Suspect arrested in Shannon Harps Capitol Hill stabbing

From KING 5 TV:

• Washington State Patrol crime lab that they found a DNA match to 48-year-old James Anthony Williams
• Detectives believe Williams and Harps did not know each other.
• Police say Williams was already in the King County Jail for a probation violation.
• He was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in 1995 for first-degree assault. Williams had a brief conversation with a man at a bus stop in Seattle, then pulled out a gun and shot the man twice in the hand.
• In 2007, Williams was arrested three times for violating his probation.

From a Slog posting comment:

He will not stand trial. He's already been declared mentally unfit to stand trial in lesser case, what makes you think he won't get off by reason of insanity for this?

From the Seattle Times:

• long history of paranoid schizophrenia
• Williams voluntarily provided a DNA sample that night
• detectives went looking for him when that sample later matched DNA found at the crime scene.
  
• he was already in jail on an unrelated probation-violation charge.
• Williams was on medication and was receiving care at Sound Mental Health
• In December, the home address listed for the suspect was on Summit Avenue (maybe not the "Summit Inn": see below)
• Williams has a severe history of mental illness
• has been involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospitals in Texas and Arkansas
• He resisted medications after claiming he was turned into a monkey after receiving Haldol at a Texas hospital.
• In 1989, he told a psychiatrist in Arkansas that, "God tells me to 'put people up' which means he wants me to shoot bad people."

The Seattle P-I has lots more about the suspect and knives. KOMO TV gave his address as the Curben Hotel on Summit. There have been concerns with the Curben Hotel in the past. Note that he'd moved there after the murder. See KOMO report: " Police arrested Williams at his room at the Curben Hotel on Summit Avenue in Capitol Hill, where he had reportedly been staying since Jan. 4". (Thanks, Seadevi, for pointing that out)

So, where does that leave us? DNA evidence pretty clearly implicates a very deranged man, who was probably both living and receiving treatment in an area of Capitol Hill which has been long known for its high concentration of social services. We are all aware of assorted deranged individuals in the area, whom we tend to assume are harmless.

We obviously need (but may never see) more details of his evaluation and treatment, and of the rationale for letting him live amongst us, rather than in a secure environment. And it would be good to know how many more people with similar diagnoses are living amongst us. Maybe the issue of the impacts of social services on our lives would be a topic for the January 31st Capitol Hill Community Council meeting.

One solution might be a truly secure long-term psychiatric hospital, similar to Broadmoor Hospital in England. (I don't know if Western State has such facilities: we seem to leave custody of dangerously insane people to the prison service, and hence they get released at the end of their sentence. Yes, I know this is a slippery slope).

Find out more: try this Google search, and this Capitol Hill Triangle post.


View Larger Map

Capitol Hill Community Council Revival?

Many thanks to all of you who wrote wanting to be part of a reinvigorated Capitol Hill Community Council. I heard from several previous Council officers: their explanatory remarks and offers of support are appended below. Looks like we need some sort of hybrid between the old type of "meet in a room every month" Council and the various electronic forums that are proliferating in our neighborhoods.

I propose that we gather in the meeting room at the Capitol Hill Library ( 425 Harvard Ave E., behind the QFC on Broadway) from 6 to 8 PM on Wednesday January 30th or Thursday January 31st ( date to be decided by VOTING HERE by Jan 22nd ) and decide how to proceed.

Addendum (1/19/08): Meeting will be Thursday Jan. 31st.


click image for readable version

The meeting will be publicized by the usual blogs and E-mail lists. The Capitol Hill Times hopes to do an article about the Community Council in its January 23rd issue (and I will send a meeting announcement for the January 30th issue). That should help get the word out to those without ready computer access (as can you by word of mouth).

There is a Discussion Board for the Community Council (kindly set up by Justin) that we can use to post/exchange ideas ahead of the meeting. BTW here's the old Council website (for background), here are the council bylaws and here are some thoughts from the CHS blog.

Notes from Community Council Officers

I'm willing to do what I can to help reinitiate things. I'm really pressed for time so I can't lead but I'm totally willing to share any insight, information -- and of course records as I have the CHCC's filing cabinet at my house.

Ann Donovan

********************

From Phil Mocek

In case you don't already know: the Community Council still exists but is on hiatus -- not dead, just hibernating. All it should take to revive it is leadership and public participation. There is still a bank account, and I assume we're incorporated. When Ann Donovan stepped down after many years of hard work building the organization, no one who was willing to step up could be found. I am technically the secretary, as I agreed to take the position shortly before we decided to stop holding monthly meetings a couple years ago (because hardly anyone -- sometimes no one besides officers -- showed up for them). I think Catherine Brumbaugh is the treasurer, and Gary Clark may still be vice-president. None of this means much, as we have been inactive since the last election, and we're surely operating (I use that loosely) outside the by-laws by now.

