Time is Running Out to Tell the City of Shoreline to Scale Back their Massive Rezoning Plans for the 185th St Area

Please Attend this Important Meeting

If you’ve been meaning to write to the City or attend a public meeting, now is the time. There are three public meetings left between now and February 23, 2015, which is the date that City Council will make their final decisions on land use regulation and zoning changes for the 185th St Area. The most important meeting of these three is the Planning Commission PUBLIC HEARING which takes place tomorrow, Thursday, January 15, 2015, 7-9pm at the City Council Chambers. This is one of the last meetings to make your voice heard in person, but even if you aren’t comfortable speaking, your presence at this meeting is still very important.

Please Write to the City of Shoreline and Demand that these Plans be Scaled Back

If you’re unable to attend these meetings, please consider writing to your City Councilmembers, members of the City Planning Commission, or all of the above. You can send an email, mail in a letter, or drop off a letter in person at the City Hall. Every voice is important, whether you’ve lived in Shoreline your whole life or recently moved here.

Planning Commission: http://shorelinewa.gov/government/departments/planning-community-development/planning-commission
City Council: http://shorelinewa.gov/government/shoreline-city-council/contact-the-city-council

Deadlines to Act for Each Station Area
One of the confusing things about this planning process is the differing schedules for the 185th Light Rail Station Area and the 145th Light Rail Station Area. The 185th Area Planning Process is on the schedule to be concluded first, in about a month, and the 145th Area Planning Process will conclude in June 2015. The walls are closing in on the 185th St Area deadline.

Join the Shoreline Preservation Society Mailing List
Bookmark this website and join the mailing list. https://preserveshoreline.wordpress.com/
Also, mark your calendar for this upcoming Community Forum on 01/21/15, sponsored by the Shoreline Preservation Society: https://preserveshoreline.wordpress.com/new-page-4/
“We have many questions that must be answered. Why is Shoreline in a rush to do this to our neighborhoods? What will be the impacts to traffic throughout the City? What will be the impacts on our parks, wildlife habitat, trees, schools, utilities, and more? Who will pay for all these impacts? Hear from Utilities and Land Use Experts and The City on how this will affect our neighborhoods. Wednesday, January 21, 2015. Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Church, 14724 1st Ave NE, Shoreline, WA 98155.”

Peeling Away the Layers of a Rotten Onion
… pretty much sums up the fact-finding in reviewing the documentation and videos from the beginning of this Planning Process for the 185th St Station Area, especially this sham of a “Public Outreach Process”. The City, with much self-adulation, has described their public outreach process as “excellent”, “robust”, and “above and beyond”. So why is it that people who live within the boundaries of the 185th St Subarea, which extends WAY BEYOND a half-mile radius of the future station, still have no idea about the aggressive scale of these rezoning plans?

The mailed postcards, the articles in Currents Newsletter, the information on the City website prior to the first wave of public outrage in September has been VAGUE and MISLEADING. And what’s most misleading of all? The billboard on 185th and I-5, which states: “As light rail service begins, SOME land uses surrounding the station area COULD POSSIBLY transition to mixed use development and a greater variety of housing choices. This will likely occur incrementally over decades.”
“As light rail service begins” does not match up to Feb 2015…. about a 9 year descrepency there.

Who Knew that Light Rail Stations and High-Density Urban Villages were a Package Deal?
Apparently, the powers that be would like you to know that you can’t have one without the other. Would you have voted for the ST2 plan back in 2008, knowing what you know now about the mandatory makeovers to massive Urban Villages from quiet, established, single-family residential neighborhoods? Another term for these high-density, tall as possible, combined commercial and residential use zones is called “Transit Oriented Development”. Which isn’t a bad concept in itself, but when one of the leading experts on the subject states, “You don’t want to go into established single-family, middle-income neighborhoods and attempt to spawn Transit Oriented Development,“ what does that say about the competancy of the Planners involved in the Shoreine station areas? http://its.berkeley.edu/btl/2012/spring/tod
The 145th/185th station areas of Shoreline are not abandoned industrial areas like Portland’s Pearl District, or stagnant, run-down commercial zones, or depressed, existing, high-density urban areas, or vast open spaces, which TOD is better geared toward. The City’s first Transit Oriented Development project is at the South End of Echo Lake and Aurora. Those buildings didn’t take 80-100 years to appear. If you believe the City’s ill-conceived spiel about the 185th St Subarea Plan taking 80-100 years to be fully built out to what they envision, I have a bridge to sell you. Can you picture buildings of that height and bulk all around the future station site and lining 185th from 15th Ave NE all the way to Aurora?

