAT
ADDITIONAL, WHAT'S THE SCALE AN
LOCATIONS OF ADDITIONAL
ENFORCEMENT WE CAN INSTALL UNDE
CURRENT AUTHORITIES. WHAT NEW
LEGISLATION IS NEEDED. ARE THER
SOME EQUITY MITIGATIONS OR
POLICIES THAT WE SHOULD ADOPT.
AND THEN I THINK THIS ISSUE OF
WHERE THE MONEY GOES FROM THOSE
FINES IS IMPORTANT. IT MAY
PRODUCE MORE PUBLIC SUPPORT AND
CONFIDENCE IN AUTOMATED
ENFORCEMENT IF THERE'S A FEELIN
THAT THAT MONEY, ALL OF IT OR A
LOT OF IT IS DIRECTLY PUTTING
BACK INTO THE SAFETY OUTCOME. W
HAVE SEEN IN LONDON THERE ARE
POLICIES WHERE MONEY THEY MAKE
FROM CONGESTION PRICING GOES
RIGHT BACK INTO BIKE, PEDESTRIA
AND TRANSIT INFRASTRUCTURE AND
THAT'S VERY POPULAR IN LONDON.
THINK THERE'S GOING TO BE A
ROLLING SET OF IMPROVEMENTS BOT
INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY THAT
WE WILL BE ANNOUNCING TO THE
PUBLIC AND REPORTING BACK TO
THIS COMMITTEE ON. I THINK WE
CAN SCHEDULE ADDITIONAL
BRIEFINGS ON SPECIAL TOPICS LIK
THE AUTOMATED ENFORCEMENT THAT
CAN COME BEFORE THIS SIX MONTH
UPDATE. I THINK THE UPDATE TO
THE VISION ZERO, OVERALL PLAN
WILL TAKE A LITTLE LONGER
BECAUSE WE HAVE TO COMPLETE A
FULL FUNDING LIKE GRANT
AGREEMENT WITH THE USDOT. AS WE
SELECT THE PROJECTS, THAT WILL
INFORM SOME OF THE LOCATIONS IN
THE PLAN. WE CAN'T SET A DATE O
WHEN THAT VISION ZERO PLAN WILL
BE UPDATED, PLAN WILL BE READY.
IT IS -- IT HAS TO ALIGN WITH
THE FEDERAL TIMELINES WHICH DO
TAKE SOME TIME. I PERSONALLY AM
HOPEFUL TO TRY TO IDENTIFY
ADDITIONAL FUNDING AND BUILD
EVERY ONE OF THE PROJECTS IN
THAT ORIGINAL GRANT APPLICATION
EVERY ONE OF THE $37 MILLION
IN PROJECTS.
>> THANK YOU. I WOULD VERY MUCH
LIKE TO REQUEST THAT SDOT
CONSIDER, AGAIN -- IT'S A PLACE
FOR US TO THROW THE DART. I
UNDERSTAND THAT THERE ARE NO
GUARANTEES WHEN YOU PUT TOGETHE
A SCHEDULE WITH BENCHMARKS AND
OFTEN WE HAVE TO MAKE CHANGES
BUT I JUST THINK IT DOESN'T FEE
SUFFICIENT TO ME TO SAY I
APPRECIATE YOU SAYING COME BACK
EVERY SIX MONTHS ON PRESENTING
ON A SET OF DELIVERABLES THAT W
AGREE THAT THE TIMELINES ARE
REASONABLE. THAT WAY WE CAN WOR
WITH YOU AND THE PUBLIC IN
WATCHING THE BALL. I THINK IT'S
REALLY IMPORTANT TO KEEP ALL OF
OUR FEET TO THE FIRE IS JUST TO
BE REALLY TRANSPARENT WITH --
BETWEEN US AS DEPARTMENTS BUT
ALSO WITH THE PUBLIC ON WHAT TH
EXPECTATION SHOULD BE FOR NEXT
STEP. WITH THE UNDERSTANDING
THAT WE NEED TO BE FLEXIBLE.
>> I AGREE.
>> YES. THE CONCEPTS ARE EASY.
THE EXECUTION CAN BE COMPLEX.
PARTICULARLY IF THE FOUNDATION
IS A SCHEDULE AND A TIMELINE
THAT WE FUNDAMENTALLY
COLLABORATE AND AGREE ON. I
TOTALLY GET THAT. SPECIFICALLY
ON DISTRICT 1, I HAVE ONE
SPECIFIC QUESTION AND THEN SORT
OF A BROADER QUESTION. RECENTLY
BEEN LOOPING BACK AROUND ON 35t
AND I HAD REASON TO GO BACK AND
REFRESH MY MEMORY ON WHAT
HAPPENED. PHASE ONE WAS. PHASE
TWO BECAME SOMETHING OTHER THAN
RECHANNELLIZATION FOR THAT
PORTION OF 35th. IT BECAME MORE
FOCUSED ON MACHING SOME SIGNAL
CHANGES, WHICH IS GREAT. SDOT
WAS ALWAYS CLEAR WITH THE PUBLI
THAT COMPLETING CHANNELIZATION
WAS NOT OFF THE TABLE. IF
MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WANT TO
REVIVE THE CONVERSATION ABOUT A
INTERVENTION, AN INVESTMENT THA
SDOT HAS ALWAYS SAID IS NOT OFF
THE TABLE, HOW WOULD THEY DO
THAT? HOW WOULD THEY BE ABLE TO
SORT OF GET SDOT TO REVISIT THE
CONVERSATIONS AROUND 35th?
THAT'S ONE QUESTION. AND THEN
JUST IN GENERAL WE HEARD IN
PUBLIC COMMENT A CRITIQUE LIKE
35th BECAUSE THE SECOND PHASE
DID NOT INCLUDE CHANNELIZATION.
RIDGEWAY, ADMIRAL WAY. THE
CRITIQUES WE HEARD WERE, EVEN
THOUGH SOME OF THESE WERE
REFERRED TO AS SAFETY PROJECTS
THEY DIDN'T FULLY PRIORITIZE
SAFETY. MAYBE THIS IS TOO
GENERAL OF A QUESTION TO ASK
ABOUT SPECIFIC PROJECTS BUT CAN
YOU GIVE US SORT OF A SENSE OF
HOW NEW PRIORITIZATION APPROACH
THAT WE'RE DISCUSSING HERE MIGH
RESULT IN THOSE PROJECTS BEING
DIFFERENT?
>> SURE. FIRST OF ALL I INVITE
ANY OF THE COUNCIL MEMBERS TO
CONTACT MY COUNCIL LIAISON WITH
COMMUNITY MEETINGS YOU'D LIKE T
ARRANGE WHERE WE CAN TAKE INPUT
ON COMMUNITY INTEREST IN
SPECIFIC LOCATIONS AND WE'D LOV
TO GET THOSE CONVERSATIONS
GOING. MORE BROADLY, YOU KNOW,
I'M TRYING TO MAKE SAFETY THE
NUMBER ONE PRIORITY IN THE
DEPARTMENT AND THAT'S CONSISTEN
WITH THE MAYOR'S PRIORITIES. TH
MAYOR HAS A VERY STRONG VIEW
THAT HIS NUMBER ONE JOB IS TO
KEEP SEATTLE IDENTITIES SAFE AN
ALL OF DIFFERENT MEANINGS OF
THAT WORD. IT'S BEEN MADE CLEAR
THAT'S WHERE I'M SUPPOSED TO
BEGIN. I'VE ALIGNED WITH THAT
AND THAT'S WHERE MY VALUES ARE.
I THINK THAT YOU WILL SEE
PROJECTS COMING FORWARD THAT
MORE FULLY REALIZE COMPLETE
STREETS CONCEPTS. WE'RE BUILDIN
ALL AGES INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ALL
USERS AND ALL ABILITIES. THAT I
WHY I MOVED TO SEATTLE AND LEFT
BEHIND A LOT OF LOVED ONES IN
L.A. BECAUSE I'M PASSIONATE
ABOUT THOSE TYPE OF PROJECTS.
>> THANK YOU. SO WRAPPING THIS
UP HERE THEN. WE HEARD A LOT OF
INTEREST ABOUT AUTOMATED
ENFORCEMENT. COUNCIL DOUBLED TH
AUTOMATED ENFORCEMENT IN SCHOOL
ZONES RECENTLY. WE'RE HEARING
INTEREST OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL ZONE
SO WOULD LOVE TO AS YOU OFFERED
TO GET THE LEGISLATION NEEDED T
ENACT THAT ADDITIONAL AUTHORITY
LOCALLY HERE, OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL
ZONES, PRIOR TO YOUR SIX MONTH
RETURN TO US AND PERHAPS WE
COULD ALSO DURING THAT
CONSIDERATION OF THE AUTOMATED
ENFORCEMENT LEGISLATION GET AN
UPDATE, JUST A BRIEF UPDATE ON
WHERE YOU ARE THEN IN TERMS OF
THE VISION ZERO ACTION PLAN,
WHAT I'M HEARING IS THAT WE
COULD GET THAT WITHIN SIX MONTH
SO THAT WON IN SEPTEMBER. THE
REASON THAT WOULD BE IMPORTANT
FOR US, THAT'S THE LATEST WE
WOULD WANT TO GET IT IS BECAUSE
WE KNOW THE MAYOR WILL BE
SUBMITTING HIS BUDGET TO US AT
THE END OF SEPTEMBER. SO IN
ADDITION TO ALL THE PROJECTS
YOU'RE WORKING ON THROUGHOUT TH
CITY NOW, WE WOULD WANT TO SEE
THE BUDGET REFLECT THE ACTION
PLAN SO THAT THINGS ARE BEING
FUNDED THAT YOU'RE PROPOSING. S
DOES THAT SOUND RIGHT TO YOU?