I've thought for some time that someday the Community Council should come back in a more Web-based form. There was a time when a big face-to-face meeting was the best way to disseminate neighborhood-level information and to facilitate discussion of neighborhood issues by neighbors. Nowadays, it's difficult to convince people to stop whatever they're doing and go to a meeting to get some information that they could just as well read from a mailing list or find on the Web. Obviously there are some advantages to face-to-face interaction, but it's probably not needed on a monthly basis.

I registered the capitolhillcommunitycouncil.org and capitolhillseattle.org Internet domains a couple years ago in case something like this were to develop. I also have a Web hosting account that allows me to use more storage and data transfer than I'll ever need, and my Web host makes it very simple to set up all kinds of Web-based software -- blogs, forums, wikis, etc. This could be used to get something rolling with the intention of handing it all over to CHCC sometime in the future.

Due to a drastic change in my work situation last year and having bitten off more than I can chew, I'm overextended as it is, and already feeling guilty about not devoting as much effort as I think I should to the Neighborhood Plan Stewardship Council (I'm the current president, somewhat by default, as I'm a terrible leader) and the new Chamber of Commerce (I'm on the board of directors). I'm willing to try to help some, especially if that mostly involves providing some initial technical assistance.

******************

I agree with Phil's comments. Meetings per se don't really work much of the time and the internet is an alternative. Plus, I'm currently on several local non-profit boards of directors and I'm committed--as I hope you all are--to sweeping the Republicans at all levels under the bridge in November. But I would come to meetings as time allows.

Gary Clark

Neighborhood Safety Forum

Dear East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition and Capitol Hill Neighbors,

In response to the tragic homicide of Capitol Hill resident Shannon Harps on New Year's Eve, we are conducting a neighborhood safety forum to offer community members the opportunity to respond to the incident and discuss neighborhood safety. The police will be present at this forum to provide updates regarding this particular case as well as safety advice. The forum will be facilitated by Stephanie Tschida, EPCPC Chair and SPD East Precinct Lieutenant John Hayes.

When: Tuesday, January 8, 2008 at 6:00 PM

Where: Group Health Capitol Hill Campus, South Building , Level A, Atrium
201 16th Ave East , Seattle WA 98112

Parking is available in the Group Health Parking Garage on Denny Way , just off of 15th Ave. S. If you are parking in the garage take the elevator to level A. If you are walking, enter the Group Health South Building off of 15th or 16th Ave , near Denny Way , and take the stairs or the elevator down to level A.

Driving/walking directions to the campus: http://www.ghc.org/locations/medcenters/3/capitolhill_directions.jhtml

This forum is open to the public, so please attend to share your questions, concerns and ideas. Personal safety information and resources will be provided.

For questions regarding this forum, please contact Mike Yasutake, SPD East Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinator, 206.684.7717 or michael.yasutake@seattle.gov.


Kindest Regards,

Sita DeGiulio Das
East & Southeast Program Coordinator
Seattle Neighborhood Group
1810 East Yesler Way
Seattle , WA 98122-5748
206.323.9666
206.322.9330 (Direct Line)
sita@sngi.org
www.sngi.org

Capitol Hill: Community Meeting; Online Forum

The tragic stabbing murder on 15th Ave on New Year's Eve highlighted the lack of an active (physical) neighborhood organization on Capitol Hill for people to turn to. The CHS blog and I were both contacted by the media, and the blog saw lots of people seeking information.

The Capitol Hill Community Council used to represent neighborhood interests, but presently exists only as an E-mail list. The East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition and the East Precinct's new Community Crime Prevention Coordinator (Mike Yasutake (206) 684-7717, michael.yasutake@seattle.gov ) are putting together a meeting (Tuesday, 6PM at Group Health, according to KING TV) about the murder: check here for details. Maybe the meeting will bring together people interested in jump-starting a new Community Council.

Justin, the CHS blogger-in-chief has also set up a new online forum to allow people to share their views, news, whatever. I encourage you to take advantage of it for all your (bigger picture) Capitol Hill related issues. For the (bigger picture) issues that are related to the Central Area part of our universe, try the Central District News site.

Parks Department Strategic Plan meeting at Miller

This Saturday, Dec. 8 10 a.m.-Noon at Miller Community Center, 330 19th Ave. E, will be the last of 32 Parks and Recreation public meetings, held to gather input from you to help Parks in the development of a Strategic Business Plan that will guide them in the next five years.