And Speaking of that Bridge I’ve got to Sell You…
The City is estimating (and I use the term loosely) that the Preferred Alternative 185th St Subarea Plan will take 80-100 years to be fully built out. There are are far too many unknowns and variables to plan that far in advance and to take such drastic measures as to change the zoning from 0 to 60 is utterly foolish. Responsible and intellgent planning should include the next 25 years with stops along the way every 5 years to review what been done and adjust planning accordingly. Even the Growth Management Act requires that, “Local comprehensive plans are to be reviewed and updated every seven years.” The City’s proposed Phase 1 of the rezoning plan is a joke and looks to be about 80% of the size of the total subarea. What’s the point of having a Phase 1 if it’s practically the whole area anyways? Residents in North City have reported receiving multiple inquiries from developers interested in buying up their houses…. months before final zoning changes take place. There are cranes all over Downtown, Capitol Hill, U-District, Ballard, Wallingford, and Roosevelt. The Ballard Urban Village reached its targeted growth for 2024, 3 times bigger, 10 years early. http://livableballard.org/ All indications in other parts of our area point toward out of control growth and our City Planners have no plan in this larger scheme (which so much time and resources have been poured into) to control growth and ensure that growth is responsible and that growth occurs intelligently. Throwing the dice, crossing your fingers, and leaving it up to “market forces” is not responsible or prudent planning.

There’s High-Density Popping up all over Shoreline. How Much is Enough?
From the City Manager’s Report: http://www.shorelineareanews.com/2014/12/shoreline-city-managers-report-week-of.html
“1. the Potala Apartments located in the Westminster (Denny) Triangle for 320 units,
2. the Arabella 2 apartments reapplication located on NE 180th St. for 107 units (just west of Arabella 1 apartments
3. the Sunrise Apartments at 20015 Ballinger Way with 60 units. All of the developments will have underground parking.“
Then, there’s Point Wells at Richmond Beach, a possible new complex a block or so North of City Hall, the Ronald Commons to be built behind the Ronald Methodist Church next to the Cadillac dealership on Aurora, the City’s first Microhousing complex which is going in where the Taboo Video used to be. Microhousing is still on the table as something that could be allowed in the station subareas. Where is it going to end? Is the City going to start making exceptions to allow high-density in neighborhoods outside of the station areas? Who knows? Everyone needs to be vigilant from now on, no matter where you live in the City.

If you thought 7 Story buildings were alarming, how about 14 Story buildings?
Wow… we didn’t know we had it so good back when there was only the possibility of 7 Story Buildings! In peeling the back the layers of this rotten onion, it was discovered that redevelopment to the scale of MUR-140 – 14 Stories may be approved with a developer agreement through the City in the 185th Station Area. How misleading is it to publish a map, label the 7 Story ‘turquoise’ zone as such, when in actually there’s a possbility to build to a much higher density.

Possible 5 year timeline before single-family residences are converted to ‘legal non-conforming’ in the MUR-85 (Turquoise) Zone.
https://soundoffshoreline.wordpress.com/2014/12/12/are-you-in-the-mur-85-zone-your-rights-and-options-as-a-homeowner-are-going-away-in-5-years/