>> I'M NOT READY TO COMMIT TO
WHEN THE ACTION PLAN WILL BE
DONE BECAUSE SOME OF THAT
DEPENDS ON THE PUBLIC INPUT
WE'RE GOING TO RECEIVE OVER THE
COURSE OF THE NEXT FEW WEEKS TO
HELP INFORM WHAT'S IN IT. SOME
OF THAT FENDS ON THE TIMELINE.
BIG CHURCH CHUNK OF THAT WORK
WILL BE THE FEDERALLY FUNDED
ACTIVITIES. THAT WILL DOUBLE
FROM ABOUT 8 MILLION TO 15
MILLION FOR MULTIPLE YEARS.
ABSOLUTELY OUR DISCUSSIONS
AROUND THE BUDGET WILL CENTER O
SAFETY AS THE 2024 BUDGET
DISCUSSIONS COME INTO FOCUS. I'
NOT 100% SURE I CAN COMMIT TODA
THAT THE ENTIRE VISION ZERO
ACTION PLAN WILL BE DONE AS
THOSE DISCUSSIONS ARE HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH THAT PLAN
WILL BE INFORMING THOSE
DISCUSSIONS FOR SURE. BUT I DO
THINK VERY SOON WE CAN BEGIN TO
A CALENDAR.
>> WE'LL LOOK FORWARD TO THAT
LIST OF DELIVERABLES AND
TIMELINES FOR THAT. WE'LL ALSO
CONTINUE TONE COURAGE YOU TO
HAVE THE ACTION PLAN READY PRIO
TO THE BUDGET SO THAT WE CAN SE
THE INTEGRATION TO THE EXTENT
POSSIBLE. LOOKING FORWARD TO TH
AUTOMATED ENFORCEMENT SOONER.
WHATEVER YOU CAN DO WITH RIGHT
TURNS ON RED, WE KNOW THAT'S
PART OF YOUR MOMENTUM BUILDING
ACTION IT SAYS DOWNTOWN AND
BEYOND IN YOUR POWER POINT. WE
APPRECIATE THAT. IF THERE ARE
SPECIFIC LOCATIONS IN COUNCIL
MEMBER MORALES' DISTRICT THAT
CAN BE DONE NOW. I DO UNDERSTAN
WE HAVE SOME AUTHORITY WITH OUR
TRAFFIC ENGINEER SLASH SAFETY
ENGINEER WHO COULD HELP MAKE
THAT HAPPEN. SO IF I CAN HELP
FACILITATE THAT, PLEASE LET ME
KNOW. BUT REALLY WANT TO THANK
YOU FOR RECOGNIZING THIS EVEN
BEFORE YOU WERE CONFIRMED AS A
PRIORITY AND THEN MAKING THIS
TOP TO BOTTOM REVIEW HAPPEN AND
THEN GETTING THE FEDERAL
DOLLARS, HAVING SOME INITIAL AS
THAT YOU COULD TAKE AND THEN
FOLLOWING IT UP WITH THE ACTION
PLAN WE'LL LOOK FORWARD TO.
THANK YOU TO YOU AND YOUR TEAM.
>> THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND I
ALSO DO SEE THE U DISTRICT AS A
VERY EXCITING OPPORTUNITY FOR
OUR NO TURN ON RED AS WELL. I'V
WALKED AROUND THERE A LOT.
>> ABSOLUTELY. THANK YOU. ALL
RIGHT, COLLEAGUES. LET'S GO
AHEAD, THANK YOU, SDOT AND WE'L
GO AHEAD AND MOVE TO OUR SEATTL
PUBLIC UTILITIES ITEM. ITEM TWO
ON OUR AGENDA. WILL THE CLERK
PLEASE READ THE SHORT TITLE OF
THE SECOND AGENDA ITEM.
>> AGENDA ITEM TWO. A RESOLUTIO
ADOPTING SEATTLE'S 2022 SOLID
WASTE PLAN UPDATE MOVING
UPSTREAM TO ZERO WASTE. FOR
BRIEFING, DISCUSSION AND
POSSIBLE VOTE.
>> THANK YOU. COLLEAGUES, WE
FIRST HEARD THIS ITEM IN OUR
FEBRUARY 21st COMMITTEE MEETING
AND IT'S BACK TODAY FOR A VOTE.
WE HAVE PRESENTERS FROM LAST
WEEK HERE WITH US IN CASE THERE
ARE ANY LAST MINUTE QUESTIONS.
AS YOU KNOW, BRIAN GOODNIGHT
FROM OUR COUNCIL CENTRAL STAFF
WROTE EXCELLENT MEMO ANALYZING
THE PROPOSED SOLID WASTE UPDATE
I DO WANT TO GIVE HIM A CHANCE
IF YOU HAVE ANY OPENING COMMENT
OR IMPORTANT FINDINGS YOU'D LIK
TO SHARE WITH US ON THE OUTSET.
>> I'LL JUST SPEAK FOR A COUPLE
MINUTES WITH SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF
THE PLAN. AS YOU MENTIONED THIS
ITEM WAS AT THE FEBRUARY 21st
COMMITTEE MEETING. RESOLUTION
32082 WOULD ADOPT THE PLAN WHIC
IS ATTACHED TO THE RESOLUTION A
ATTACHMENT ONE AS THE CITY'S
SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN.
STATE LAW REQUIRES THAT LOCAL
GOVERNMENTS REVIEW AND REVISE
THEIR SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
PLANS EVERY FIVE YEARS AND THE
MOST RECENT ACTION BY THE
COUNCIL TO ADOPT THE PLAN WAS
OCCURRED IN TO TO 13 WITH THE
ADOPTION OF A PLAN KNOWN AS THE
2011 SOLID WASTE PLAN REVISION.
IN 2016 SEATTLE PUBLIC UTILITIE
OR SPU IN CONSULTATION WITH THE
CITY'S SOLID WASTE ADVISORY
COMMITTEE INITIATED A REVIEW AN
STARTED DRAFTING THE AMENDMENT.
THE AMENDMENT WAS IMPACTED BY
THE PANDEMIC. FOLLOWING THOSE
DELAYS THE DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOG
UPDATED ITS GUIDANCE AND
REQUESTED THAT SPU SUBMIT A
REVISION RATHER THAN AN
AMENDMENT. THAT REVISION IS THE
PLAN THAT THE EXECUTIVE HAS
PROPOSED FOR ADOPTION VIA
RESOLUTION FOR YOU TODAY. SO IN
ADDITION TO THE PRESENTATION, A
YOU MENTIONED THERE IS A STAFF
MEMO THAT'S ATTACHED TO THE
AGENDA AND WAS DISTRIBUTED LAST
WEEK. VERY BROADLY SPEAKING THE
2022 PLAN UPDATE DESCRIBES HOW
SEATTLE WILL MANAGE AND FINANCE
SOLID WASTE SERVICES AND
FACILITIES IN THE NEAR TERM AND
ALSO PROJECTS SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
NEEDS OVER A 20 YEAR PLANNING
HORIZON. THE PLAN PRIORITIZES
WASTE PREVENTION AND PRESENTS A
VISION AFTER ZERO WASTE FUTURE
WHERE ALL MATERIALS ARE REUSED
OR RECYCLED AND NOTHING IS
WASTED AND THAT VISION FOR ZERO
WASTE IS CONSISTENT WITH SPU'S
2021-2026 STRATEGIC BUSINESS
PLAN WHICH THE COUNCIL ADOPTED
IN MAY OF 2021. THE 2022 PLAN
IDENTIFIES SEVEN GOAL AREAS TO
GUIDE THE CITY'S SOLID WASTE
MANAGEMENT AND RECOMMENDS 39
ACTIONS. 34 OF THOSE ARE SEEN A
BEING ABLE TO IMPLEMENT WITHIN
THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. THE PLAN
ALSO PROJECTS THE REVENUE AND
RATE IMPACTS THROUGH THE YEAR
2040 FOR BOTH A STATUS QUO
SCENARIO AND A SCENARIO WHERE
SPU IS ABLE TO RECOMMEND THE
ACTIONS. THE MAIN TAKE AWAY IS
SPU BELIEVES THAT CUSTOMER RATE
WILL INCREASE MORE SLOWLY OVER
TIME IF THEY'RE ABLE TO
IMPLEMENT THE RECOMMENDATIONS.