They welcome input in any form, even if people cannot or choose not to come to a meeting. You can contact Dewey Potter, Communications Manager, Seattle Parks and Recreation
at 206-684-7241.

You can also fill out a short survey, available online at http://www.seattle.gov/parks/Publications/BusinessPlan.htm, where you can also read more about the plan.

(Editorial comments from Andrew). Sounds pretty dull, geeky policy wonk kind of stuff, doesn't it? I suspect that Parks is working on different ways to raise funds for Park facilities and programs, and will be gaging the public's reaction to them.

I know that Parks has been approached by Diamond Parking about Diamond's proposal to turn the lower parking lot at Miller (the one used by Meany teachers during the day) into a Diamond pay lot. I suspect you may have some feelings about that. Don't know if they'll be able to answer questions about that at the meeting.

(My personal vision is that, when artificial turf is installed on Miller Playfield in 2009 and the field gets busy again, we will encourage many more sports players to use the lower parking lot, and take the strain off the ever busier neighborhood streets. That won't work if the lower lot is a pay lot!)

Parks Department Strategic Business Plan

Dear Community Organization,

This is to let you know about 32 upcoming meetings Seattle Parks and Recreation will hold to gather input from you to help us in the development of a Strategic Business Plan that will guide us in the next five years.

We welcome input in any form, even if people cannot or choose not to come to a meeting.

We also invite you and your members to fill out a short survey, available online (along with details of the plan and the meetings) at http://www.seattle.gov/parks/Publications/BusinessPlan.htm.

Thank you, and we hope to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Dewey Potter
Communications Manager
Seattle Parks and Recreation
206-684-7241

(Meetings near to us)
Date Time Location
Monday, Nov. 26 5 – 7 p.m. Garfield Community Center, 2323 E Cherry St.
7 - 9 p.m. Montlake Community Center, 1618 E Calhoun


Wednesday, Nov. 28 5 - 7 p.m. 100 Dexter Ave. N (Parks Administration Bldg.)

Tuesday, Dec. 4 6 – 8 p.m. Graham Visitors Center, Washington Park
Arboretum, 2300 Arboretum Dr. E

Wednesday, Dec. 5 5 – 7 p.m. Yesler Community Center, 917 E Yesler Way

Saturday, Dec. 8 10 a.m.-Noon Miller Community Center, 330 19th Ave. E

2311 E. John St & 2320 East Madison Street: Land Use

This recent DPD decision gives the go-ahead for a three-story, three-unit townhouse structure at 2311 E John Street. You can read the DPD decision document and you have till 11/19/07 to lodge an appeal, should you wish. The project underwent Administrative Design Review (no public meeting).



The project abuts a larger proposed project (#3006349) at 2320 East Madison Street: a four-story, mixed use building with five apartment units over 1,245 sq. ft. of commercial. The project had a public Design Review hearing on 3/21/07, and will presumably have one more before it's approved.

Central Area summit: care to volunteer?

The Central Area Development Association (see this summary of what they do) has invited our neighborhood to participate in their October 27th annual retreat. Here (in part) is what they ask:

Dear Miller Park Neighborhood Association,

The Central Area Development Association (CADA) is pleased to invite you to participate in the morning session of its annual retreat on Saturday, October 27th. We are soliciting your opinions of and vision for the future of the Central Area in a process to identify where and how CADA can best contribute to the development of the community.

As a community-based development association we rely upon your input and participation. It is not only a critical component to CADA’s mission and philosophy but to the Central Area’s health as a whole.

We ask that you review the following and then identify at least two individuals you believe will best represent your group at the retreat. Please have them come prepared to provide us with the following information as a consensus of your group:

• A brief history of the group - no more than 2 minutes
• Opinion of the Central Area as they see it today in regards to housing, economic development, education, crime, arts, opportunity, etc.
• Current focus of the group - short-term (up to 12 months) and long-term (12 months and beyond)
• Top two things the group would like to see accomplished in "their" area and how it would benefit the entire Central Area.

Note: please don't limit the 'kind' of things you'd like to see happen. Although CADA's primary line of business is affordable housing and CADA may not be the organization that fulfills your vision, we do partner with and delegate to other organizations in our efforts to revitalize the Central Area.

Please provide us with a written copy of your talking/bullet points. You may send this with your reply or give it to us at the retreat. As there will be potentially eight to ten groups attending, each group will have 15 minutes to speak and there will be a timekeeper to ensure that everyone is heard.

I'd be happy to volunteer (if you agree) and am writing to invite you to join (or replace) me. Drop me a note by Friday (Send to me: tayles@jps.net) with your contact info and I'll send it on to CADA. We could get together this weekend and work on the talking points they suggest.