Real Environmental Impacts…
Redevelopment in the MUR-85 (Turquoise) Zone may be exempt from Tree Retention requirements: https://soundoffshoreline.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/proposed-mur-85-zones-to-be-exempt-from-tree-retention-requirements/
What’s not being taken into consideration here is the real environmental impacts. What’s the carbon cost of cutting down one of these tall evergreen trees? What about the displaced wildlife? There are known problems with drainage in these areas… what happens with the trees that help support the drainage system are gone? What happens to the noise levels in neighborhoods near the I-5 after trees that used to help muffle the sound are removed and replaced with tall buildings that will actually amplify noise? What happens to our air quality when the trees are gone that used to improve air quality? What’s the environmental impact of disposing of torn down houses? What the impact of new building materials, transport of, and contruction? The list of approved trees in the City right-of-way was recently updated. Guess what’s no longer on the list? Evergreen and conifer trees. So basically, if you have a beautiful tall tree in front of your house and the City decides to build a sidewalk, that tree most likely will not be preserved. If the City needs to widen any road to accommodate this barrage of traffic that the station and high-density housing is going to bring, say goodbye to any tree that’s not on the approved right-of-way list and maybe some that are on the list. Tree City USA, indeed!

Speaking of Widening Roads, New Roads, Alleys, and Paths…
The City said that they may need to use eminent domain for roadway, sidewalks, bicycle lane, or traffic lane improvements. There has been talk of requiring alleys for new development along 185th St. What if the new development is not on a corner lot? Is the City going to eminent domain private property to accommodate new alleys and access ways? There has been talk that the blocks in the 185th St Area are “too long” and these blocks are “evil superblocks” and must have more cut throughs for cars and pedestrians. What does that mean for possible future private property takings? http://www.shorelineareanews.com/2014/09/city-will-not-use-eminent-domain-to.html

What Are Community Renewal Area Laws?
Sounds like a nice enough idea, right? Guess again. http://www.atg.wa.gov/uploadedFiles/Home/News/Press_Releases/2010/CRL.pdf Community Renewal Area is a “nice” way of saying eminent domain. Sound Transit could possibly “acquire” over 100 residential properties in the City of Shoreline alone for the Light Rail line, stations, and parking structures, according to their DEIS. The Market Assessment that was prepared for the City of Shoreline in regards to “help” plan the Station areas mentions the following about Community Renewal Areas: “To the extent the City is able or willing to undertake land assembly, it could increase developer interest in the area. Strategies that the City could consider to enhance development potential and facilitate site assembly could include creation of a Community Renewal Area, if the required blight standard can be met. Minimum or contingent zoning that only provides density for infill TOD-type development once a certain parcel size has been achieved (e.g. one acre or more) could enhance interested neighbors in working with each other to facilitate site assembly.” http://shorelinewa.gov/home/showdocument?id=15888

We Just Didn’t Fall off the Turnip Truck
An awful lot of time, effort, and resources have gone into planning to dissaude any resistance or opposition to these overly aggressive rezoning plans.

From the beginning, the public has been told, change is coming, it’s inevitable, so you’d better be obedient and not try to fight it. Well, we’re not obedient, we’re not sedate, and more and more people are waking up and are seeing clearly through the facade that has been painted by the powers that be.

Questioning haphazard plans does not make you a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard).

Demanding that these plans be scaled back does not mean that you’re anti-progress or anti-change.

Demanding that our neighborhoods not be flipped into Urban Villages does not mean that you’re anti-transit.

I don’t buy into the ‘Smart Growth’ ideology. Let’s talk ‘Intelligent Growth’ and demand nothing less.

Demand that developers be required to pay their fair share for impacts, utilities, and infrastructure improvements, instead of receiving incentives and property tax exemptions.

Demand that the zoning and land use plans be scaled back to a reasonable level.

Demand that growth be controlled and monitored and managed responsibly.

Demand that the tree canopy in these areas not be destroyed.

Demand more transparancy. Demand that the planning commission meetings, meetings of subcommittees, citizen committees all be filmed and available on he City website with existing granicus technology, just as they do in other progressive cities.

Demand that historical data about problem drainage areas, flooding, and lots with high water tables be included in the subarea plans as areas unsuitable for large footprint development.

Demand that no part of the Station Subareas be deemed as “Community Renewal Areas” at any point in the future.

Demand that Sound Transit stay true to their word in that they will not take more private property than is necessary for construction of the light rail lines, stations, and parking structures. Demand that they do not take more than they need, only to dispose of surplus property later on at a profit for development that is out of scale for this area.