SO ALTHOUGH THE RECOMMENDATIONS
DO HAVE IMPLEMENTATION COSTS
OVER TIME THEY'RE EXPECTED TO
REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF GARBAGE
MOVING THROUGH THE SYSTEM WHICH
IN TURN LEADS TO COST SAVINGS
FOR THE SYSTEM OVERALL. AND ONE
OTHER THING I'D LIKE TO
HIGHLIGHT IS A RESOLUTION WOULD
SUPERSEDE THE RECYCLING GOALS
ESTABLISHED IN JULY 2007. THOSE
GOALS AS THEY WERE LATER AMENDE
WERE FOR THE CITY TO RECYCLE 70
OF CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION
WASTE BY 2020 AND TO RECYCLE 70
PERCENT OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WAST
BY 2022. AS WAS DISCUSSED AT
LAST COMMITTEE'S MEETING THERE
ARE A NUMBER OF REASONS WHY
THESE GOALS HAVE NEVER BEEN MET
WHICH INCLUDE THINGS LIKE THE
SHIFT TO LIGHTER WEIGHT
MATERIALS AND THE CHANGING
COMPOSITION OF THE WASTE STREAM
SO THE RESOLUTION AND THE 2022
PLAN UPDATE DO ACKNOWLEDGE A
SHIFT TOWARD MINIMIZING WASTE
FURTHER UPSTREAM AND THE LIFE
CYCLE OF MATERIALS RATHER THAN
FOCUSING SOLELY ON THE END OF
LIFE MANAGEMENT OF WASTE AND
THAT SHIFTING FOCUS IS
CONSISTENT WITH THE ACTIONS OF
OTHER INDUSTRY LEADERS SUCH AS
THE U.S. EPA, THE DEPARTMENT OF
ECOLOGY IN WASHINGTON AND THE
OREGON DEPARTMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY. SPU WILL
CONTINUE TO TRACK RECYCLING
RATES FOR EACH WASTE SECTOR BUT
NO LONGER THE PRIMARY DATA POIN
FOR PROGRAM RELATED DECISION
MAKING. SECTION TWO OF THE
RESOLUTION NOTES THAT SPU WILL
USE METRICS SUCH AS WASTE
GENERATION AND CAPTURE RATES TO
TRACK CITYWIDE WASTE TRENDS AND
SECTION THREE OF THE RESOLUTION
REQUIRES SPU TO REPORT TO THE
COUNCIL BY OCTOBER 1st OF EACH
YEAR ON THE PREVIOUS YEAR'S
PROGRESS PREVENTING, REDUCING
AND DIVERTING WASTE. SO LASTLY
IN TERMS OF NEXT STEPS IF THE
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS PASSING AN
OF THE LEGISLATION TODAY THE
FULL SUN COUNCIL COULD TAKE
FINAL ACTION ON MARCH 14th.
ASSUMING COUNCIL DOES ADOPT THE
PLAN, SPU WILL SUBMIT THE PLAN
TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY FO
ITS FINAL APPROVAL AND IF THE
COUNCIL OR THE COMMITTEE CHOSE
TO MAKE SUBSTANTIVE CHANGES TO
THE PLAN, THEN THE CITY'S SOLID
WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE WOULD
NEED TO HOLD A MEETING TO REVIE
THE CHANGES PRIOR TO SPU
SUBMITTING THE PLAN TO ECOLOGY
FOR APPROVAL. ALTHOUGH THE
ADVISORY COMMITTEE IS REQUIRED
TO HOLD A MEETING TO REVIEW THE
CHANGES THE GROUP IS NOT
REQUIRED TO APPROVE THE CHANGES
THAT COUNCIL MAKES. AND THAT
CONCLUDES MY REMARKS. HAPPY TO
TURN IT OTHER TO SPU IF NAY HAV
COMMENTS OR RESPOND TO ANY
QUESTIONS.
>> THANK YOU, BRIAN. THANKS FOR
NOTING THE CONSISTENCY WITH THE
STRATEGIC PLAN OF SEATTLE PUBLI
UTILITIES, AS WELL AS THE BETTE
METRICS WE HAVE NOW CONSISTENT
WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY
AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERTS
COUNCIL COUNCILMEMBER HERBOLD.
>> JUST TO CLARIFY FROM BRIAN'S
OVERVIEW, WE HAD A GOOD
CONVERSATION LAST COMMITTEE
MEETING I UNDERSTAND WHY IT IS
THAT WE ARE NO LONGER INCLUDING
A 70% RECYCLING GOAL. AND
ALTHOUGH THERE'LL STILL BE
REPORTS ON RECYCLING RATES, THA
WILL NO LONGER BE A GOAL THAT W
STRIVE TO AND DEVELOP POLICIES
THAT MAKE IT MORE LIKELY WE GET
TO THAT RATE, ET CETERA, ET
CETERA. BUT WE ARE TAKING OUT
ONE GOAL WITH THE PROMISE OF
SOME FUTURE GOAL THAT IS MORE
RELATED TO WASTE REDUCTION. WE
DON'T HAVE THOSE GOALS YET
BEFORE US IN THIS PLAN.
>> THAT'S CORRECT. I THINK AND
I'M HAPPY TO LET SPU RESPOND.
THE WAY I READ THE PLAN IS THEY
ARE WORKING ON IT AND THEY THIN
THE PLAN SITE IS A TWO TO THREE
YEAR PERIOD OF PLANNING TO WORK
THROUGH METRICS AND DECIDE WHAT
IS THE MOST APPROPRIATE
RESOLUTION DOESN'T SPECIFY ANY
INDIVIDUAL GOAL OR SPECIFIC
ACTION. YOU'RE RIGHT.
>> YEAH. I JUST WANT TO SAY I D
FEEL, I RECOGNIZE THE NEED TO
REPLACE THE 70% RECYCLING RATE
WITH SOMETHING ELSE. I AM VERY
UNCOMFORTABLE REMOVING IT AT
THIS STAGE WITHOUT HAVING THAT
SOMETHING ELSE TO REPLACE.
>> DOES SEATTLE PUBLIC UTILITIE
WANT TO RESPOND?
>> YEAH, THANK YOU
COUNCILMEMBER. EXCUSE ME. YEAH,
WE HAVE A WASTE PREVENTION
STRATEGIC PLAN IN THE WORKS AS
WE SPEAK. THAT'S PART OF THIS
LARGER PLAN. WE HAVE TIMELINES
ARE WHERE WE HAVE TO GET THIS
UPDATE TO ECOLOGY. IN THE
MEANTIME WE HAVE BEEN BUILDING
AND WORKING TOWARDS SETTING NEW
GOALS. WE CURRENTLY HAVE A
PROCESS IN PLACE NOW TO DEVELOP
A PREVENTION STRATEGIC PLAN AND
WE SHOULD HAVE THAT COMPLETED I
BELIEVE BY NEXT YEAR 2024. WHIC
WILL LAY OUT THE GOALS AND BE
VERY COMPREHENSIVE TOWARDS WHAT
WE'RE TRYING TO MOVE TOWARDS
WITH WASTE PREVENTION.
>> SO WILL YOU BE COMING BACK T
THE COUNCIL TO REVIEW THOSE
GOALS OR AT LEAST TO INFORM WHA
THOSE ARE?
>> WE'D BE HAPPY TO DO THAT.
ONCE THAT PLAN IS COMPLETED.
WE'RE GOING OUT AND GETTING A
LOT OF PUBLIC INPUT. A LOT OF
INDUSTRY INPUT AND OTHER
GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY INPUT ON
WHERE WE NEED TO BE AND WHAT WE
NEED TO STRIVE FOR ON THE WASTE
PREVENTION SIDE. A LOT OF THAT
WORK HAS ALREADY BEGUN AND WE
PLAN TO HAVE THAT PLAN COMPLETE
VERY SHORTLY -- BY NEXT YEAR.
>> WILL YOU STILL BE TRACKING
THE RECYCLING? FOR INFORMATIONA
PURPOSES?
>> YEAH, WE WILL STILL BE
REPORTING ON OUR RECYCLING RATE
CORRECT, STEPHANIE? DO YOU MIND
JUMPING IN?
>> YOU, YES, SO WE'LL CONTINUE
TO TRACK THAT BECAUSE IT IS A
METRIC THAT IS STILL USEFUL IN
SOME WAYS TO US. WE HAVE IN THE
PLAN WE TALK ABOUT SOME
DIFFERENT WAYS THAT WE'RE
LOOKING AT FOR MEASURING OUR
SUCCESS. SO SOME OF THOSE ARE
AROUND STANDARDIZING OUR
MEASUREMENTS OF RESIDENTIAL AND
NONGENERATION -- AND
NONRESIDENTIAL WASTE GENERATION
AND DISPOSAL. FIGURING OUT HOW
TO MEASURE REDUCTIONS IN FOOD
WASTE. THESE ARE ALL METRICS
THAT WE'RE IN THE PROCESS OF
RESEARCHING AND EVALUATING WHAT
MIGHT BE APPROPRIATE MEASURES
FOR MEASURING OUR PROGRESS. ON
CURTAILING WASTE, THE CREATION
OF WASTE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
WASTE RECOLLECTION REDUCTION
GENERALLY. WE'VE HAD MEASURES
LIKE THOSE IN THE PAST. WEJUST
WANT TO KIND OF TRUE THEM UP FO
OUR REDOUBLED EMPHASIS ON WASTE
PREVENTION AND SO THAT WORK IS
ALREADY WELL UNDERWAY. I WOULD
JUST ADD THAT EFFECTIVELY
MEASURING WASTE PREVENTION IS
SORT OF IS LIKE IT'S NEW
FRONTIER FOR THE ENTIRE
INDUSTRY. AS A LEADER IN THAT
INDUSTRY, SEATTLE ALONG WITH YO
KNOW OUR PARTNERS AT DEPARTMENT
OF ECOLOGY, DEPARTMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY IN OREGON
AND OTHERS WHO WERE SORT OF AT
THE FOREFRONT OF THIS FIELD ARE
JUST STARTING TO WRANGLE WITH
HOW WE MEASURE WASTE FROM BEING
PREVENTED IN THE FIRST PLACE. I
THINK WE HAVE SOME REALLY GOOD
LEADS ON HOW WE WANT TO APPROAC
THAT. WE'RE JUST REALLY NAILING
DOWN THE SPECIFICS OF HOW WE DO
THAT MEASUREMENT.