As resources to think about what to say, I remind you of the Central Area's neighborhood planning efforts in the late 90's which resulted both in a general plan for the area and in a specific plan for the Madison-Miller area (see right side of blog page; "Madison-Miller Neighborhood Plan"). See links in this post for more background info.

Proposal to eliminate parking requirement in urban villages

I told you recently (http://tinyurl.com/yoplrf ) about the City's plan to change the zoning code in our multifamily areas (your input needed at a meeting on Monday 10/15/07, 5:30 PM, City Hall).

On the City's webpage about the proposed changes ( http://tinyurl.com/36o4pj ) you can learn about the proposed changes [my comments in brackets]. Main points:

2. Reduce number of zones by consolidating the existing L3 and L4 zones to make a new LR3 zone [Much of our area is presently L3 or L4].

8. Eliminate parking requirements in urban centers, urban villages, and station areas, and reduce parking requirements in other areas (consistent with changes in commercial areas). [YEP, THAT'S US: We're in an urban village]

From John Rahaim (SPD Planning Director):

Hello Andrew. Sorry for this mistake. Like the Neighborhood Commercial zones, we are proposing to eliminate the parking requirement only in Urban Centers and transit areas, and to lower-- but not eliminate -- the requirement in Urban Villages. We will clarify this tonight at the open house.

Thanks for your sharp eye on this.

John

22nd & Madison development: Design Review

The Sept. 19th Design Review meeting for Jim Mueller's proposed development of the Twilight Exit / Oscar's II site at 22nd & Madison went very smoothly. Both the Design Review Board and the (small number of) neighbors present seemed very impressed with the project. I'll post the Board's report when it's available.

Jim described his plans to research and memorialize the music history of the neighborhood in the new building. The architects from Mithun then described several alternative plans for a six-story mixed use project on the site (most of the site is zoned 65', a bit of the south end is 40'). Everybody preferred their first scheme. Below (thanks to Jim and Mithun) are a copy of their illustration of it, and a couple of my pictures of their model .

(click on any image for larger copy)

My only real concern (echoed by René Soulard) was that the garden terrace was buried in the building and did not benefit from the stunning view of Mount Rainier that the site offers. Below are a couple of views from the adjacent "Views at Madison Park" apartments above the Safeway.

Madison Valley flood prevention may involve Miller area

This Seattle Times article summarizes the City's two main possible solutions to Madison Valley flooding. (also a PI article). Details from Greater Madison Valley CC:

Seattle Public Utilities will host a community meeting to discuss its solutions to the flooding of Madison Valley on Thursday, Oct. 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Garfield Community Center. (SPU website has details, contact info.)

Here are the five alternatives, with storage capacity (mg = million gallons) and cost attached. Seattle Public Utilities favors options 3 and 5.

1) retain existing detention pond, use Washington Park Playfield as
storage. 1 mg at pond, 2.5 mg at playfield
for a total of 3.5 mg . $45 million

2) distribute storage throughout watershed create new detention sites at Miller Playfield, 650,000 g; 22nd and Madison, 260,000 g; and three sites on MLK, 500,000 g each; retain existing detention pond 1 mg for a total of 3.2 mg
$40 million. (She noted: The assumption for Miller Playfield is detention will be in a vault beneath the playfield. Ditto for 22nd and Madison, except detention
happens in a vault beneath the street.)

3) Divert northwest lobe of watershed to storage facility in Washington Park Arboretum, expand existing detention pond. 1.5 mg at playfield, 1.5 mg at 30th & John for a total of 3.0 mg. $18 - 28 million

4) Expand storage at 30th & John. 2.4 mg tank. $22 million

5) 200 block above ground storage Acquire 200 block homes on east side of 30th and west side of 31st plus two homes south of pond; demolish homes and create detention pond/natural drainage feature. Expand existing detention pond.
4.2 - 4.6 mg total $16.4 - 18.9 million

Please note that the driver for the selection of options 3 and 5 as preferred alternatives comes from the Mayor. His directive to SPU is threefold:

• find a solution
• fast, and at the lowest cost
• solution should provide highest performance now and into the future

Best,
Wallis Bolz
Engineering Sub-committee member and
President, Greater Madison Valley Community Council

I asked Parks if this might affect the plans for artificial turf at Miller. Kevin Stoops (acting Director of Parks Planning and Development Division) replied:

It is our understanding that SPU has two primary alternatives for correcting Madison Valley flooding-a storage and conveyance option that would involve use of Washington Park for a storage tank (and there are several options that combine the park site and the new detention site in different fashions) and a buy-out of the homes that are susceptible to the flooding at 30th and John.