>> COUNCILMEMBER HERBOLD. I
COULD JUST SHARE THE
PRESENTATION SCREEN REAL QUICK
OF LAST TIME. THIS IS ONE OF TH
SLIDES OF POSSIBLE PROPOSED
METRICS AND TARGETS THAT WE WER
THINKING ABOUT. WE ALREADY ARE
TRACKING GENERATION PER
HOUSEHOLD AND IT'S BEEN ON A
SIGNIFICANT DECLINE. WE
MENTIONED THAT LAST WEEK. TO
REALLY UNDERSTAND IF THAT IS TH
BEST MEASUREMENT, IF THAT IS TH
WHAT'S GOING TO GET US WHERE WE
WANT TO BE AT THE END OF THE
DAY. THAT'S WHERE WE'RE REALLY
TRYING TO REFINE THAT THROUGH
THE STRATEGIC PLAN PROCESS.
>> SO THERE ARE DOWN SIDES TO
JUST FOR NOW LEAVE THAT 70%
NUMBER IN UNTIL WE HAVE NEW
GOALS FOR WASTE REDUCTION?
>> WELL, I DON'T KNOW ABOUT A
DOWNSIDE BUT WE'RE LOOKING AT
WITH THIS PLAN WE'RE LOOKING AT
THE NEXT SIX YEARS, POSSIBLY 20
IT'S CERTAINLY AND IN OUR
RECOMMENDATION WOULDN'T BE
SOMETHING WE WOULD WANT TO CARR
THROUGH THAT TYPE OF TIMELINE.
>> SO THE WASTE REDUCTION GOALS
AREN'T GOING TO BE PART OF A
LONGER TIMELINE PLAN? IS THAT
WHAT I HEAR YOU SAYING?
>> THEY WILL BE. BUT THE -- WE
DON'T NECESSARILY WANT THE 70%
ONE DRIVING OUR WORK.
>> BUT WE COULD UPDATE THE 70%;
RIGHT? WHEN YOU HAVE NEW GOALS.
LIKE I SAID I'M UNCOMFORTABLE
APPROVING A PLAN FOR THE UTILIT
THAT DOES NOT HAVE EITHER
RECYCLING OR WASTE REDUCTION
GOALS IN IT.
>> MAYBE THAT'S AN OVERSTATEMEN
A LITTLE BIT. IN OUR SPU
STRATEGIC PLAN WE DO TRY AND --
WE DO TRACK AND MEASURE WASTE -
THIS GENERATION PER HOUSEHOLD.
BOTH WHAT'S SENT TO LAND FILL
AND WHAT IS TOTAL WASTE
GENERATED. CONTINUALLY TRYING T
DECREASE THAT NUMBER. SO WE DO
TRACK THAT. IT'S IN THE OVERALL
SPU STRATEGIC PLAN. AGAIN, WE'R
JUST TRYING TO WORK TOWARDS WIT
THIS WASTE PREVENTION STRATEGIC
PLAN WE'RE WORKING ON WE'RE
REALLY TRYING TO REFINE THOSE
AND THOSE WILL ABSOLUTELY HAVE
GOALS IN PLACE THAT WILL DRIVE
OUR WORK IN THE WASTE PREVENTIO
AREA.
>> COUNCILMEMBER HERBOLD, I HEA
WHAT YOU'RE SAYING. FOR ME IT
WAS THE VALIDATION FROM THE
STATE DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY AND
FROM THE ADVISORY -- THE GROUP
ADVISING SEATTLE PUBLIC
UTILITIES ON THIS. THOUGH I'D
LIKE TO HEAR WHAT THE TIME
CONSTRAINTS ARE FOR SPU. WHAT
ARE YOUR TIME CONSTRAINTS? CAN
YOU REMIND US FOR GETTING THIS
PLAN ENDORSED BY THE COUNCIL?
THERE MAY BE A WAY TO HAVE YOU
EITHER COME BACK TO COMMITTEE I
THE FUTURE. I DON'T THINK WE'VE
GOT ANY ROOM FOR YOU IN MARCH,
BUT HAVE YOU COME BACK IN APRIL
TO COMMITTEE OR WE COULD
POTENTIALLY AMEND IT ON ITS WAY
TO THE FULL COUNCIL TO KEEP IN
PLACE A GOAL UNTIL THE NEXT GOA
IS READY TO GO.
>> I'M SORRY.
>> WHAT IS YOUR DEADLINE FOR
COUNCIL APPROVING THIS? IS THER
A HARD DEADLINE THAT WE HAVE TO
ADHERE TO?
>> STEPHANIE, I DON'T BELIEVE
THERE'S A HARD DEADLINE. WE'VE
LET ECOLOGY KNOW WHAT OUR
PROCESS IS GOING FORWARD TO GET
IT BACK TO THEM. BUT I DON'T
BELIEVE THAT'S A HARD DEADLINE.
>> WELL THAT'S FINE. WE CAN SEE
YOU BACK IN APRIL IN OUR
COMMITTEE AND TRY TO WORK OUT
SOME OF THESE ISSUES BETWEEN NO
AND THEN.
>> COUNCILMEMBER HERBOLD, THIS
IS BOB.
>> BOB'S HERE TO MANAGE HERBOLD
PARTIALLY WHY I'M ASKING THIS
QUESTION IS ONE OF THE FINDINGS
IN THE REPORT REFER TO
RECOMMENDATION 23 ADOPT
COLLECTION INFRASTRUCTURE AND
MULTIFAMILY CONSTRUCTION TO
ENSURE THAT TENANTS HAVE
SUFFICIENT SOLID WASTE SERVICES
AND CONVENIENT ACCESS. GOSH I
THINK IT WAS PROBABLY 2019
STARTED THIS CONVERSATIONS WITH
BOTH SDCI AND SPU TO LOOK AT HO
TO AMEND THE LAND USE CODE TO
ENSURE TENANTS WHO LIVE OR
OWNERS WHO LIVE IN MULTIFAMILY
BUILDINGS HAVE THEIR RECYCLING
AND COMPOSTING LOCATED IN A
SINGLE LOCATION. FOR ANY OF US
LIVING IN A SINGLE FAMILY HOME,
ASK YOURSELF DO YOU HAVE TO GO
TO THREE DIFFERENT PLACES, MAYB
THREE DIFFERENT FLOORS TO
DISPOSE OF YOUR GARBAGE,
RECYCLING AND COMPOST. WE WERE
WORKING ON LEGISLATION TO
REQUIRE BUILDERS TO HAVE EQUAL
ACCESS, MULTIFAMILY PARTIES THE
LAST DAY TO HAVE -- THE LAST
YEAR I HAD MEMBERS WHERE 37%
RATES FOR RESIDENTS OF
MULTIFAMILY PROPERTIES AS
COMPARED TO 54% WAS THE TARGET.
AND THAT 37% IS, YOU KNOW,
LIKELY BRINGING DOWN OUR ABILIT
TO HIT 70% FROM WHEN THAT WAS A
GOAL. SO I'M JUST NOT CONVINCED
THERE WE'VE DONE ENOUGH TO TRY
TO HIT THAT GOAL AND LIKE I SAI
I'M REALLY RELUCTANT TO REMOVE
IT WITHOUT ANOTHER SET OF GOALS
I KNOW THAT SPU WORK TOGETHER T
DEVELOP LEGISLATION. REVIEW ON
IT. THERE WAS AN APPEAL TO THE
LEGISLATION. THAT APPEAL WAS
DISMISSED BY THE HEARING
EXAMINER, HAPPILY. TO MY
KNOWLEDGE THE LEGISLATION WAS
NEVER BROUGHT FORWARD. SORRY
HERBOLD IS IN HER LAST YEAR OF
WANTING TO GET THINGS DONE THAT
SHE STARTED A FEW YEARS AGO AND
THIS IS DEFINITELY ONE OF THOSE
ITEMS THAT'S REALLY IMPORTANT T
ME TO MOVE FORWARD. SPU'S
PARTNERSHIP IN THE PAST HAD BEE
REALLY GOOD ON THIS. AGAIN, SDC
HAD MOVED FORWARD. IT'S JUST TH
STATUS OF THE LEGISLATION ITSEL
THAT I'M VERY INTERESTED IN
BECAUSE, AGAIN, I'M JUST NOT
100% CONVINCED THAT WE'VE DONE
EVERYTHING THAT WE CAN TO
IMPROVE OUR RECYCLING RATES AND
DON'T REALLY WANT TO LET GO OF
THOSE GOALS IN EXCHANGE FOR NEW
ONES UNTIL I'M CONVINCED THAT W
HAVE NEW ONES AND THAT WE'VE
TRIED EVERYTHING.
>> SO I'M HEARING -- WELL, WHAT
I THINK WE CAN -- ABSOLUTELY
PROVIDE YOU AN UPDATE ON THE
STATUS OF THE ON FLOOR STORAGE
REQUIREMENTS. WE CAN PROVIDE YO
THAT. IN TERMS OF THE
LEGISLATION AT HAND BEFORE US,
I'M THINKING JUST BRAINSTORMING
HERE THAT WE COULD PROBABLY WOR
SMITH THE RESOLUTION BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE WITHOUT HAVING TO
CHANGE THE PLAN, IS THAT, JEFF
AND STEPHANIE, WOULD THAT BE
ACCEPTABLE TO YOU COUNCILMEMBER
HERBOLD WHILE NOT CHANGING THE
PLAN?
>> IT WOULD SATISFY ME AS LONG
AS THE CHAIR DOESN'T HAVE
PROCEDURAL CONCERNS. OTHER
CONCERNS.
>> I THINK IT'S A REASONABLE
REQUEST. AND SO RATHER THAN
DOING IT ON THE FLY HERE, WE'LL
HAVE SPU WORKSHOP THAT AND COME
BACK TO US IN APRIL. OKAY? LET'
MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ITEM. THANK
YOU, COUNCILMEMBER HERBOLD.
APPRECIATE YOUR STICKING TO
THAT. AGENDA ITEM 3. WILL THE
CLERK PLEASE READ THE SHORT
TITLE OF THE THIRD AGENDA ITEM.
>> AGENDA ITEM THREE. CLERK FIL
314512. PETITION OF DENNY AND
EASTLAKE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP AN
DENNY AND STEWART LIMITED
PARTNERSHIP FOR THE VACATION OF
THE ALLEY LYING WITHIN BLOCK 24
FOR BRIEFING AND DISCUSSION.
>> THANK YOU. COLLEAGUES TODAY
WE HAVE IN FRONT OF US AN EARLY
INITIAL BRIEFING ON A REQUEST T
HAVE THE CITY VACATE AN ALLEY
THAT RUNS I BELIEVE NORTH-SOUTH
DIRECTLY WEST OF I-5 AND
BORDERED BY DENNY WAY AND
STEWART STREET IN DISTRICT 7.
IT'S OFFICIALLY PART OF THE
SOUTH LAKE UNION URBAN CENTER.
UNDERSTAND REPRESENTATIVES FROM
THE DEVELOPER TEAM ARE HERE WIT
US TODAY AS I UNDERSTAND IT
THEY'RE REQUESTING THE CITY
VACATE THE PUBLIC ALLEY TO
FACILITATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF A
PROPOSED 15 STORY RESEARCH
FACILITY. I DISCUSSED THIS A BI
DURING COUNCIL BRIEFING
YESTERDAY. AGAIN, THIS IS VERY
EARLY IN THE PROCESS. I
UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS WHERE
WE'VE GOT A COUPLE OF BUILDINGS
CURRENTLY THERE WOULD BE
DEMOLISHED. CURRENTLY HOUSE A
TATTOO SHOP, HOOKAH SHOP, AUTO
REPAIR SHOP. YOU'RE PROPOSING T
BUILD THIS RESEARCH FACILITY. A
KEY ISSUE WILL BE WHAT ARE THE
PUBLIC BENEFITS. WHAT DOES THE
PUBLIC GET IN EXCHANGE
POTENTIALLY FOR GRANTING
VACATION OF THIS PUBLIC ALLEY T
THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO FACILITAT
THE PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT. REALL
APPRECIATE HAVING OUR TOPNOTCH
STREET TEAM HERE FROM SDOT. WAN
TO THANK FOR THE MEMO ON THIS
PROPOSAL. LISH, DID YOU WANT
OPENING COMMENTS BEFORE WE TURN
IT OVER?
>> THE PURPOSE OF THIS BRIEFING
IS TO PROVIDE COUNCILMEMBERS
WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO COMMENT
ON THE PROPOSAL BEFORE CITY
DEPARTMENTS AND THE SEATTLE
DESIGN COMMISSION REALLY
UNDERTAKE THEIR DETAILED REVIEW
OF THE PROPOSAL. SO THIS IS AN
OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO HIGHLIGH
ISSUES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE
RESOLVED WHEN IT COMES BACK TO
COUNCIL OR IDENTIFY ANY CONCERN
YOU MAY HAVE WITH THE VACATION
AS PROPOSED AND WITH THAT I'LL
HAND IT OVER TO BEVERLY BARNETT
>> THANK YOU, LISH. GOOD
MORNING, COMMITTEE. THANK YOU
FOR HAVING US HERE. THANK YOU,
HANNAH FOR GETTING THIS ON THE
AGENDA. WE SEE THE ITEMS THAT
YOU HAD BEFORE YOU TODAY WE KNO
GETTING THESE AGENDAS TOGETHER
IS PRETTY TIGHT. SO AS LISH
INDICATED THIS IS A GREAT
OPPORTUNITY FOR US BECAUSE WE
GET TO HEAR GUIDANCE AND INPUT
FROM MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE O
MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC BEFORE WE
BEGIN OUR FORMAL REVIEW. I'M
ONLY GOING TO TAKE A COUPLE
MINUTES THEN WE'LL GO TO MICHAE
JENKINS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
OF THE DESIGN COMMISSION AND
THEN MARK BRANDS WILL INTRODUCE
THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM. WE WANT T
FOCUS ON THE POWERPOINT
PRESENTATION. GOAL IS FOR YOU T
SEE THE PROPOSAL AND ASK THE
QUESTIONS YOU WANT US TO WORK O
DURING THE REVIEW AND PROVIDE U
ANY GUIDANCE THAT YOU MIGHT HAV
OR ANYTHING YOU MIGHT HEARD FRO
THE COMMUNITY MEMBER. SO EVEN
THOUGH THIS IS THE RIBBON
CUTTING FOR THIS PROJECT, THE
STREET VACATION POLICIES DO
PROVIDE THAT THERE'S SOME
PRELIMINARY WORK THAT A
DEVELOPER DOES BEFORE THEY COME
IN. SO THIS HAS BEEN SEEN BY TH
DESIGN COMMISSION AND EARLY
REVIEW. IT'S GONE THROUGH EARLY
DESIGN GUIDANCE AND THEY'VE MET
WITH SDCI AND SDOT SUBJECT
MATTER EXPERTS ON ACCESS AND
THINGS LIKE THAT WHAT WE'LL BE
FOCUSING ON NOW THAT WE BEGIN
THE FORMAL REVIEW IS ALL OF THE
TECHNICAL QUESTIONS. WHEN MARK
SHOWS US THE PROJECT YOU'LL SEE
THIS IS A TRIANGULAR SHAPED
BLOCK. THEY ALWAYS RAISE
QUESTIONS ABOUT ACCESS AND
SERVICES. WE ALSO LOOK REALLY
DEEPLY AT THE COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT PLAN AND WHAT THE
COMMUNITY AND NEIGHBORHOOD HAVE
TO SAY ABOUT THE PROJECT. AND W
WORK VERY CLOSELY WITH SEATTLE
DESIGN COMMISSION, THE COMMUNIT
AND OTHER CITY STAFF ON DEFININ
A REALLY APPROPRIATE AND USABLE
PUBLIC BENEFIT FOR THAT
NEIGHBORHOOD AND THAT PROJECT.
SO I THINK THAT'S ALL I WANT TO
SAY SO THAT WE CAN SPEND OUR
TIME ON THE PROJECT AND NOW WE'
ASK MICHAEL AND THEN WE'LL GO T
MARK WHO WILL INTRODUCE THE
DEVELOPMENT TEAM.
>> THANKS, BEVERLY. GOOD
MORNING, COUNCIL MEMBERS.
MICHAEL JENKINS, DIRECTOR OF TH
SEATTLE DESIGN COMMISSION. JUST
A BRIEF COMMENT OR TWO THE
COMMISSION DID HAVE AN
OPPORTUNITY AND A SUBCOMMITTEE
TO LOOK AT AND PROVIDE SOME
INITIAL INPUT TO THE DEVELOPMEN
TEAM AS WELL AS TO SDOT IN
ADVANCE OF THE SUBMITTAL OF
THEIR PETITION. THIS IS ONE OF
THE MORE CHALLENGING
INTERSECTIONS. THIS IS LOCATED
IN ONE OF THE MORE CHALLENGING
LOCATIONS FOR SAFETY AND
SECURITY. PEDESTRIANS AND
AUTOMOBILES. THE COMMISSION I
DON'T THINK AND AS YOU'LL SEE I
THE PRESENTATION THAT I'LL THRO
TO MARK IN A SECOND. I DON'T
THINK THE COMMISSION IS
PARTICULARLY CONCERNED ABOUT TH
LOSS OF THE ALLEY. IN SOME WAYS
IT'S A REMNANT ALLEY THAT HAS
BEEN DIVIDED BY STEWART STREET
AS WELL AS A SIGNIFICANT
STRUCTURE THAT HOLDS UP A
PORTION OF DENNY WAY TO THE
SOUTH. SO I DON'T KNOW THAT THE
COMMISSION RAISED TOO MANY
CONCERNS ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF
THE VACATION RATHER AND IN
MARK'S PRESENTATION HE'LL SHOW
YOU I THINK SOME OF THE CONCERN
ABOUT SOME OF THE SOLUTIONS AND
WHO THEY'RE ACTUALLY REALLY
BENEFITING. WITH THAT I WILL
TOSS IT TO MARK.
>> THANK YOU, MICHAEL. THANK
YOU, CHAIR PEDERSEN AND LISH,
BEVERLY, FOR GETTING US ON THE
AGENDA. I KNOW THAT WAS A PACKE
DAY AND IT WAS INTERESTING TO
LISTEN TO VISION ZERO. I'M GOIN
TO BUILD ON A LITTLE BIT OF
THAT. AS MICHAEL MENTIONED
THERE'S SOME SIGNIFICANT
PEDESTRIAN THINGS WE CAN DO
HERE. I'LL INTRODUCE OUR TEAM.
I'LL LET BEN SAY SOMETHING. BEN
ROSENFELD IS OUR CLIENT AND THE
OWNER. AND THEN ALSO JOINED BY
KATIE KENDALL OUR LAND USE
ATTORNEY ON THE PROJECT. SHE'S
HERE AVAILABLE FOR QUESTIONS.
BEN, TELL US ABOUT PMB.
>> YEAH, THANK YOU SO MUCH,
MARK. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME
TODAY. PMB, WE'RE A HEALTHCARE
REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
WE'RE BASED OUT OF SAN DIEGO AN
PREDOMINANTLY FOCUSED TEXAS,
COLORADO AND WEST. BEING A
CONTINUUM OF CARE HEALTHCARE
DEVELOPERS, YOU KNOW, WE'RE
EXTREMELY EXCITED ABOUT THIS
PROJECT AND JUST BUILDING ON TH
MOMENTUM OF THE LIFE SCIENCES
INVESTMENT IN SOUTH LAKE UNION
AND SPECIFICALLY AT THIS SITE'S
LOCATION. LITTLE BIT ABOUT US.
WE'RE A PRIVATELY OWNED
BUSINESS. WE'RE LONG TERM
OWNERS. THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE
OUR ONLY INVESTMENT IN DOWNTOWN
SEATTLE. WE REALLY TAKE PRIDE I
LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS AND
THROUGH THE OUTREACH THAT WE'VE
DONE OR REALLY TRY TO BECOME
MEMBERS AND PARTNERS IN A
COMMUNITY AND WE THINK WE HAVE
FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY TO DO THA
HERE AND THE ALLEY VACATION WIL
HELP PRECIPITATE THE SORT OF
MAXIMUM BENEFIT THAT WE CAN
PROVIDE. I JUST WANT TO THANK
EVERYBODY FOR YOUR TIME AND I'L
TURN IT BACK OVER TO MARK AND
KATIE.
>> THANK YOU, BEN. I'M GOING TO
SHARE MY SCREEN NOW. ABOUT A
DOZEN SLIDES. THERE WE GO.
EVERYBODY SEE THAT? OKAY. SO IT
IS ONE OF THOSE LEFTOVER
TRIANGLES OF PROPERTY. IT'S A
COLLECTION OF PARCELS AS CHAIR
PEDERSEN MENTIONED, IT'S ONE
STORY BUILDINGS. THERE'S AN
ALLEY THAT BISECTS IT. IT IS TH
GATEWAY TO OUR CITY. IT'S REALL
IMPORTANT HERE THAT WE THINK
ABOUT THAT. A LOT OF FOLKS GET
OFF OF STEWART STREET EXIT AND
PASS REI WHICH IS A BIT OF A
LANDMARK AND PAST THIS
PARTICULAR SITE. SO TO DATE THI
IS IS A QUICK LOOK AT OUR
PROCESS. WE STARTED MID LAST
YEAR WITH PMB AND STARTED WITH
AN OUTREACH PLAN. BEEN MEETING
WITH SDOT, BEVERLY, MICHAEL AND
DESIGN COMMISSION MEMBERS HAVE
JOINED THE CONVERSATIONS OF THE
SUBCOMMITTEE BRIEFING SO WE HAV
EARLY GUIDANCE FROM THEM. I'LL
SHARE THAT WITH YOU. WE'VE BEEN
THROUGH OUR EDG MEETING. GOT AN
APPROVAL LAST NOVEMBER FROM
DESIGN REVIEW BOARD. SUBMITTED
PETITION AND THAT'S WHERE WE
SIT. WE'VE ALSO BEEN MEETING
WITH THE COMMUNITY. THIS IS AN
EMERGENT COMMUNITY HERE. IT'S A
THIS NEXUS. CAP HILL COMES DOWN
BY THE BRIDGE DECK. IT'S
EMERGING AND OUR COMMUNITY
MEETINGS WERE NOT WELL ATTENDED
BUT WE DID GET A GOOD MEETING I
WITH THE SOUTH LAKE UNION
COMMUNITY COUNCIL AND JUST
YESTERDAY HAD A REALLY GOOD
MEETING WITH YOUTH CARE. WE'RE
EXCITED ABOUT THAT. SO WE'LL
CONTINUE TO TRY TO FIND OTHER
COMMUNITY MEMBERS AS OUTREACH
THAT CAN PROVIDE MEANINGFUL
INPUT AND REALLY INFORM WHERE
WE'RE GOING HERE. SO NEXT STEP
IS GOING TO BE IN LATE APRIL
EARLY MAY WORKING WITH MIKE TOL
GET A DATE ON FOR OUR PUBLIC
TRUST URBAN DESIGN MERIT
MEETING. THEN WE'LL BE GOING
BACK TO THE DESIGN REVIEW BOARD
WITH THE DESIGN RECOMMENDATION
MEETING. GO BACK TO DESIGN
COMMISSION SOME TIME THIRD
QUARTER WITH A PUBLIC BENEFIT
PACKAGE PROPOSAL AND HOPEFULLY
GETTING RECOMMENDATION. BEFORE
YOUR BUDGET CYCLE. WE WOULD LOV
TO BE IN FRONT OF YOU FIRST
QUARTER NEXT YEAR ONE OF THE
FIRST THINGS ON YOUR AGENDA WIT
A FULL PROPOSAL AND SUBCOMMITTE
MEETING. OOPS. OKAY. SO, AGAIN,
OUTREACH IT'S BEEN MULTIPRONGED
I MENTIONED THE MAIN THING WE'R
FOCUSING ON HERE, WON'T SPEND A
LOT OF TIME ON THIS. REALLY THE
OUTREACH IS GOING TO FIND THE
COMMUNITY. YOUTHCARE WAS A
REALLY EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY.
OUTCOME OF THAT I'LL JUST FRAME
IT QUICKLY IS INITIAL MEETING
INTRODUCTION AND I THINK IF YOU
KNOW YOUTH CARE, THEY ARE REALL
FOCUSED IN ON THE UNHOUSED
HOMELESS POPULATION, YOUNG
ADULTS, TEENS AND PROVIDE THEM
WITH STABILITY AND THEY HAVE NE
FACILITIES GOING ON VERY
EXCITINGLY. THEY'VE GOT ONE
RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM US
ON DENNY WAY AND STEWART. AND I
THINK SOME REAL OPPORTUNITIES T
ENGAGE THEIR POPULATION IN OUR
PROJECT. SPECIFICALLY WE'RE
LOOKING AT ARTWORK AND WORKING
WITH URBAN ARTWORK AS A MEANS A
A PROCESS. SO THE VACATION AS
MICHAEL SAID, THIS IS AN ALLEY
THAT DOESN'T SERVE ANYBODY BUT
THIS BLOCK. IT TEES INTO THE
DENNY WAY BRIDGE DECK THEN COME
OUT ON A HEAVY ARTERIAL ON
STEWART. IT REALLY ONLY SERVICE
THE PARCELS THAT ARE OWNED BY
PMB. SO IT DOESN'T REALLY HAVE
LOT OF UTILITY. AND SO WE NEED
TO GO THROUGH THIS EXERCISE OF
IMPROVING PUBLIC TRUST. WE'RE
GOING TO FOCUS ON PEDESTRIAN
SAFETY. IT'S VERY INTERESTING
LISTENING TO VISION ZERO AND
COUNCIL'S FOCUS, SDOT'S. I THIN
WE'RE VERY MUCH FITTING INTO
THAT FOCUS IN ON PEDESTRIAN
SAFETY AND MAKING SIGNIFICANT
IMPROVEMENTS TO THIS BLOCK.
WE'VE GOT A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT
OF --
>> WELL SAID. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU
AUDIO CUT OFF. CAN YOUR PARTNER
STEP IN? BEN?
>> YEAH, I DEFINITELY CAN. I
DON'T HAVE THIS PRESENTATION ON
MY DESK TOP TO SHARE. HOLD ON
ONE SECOND. HOPEFULLY MARK CAN
COME BACK IN. BUT I'LL --
>> OKAY.
>> MARK, IF YOU CAN HEAR US YOU
AUDIO CUT OUT AND YOUR SCREEN
FROZE. BEN, IF YOU'RE NOT ABLE
TO GET THAT PRESENTATION WE DO
HAVE IT ONLINE AND COULD
PROBABLY PULL IT UP.
>> YEAH, I GOT IT.
>> OKAY. SO I'M GOING TO SHARE.
>> THANK YOU.
>> MY SCREEN. KATIE, WE CAN TA
TEAM THIS ONE. CAN EVERYBODY SE
MY SCREEN?
>> YES. GREAT. AND IF IT YOU
JUST GO TO SLIDE THREE I THINK
>> I THINK MARK WAS WRAPPING UP
THAT WE'VE DONE THE OUTREACH WE
CAN. WE HAD A PROMISING MEETING
WITH YOUTHCARE AND THE NEXT
STEPS FOR THAT, THEY WANTED TO
JUST CHEW ON OUR CURRENT PLAN
AND DESIGN AND THEN WE WERE
GOING TO HUDDLE UP ON WARES THA
WE COULD WORK TOGETHER IN TERMS
OF IMPLEMENTING THE ULTIMATE
DESIGN, AS WELL AS POTENTIAL FO
PROGRAMMING PARTNERSHIPS. AND
WE'LL CONTINUE TO DO OUTREACH
THROUGHOUT THE PROCESS.
>> DO YOU WANT ME TO TAKE THIS?
>> YEAH, GO AHEAD.
>> GREAT. AS MARK WAS STARTING
TO DISCUSS AND I THINK HOW WELL
DOES THE ALLEY WORK NOW AND WHA
ARE THE THINGS WE DID DO TO
IMPROVE THE SITUATION. AND THE
INTERSECTION AT STEWART AND
DENNY IN PARTICULAR IS NOT
PARTICULARLY SAFE RIGHT NOW. IT
DOES NOT CREATE A GOOD CONDITIO
AND ONE OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE
ALLEY VACATION WOULD IMPROVE
THIS AND CREATE A WELCOMING
PLAZA AT THIS GATEWAY AT STEWAR
AND DENNY. WHEN MARK'S ABLE TO
GET BACK ON HE CAN TALK IN MORE
DETAIL ABOUT THIS. THE ALLEY
ITSELF IS ABOUT MID BLOCK ON
THIS KIND OF HALF BLOCK HERE.
IT'S REALLY AWKWARD AND TO ALLO
THE VACATION WOULD CREATE A
GREAT PUBLIC SPACE AND ENTRIES
ALONG WITH THE PUBLIC
IMPROVEMENTS -- THE PUBLIC REAL
IMPROVEMENTS ALONG STEWART AND
LOWER DENNY AS WELL WHICH CAN
GET DARK AND NOT PARTICULARLY
WELCOMING.
>> RIGHT.
>> BEN, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU
WANTED TO ADD THERE?
>> NO. NO.
>> OKAY.
>> SO THIS WAS JUST ANOTHER SIT
CONTACT MAP I THINK WE HAD IT O
THE FIRST SLIDE HERE. JUST
REMINDING EVERYONE IT'S LOCATED
AT THE INTERSECTION OF TWO
GRIDS. SOUTH LAKE UNION AND
DENNY TRIANGLE NEIGHBORHOODS
MEET AT THE I-5. AS YOU CAN SEE
IT CREATES THIS AWKWARD
TRIANGULAR BLOCK FRAGMENT. THEN
THIS SLIDE HERE IS JUST SORT OF
DISCUSSES, YOU KNOW, THE
EXISTING ALLEY NETWORK AND IT
SORT OF STANDS ALONE AND IT'S I
PERSONALS OF SERVING ACTUALLY A
A THOROUGHFARE AS YOU CAN SEE
HERE IN THE PINK HERE NEAR THE
REI CAMPUS, THIS WAS ALREADY A
VACATED ALLEY AND OURS WAS AN
EXTENSION. WHEN THE DENNY
OVERCROSSING CAME ON IT KIND OF
DEVELOPED THIS ALLEY THAT REALL
DOESN'T SERVE ANY FUNCTION,
ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU COMPARE IT
TO EXISTING ALLEYS THAT CONNECT
THROUGH STREETS HERE. THAT
CONDITION DOES NOT EXIST AT THI
SITE.
>> I'M BACK. I APOLOGIZE. WE
LOST INTERNET IN OUR BUILDING.
SO I'LL RETAKE THE SCREEN THERE
AGAIN WITH APOLOGIES.
>> LET'S PLEASE KEEP GOING.
>> OKAY. SO I THINK BEN YOU
MIGHT HAVE COVERED, AGAIN, THE
ALLEY POSITION AND STUFF. I'M
GOING TO GO TO THE PLAN HERE.
THE PROPOSED PLAN WITH THE
VACATION. WE'VE GOT A GROUND
FLOOR THAT IS ACTIVATING STEWAR
STREET WITH RETAIL LOBBY SPACE.
ONE OF THE BIG THINGS WITH
PEDESTRIAN SAFETY WE'RE
CONSOLIDATING ALL OF THE
VEHICULAR ENTRIES AND PUSHING I
ON TO EAST LAKE. THE WORKING
SIDE OF THE BUILDING THAT'S
TRASH, RECYCLE, LOADING AND
PARKING. EVERYTHING GOES INTO
ONE DRIVEWAY. SO REALLY CHEAPIN
ALL OF THAT. YOU SEE COMMENTS O
HERE FROM DESIGN COMMISSION,
SUBCOMMITTEE WITH MICHAEL.
REALLY FOCUSING IN ON PEDESTRIA
SAFETY SO THEY WANTED TO KNOW
HOW DOES THE BUILDING HOW PUBLI
IT CAN FEEL. PUBLIC, PRIVATE. D
YOU REALLY FEEL LIKE YOU'RE
INVITED INTO A SPACE OR YOU
GOING TO BE OTHERRED OUT IT
HAVE. WE HAVE A DECK THAT'S SET
UP -- IT'S AN OUTDOOR AREA FOR
THE RETAIL SPACE TO SPILL OUT O
TO. IT IS PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE.
WE'RE VERY FOCUSED ON THE
SIDEWALK SPACE TOO. AS PEOPLE
USE IT AS A CONNECTION, WE'RE
TRYING TO STRENGTHEN THAT
PEDESTRIAN NETWORK. CLEANING UP
THE CORNER OF STEWART AND DENNY
WHERE THE BRIDGE DECK COMES DOW
AND KEY PART OF THAT IS
RELOCATING THE DRIVEWAY WHICH
YOU SEE ON SCREEN AND CREATING
JUST THAT, A DRIVEWAY. NOT A
CURB OR TURN AS A STREET. THIS
IS OFF THE ADVICE AND GUIDANCE
OF SDOT. THEY WANT US TO CLOSE
IT DOWN TO EMERGENCY VEHICLES,
MAINTENANCE FOR SDOT AND
BUILDING MAINTENANCE. PMB
WOULDN'T EVEN GET ACCESS FOR
CARS. THAT WOULD GET PUSHED OVE
TO EAST LAKE. SO IT'S VERY MUCH
FOCUSING ON THE PEDESTRIAN. WHA
ITS ROLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS
AND THAT'S WHAT WE'RE WORKING O
RIGHT NOW. A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT
OF LANDSCAPE AND WHAT WE'RE
BUILDING HERE IS A STORM WATER
CONCEPT AND REALLY FOCUSING ON
THE HEALTH OF LAKE UNION AND TH
WATER QUALITY. SO WE'RE THINKIN
IF THINGS EVEN LANGUAGE HOW MUC
STREET WATER CAN WE TAKE AND
PUSH INTO THESE LARGE STORM
WATER QUALITY FACILITIES THAT
ALSO PROVIDE BEAUTIFICATION OF
THIS ENTRANCE INTO THE CITY.
THEN LASTLY, AND THIS IS AN
ACTIVE, VERY ACTIVE CONVERSATIO
WITH SDOT ARE THE BICYCLE
FACILITIES. THERE'S A PROJECT B
KING COUNTY NORTH JUST OFF THE
SCREEN. THEY'RE PARTING THAT OU
AS PART OF MITIGATION FOR
ANOTHER PROJECT. CONNECTS INTO
THE THOMAS STREET GREENWAY. PAR
OF THIS PROCESS IS COMPARING AN
THE FIRST STEP AND THE PETITION
AND ALSO ON THE PUBLIC TRUST IS
TO COMPARE VACATION, NO
VACATION. ON THE LEFT IS THE NO
VACATION SCHEME IT SHOWS YOU CA
SEE THE HINT. NO OPEN SPACE
REQUIREMENTS. PARCEL B DOES.
IT'S MINIMAL. LIKELY WE WOULD
PUT THAT ON TO EAST LAKE AND IT
WOULD BECOME SOME SORT OF DROP
OFF SPACE AS WELL. ON THE RIGHT
IS THE VACATION SCHEME. YOU GET
A SIGNIFICANT MORE LANDSCAPE
THAT IS VISUALLY AND PHYSICALLY
CONNECTED TO THE PUBLIC REALM.
AND PLAN VIEW, NO VACATION
SCHEME IT IS ON THE LEFT. YOU
CAN SEE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OPE
SPACE. THE ALLEY REALLY IS A
SERVICE CORRIDOR AND IN THIS
CASE IT WOULD SERVE AS LOADING
AND PARKING ACCESS POINTS.
FAIRLY CONSTRAINED. WOULD REALL
BE A ONE WAY LOOP USING THAT
LOWER DENNY. PLAN ON THE RIGHT
IS VACATION SCHEME. YOU CAN SEE
THE SIGNIFICANT LANDSCAPE OPEN
SPACE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC
WHEN WE'RE ABLE TO SHAPE THAT
BUILDING AND PULL IT BACK FROM
STEWART AND REALLY FOCUS IN ON
THE PEDESTRIAN REALM. AND THESE
ARE KIND OF TOUGH TO SEE, BUT
THEY'RE GHOSTED IN AND IT'S
REALLY AT THE TOP LINES ARE FRO
THE CORNER LOOKING BACK UP
CAPITOL HILL. LOOKING DOWN FROM
CAPITOL HILL. YOU CAN GET THE
IDEA OF THE SCALE OF THE
BUILDINGS. AND THIS IS A PUBLIC
BENEFIT PACKAGE. KEPT THIS HIGH
LEVEL BECAUSE WE'RE EARLY DAYS
AND IT'S HARD TO GET INTO A LOT
OF DETAIL ON THIS. LOT OF THESE
ARE FOCUSING ON PEDESTRIAN
SAFETY. THE LOWER DENNY WAY,
URBAN CURBLESS STREET WHICH IS
WITHIN OUR MANUAL. OUR STREETS
ILLUSTRATED ALLOWS US TO DO
THIS. RESTRICTING CARS TO JUST
EMERGENCY VEHICLES AND
MAINTENANCE AND REALLY FOCUSING
ON PEOPLE. CLEANING UP THAT NOS
THAT CROSSING AT STEWART AND
DENNY IS PARCEL WITH THAT LOWER
DENNY WAY. REMOVING THAT
DRIVEWAY AND RESTRICTING ACCESS
IS IMPORTANT TO THAT. MIDDLE ON
IS ABOUT ARTWORK. ON THE BRIDGE
AND ON THE ACTUAL PODIUM OF THE
BUILDING. THINKING ABOUT THIS I
ALL THESE VERTICAL SURFACES
WHERE YOU CAN REALLY ANIMATE A
SPACE. MAYBE PEOPLE DON'T WANT
TO HANG OUT IN LOWER DENNY BUT
LEST MAKE IT THE BEST SPACE
POSSIBLE AND THERE IS DISCUSSIO
ABOUT HOW WE MAYBE AFFECT THE
UNDERSIDE OF THE BRIDGE. EAST
LAKE AVENUE THE BIKE
IMPROVEMENTS I MENTIONED SO
WE'LL EXTEND THOSE AND OUR
FRONTAGE, THEY'RE NOT REQUIRED
BUT WE'RE THINKING ABOUT HOW WE
COULD EXTEND THOSE TO MEET OTHE
IMPROVEMENTS THAT THE SDOT IS
IDENTIFYING. LAST ONE IS
CONTRIBUTING TO OUR SEAMLESS
SEATTLE WAY FINDING PACKAGE. WE
THINK THERE'S SIGNS THAT DESERV
MERIT AND COULD BE PLACED AT
KILO CASES FOR PEDESTRIANS. I'M
GOING TO STOP THERE. I THINK
THAT'S THE END OF OUR
PRESENTATION. I'LL OPEN FUN FOR
QUESTIONS.
>> CAN YOU GO BACK TO THE PUBLI
BENEFITS SLIDE?
>> YEAH, SURE.
>> I KNOW WE'RE GOING TO END
THIS SHORTLY. PEOPLE HAVE -- I
KNOW EVERYBODY HAS NOON
APPOINTMENTS HERE. BUT REAL
QUICK SO THIS IS WHAT WE'LL BE
FOCUSING IN ON I THINK AS PUBLI
OFFICIALS SEEING WHAT THE PUBLI
BENEFITS ARE AND SO I KNOW I'LL
BE CHECKING IN I'LL ALSO BE
INTERESTED IN HEARING
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM SDOT OR
CENTRAL STAFF ON ADDITIONAL
PUBLIC BENEFITS THAT WE COULD
SEE ABOUT. PERHAPS THIS WOULD B
A GOOD TIME TO NOTE DOESN'T THI
PROJECT HAVE TO PAY IN TO A
MANDATORY HOUSING AFFORDABLE AN
IF SO DO WE HAVE AN ESTIMATED
CALCULATION OF DOLLAR AMOUNT?
MAYBE THAT'S A QUESTION FOR
CENTRAL STAFF.
>> IT WAS PROBABLY A QUESTION
FOR KATIE KENDALL.
>> THIS WILL PAY IN TO MHA AND
WILL GET YOU A NUMBER HERE IN A
SECOND.
>> OKAY. WHILE YOU'RE DOING
THAT, AN ESTIMATE OF THAT, JUST
SO WE HAVE SOME SENSE OF THE
SCALE. I KNOW THAT'S SEPARATE
THAN THE TRADITIONAL PUBLIC
BENEFIT, IT'S A REQUIREMENT THA
YOU PAY MHA BUT IT'S GOOD FOR U
TO HEAR THAT CONTEXT. THIS IS A
RESEARCH FACILITY IS HOW THIS I
LABELED. DO WE HAVE ANY THOUGHT
ON WHAT WILL BE RESEARCHED? OR
WHO WILL BE YOUR TENANTS?
>> YEAH, SO THIS WILL SERVE AS
SPECULATIVE BUILDING THAT WILL
BE FOR TENANTS THAT ARE
EXPANDING THROUGH THE EXISTING
RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS IN THE
AREA. IT'LL BE AN R&D FACILITY.
LIKELY 60% PERCENT, 40% SPLIT
BETWEEN LAB AND OFFICE. WE DO
NOT HAVE ANY SPECIFIC TENANTS
LINED UP. VARIOUS THERAPEUTICS
COMING OUT OF THOSE
INSTITUTIONS.
>> AND IS THERE ANY ABILITY TO
-- DO WE KNOW WHAT'S GOING TO
HAPPEN TO THOSE SMALL BUSINESS
TENANTS THAT ARE GOING TO BE
DISPLACED? ARE THEY STILL
OPERATING TODAY?
>> YEAH. A.
>> YEAH, SO WE ARE WORKING WITH
BOTH OF THE OWNERS AND I DON'T
KNOW WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR
THE AUTO SHOP. I DO KNOW THAT
I'M WORKING WITH OWNERSHIP ARE
VERY INTERESTED IN ACTIVELY
LOOKING FOR A FUTURE HOME.
PLANNING TO START, EARLY NEXT
YEAR. SO, YOU KNOW, THERE'S
NOTHING IMMEDIATELY PRESSING IN
TERMS OF RELOCATION. WILL BE
KIND OF BUSINESS A USUAL FOR
THOSE FOLKS. BUT WE'RE ACTIVELY
COMMUNICATING AND I KNOW IN AT
LEAST ONE INSTANCE THERE'S A
PLAN TO RELOCATE.
>> GREAT. WE REALLY APPRECIATE
THAT. I KNOW WE'LL SO FOCUSED O
WHAT'S GOING TO BE THERE BUT I
JUST WANT TO GIVE SOME TIME FOR
WHO MIGHT BE DISPLACED AND IN
THE UNIVERSITY DISTRICT WHERE
THERE'S A LOT OF DEVELOPMENT I
KNOW THE BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT
AREA IS PRETTY ACTIVE IN HELPIN
THOSE WHO ARE DISPLACED FIND NE
SPACE. THERE ARE LOTS OF EMPTY
STORE FRONTS THROUGHOUT THE CIT
SO THERE CAN BE A GOOD MARRIAGE
OF, YOU KNOW, THE NEED THERE
WITH THE SMALL BUSINESS BEING
DISPLACED WITH EMPTY STORE
FRONTS ELSEWHERE WHO ARE LOOKIN
FOR TENANTS. COLLEAGUES, AND DI
WE GET THE MHA ESTIMATE? IS IT
ABOUT $4 MILLION?
>> IT'S AROUND $4 MILLION. IT'S
A LITTLE LESS. IT'S A LITTLE
OVER THREE AND A HALF AND
THERE'S ALSO CHILD CARE PAYMENT
IN THIS ZONE AS WELL WHICH ARE
ABOUT HALF A MILLION.
>> OKAY. THANK YOU. COLLEAGUES,
ANY COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS ON
THIS EARLY BRIEFING? OKAY. WELL
REALLY APPRECIATE YOU ALL COMIN
HERE TO EXPLAIN THIS PROJECT AN
IT'S ALWAYS GREAT TO HAVE
BEVERLY BARNETT AND MICHAEL
JENKINS AND OTHERS HERE. LISH,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR MEMO.
COLLEAGUES, THAT WAS OUR LAST
ITEM ON THE AGENDA. APPRECIATE
YOU STAYING LATE TODAY AND
THERE'S NO FURTHER COMMENTS OR
QUESTIONS THIS MEETING IS
ADJOURNED. SO THIS CONCLUDES TH
MARCH 7, 2022 MEETING OF THE
TRANSPORTATION PUBLIC UTILITIES
COMMITTEE. THE NEXT MEETING WIL
BE TUESDAY, MARCH 21st. THANK
YOU. WE ARE DOUBLY ADJOURNED.
ALL RIGHT. BYE.
>> THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.