We met with SPU staff to talk about the scenarios that involve Washington Park about a month ago. They did not directly speak to any alternative that involved Miller other than to say that they may look at other storage possibilities in the drainage area at some time in the future, and that Miller is at the far easterly tributary end of that drainage. As such, I do not see any affect on our future Miller PF field resurfacing project at this time. The Miller conversion to synthetic turf is funded for design in 2008, and earmarked for construction in 2009.

County Council Public Safety Town Hall report

The Stranger's blog (the SLOG) has this report on last night's King County Council Town Hall meeting on "Criminal Justice Reform: what is to be done?".

I've added my letter to the Council as the first comment on the Slog entry (I couldn't stay till the end of the meeting). I cc:'d the letter to the City Councilmembers who worked on the issue, and got this reply from Tom Rasmussen:

Thank you Andrew I appreciate receiving your comments. I was not able to attend last night due to scheduling issues.

Councilmember Licata and I added funding into the city's budget to support these programs. The GOTS program appears to be very promising and will have my continued support. The Clean Dreams project may need more adjustment and work to ensure that it is making a difference in the community.

I would like to work with Councilmember Gossett to continue our efforts to reduce crime and to help the people who are involved or likely to be involved in crime to change their lives for the better.

Tom Rasmussen

Seattle City Council

(Here's a Real Change article about the Clean Dreams project, and a couple of Seattle Times articles (first, second one)

Neighborhood & Personal Safety Against Shootings

EAST PRECINCT CRIME PREVENTION COALITION

Thursday – August 23, 2007
Seattle Vocational Institute,
2120 S. Jackson St. Parking is on the north side of the building
6:30 - 8:00pm

Welcome/Introductions – Stephanie Tschida, Chair - EPCPC 6:30 - 6:35

Neighborhood & Personal Safety Against Shootings 6:35 - 7:05
Seattle Police Department

Community Concerns/Announcements 7:05 - 7:40
State of the Neighborhood
• Community Crime Mapping

Precinct Update - 7:40 – 8:00

• Enforcement Updates – Capt. Paul McDonagh & Lt. John Hayes
• Additional Govt. Agencies Represented - City Attorney, DOC, WSCLB etc.

• High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) - Denise Harnly, SNG

• "Get Off the Streets" Program - Mary Williams, SNG

Design Review Meeting for 2203 East Union

Thank you for attending the 2203 East Union community meeting last Tuesday. Your feedback, questions and suggestions were exactly what we were hoping to gain – it was a productive evening for the entire project team.

We encourage you to attend the Early Design Guidance Meeting this Wednesday, June 27, at the Miller Community Center (330 19th Avenue East). The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. and time will be allotted for the public to speak.

If you can’t attend but would like to send an email or letter to us, we would be pleased to add your message to the public record as a means to demonstrate support for the preferred proposal.

As new information becomes available about the project, we will keep you updated via email. If you do not wish to receive email updates, please send an email back asking to be removed from the list and we will be happy to do so.

Thank you again for your time and support.

Sincerely,

Jim Mueller
JC Mueller LLC
Logan Building, Suite 625
500 Union, Seattle, WA 98101
Tel: (206) 624-8095; Fax: (206) 382-3514
Email: AskUnion@jcmueller.com

(above message from Jim Mueller. Neighborhood reports on the community meeting: a transcript, a video and photos and some thoughts. E-mail Jim to be put on the list for E-mail updates).

Reminder & Poster for development meeting

Here's a choice of flyers to post and share with friends and to remind you about next Tuesday's meeting with the developer who's going to be redeveloping properties at 23rd & Union and along Madison. The City Design Review Hearing for the 23rd/Union project is Wednesday June 27th.

Meet with developer of Madison and Union Street projects

On Tuesday, June 19, at 6 P.M., Jim Mueller, who proposes to develop the site of the former Coleman Building (at 23rd and E. Union) will meet with us to talk about that site and other locations in the area that he proposes to develop, including a site on E. Madison St (2051 E. Madison) where the "Twilight Exit" is presently located.

The meeting will be from 6 to ~ 9 PM at the Central Cinema (1411 21st Avenue), and light refreshments will be served.

These sites are key to the Central Area and East Madison Street redevelopments and this meeting is an opportunity to talk to the developer and members of the design team in a more informal setting with more opportunity for exchange of ideas and information than the DPD early design guidance meeting for the 23rd & Union project (which is scheduled for June 27.). Such "pre-meetings" worked well for the Safeway development, and I encourage you to participate.

As I noted earlier:

I might add that I have been extremely impressed with Jim Mueller, a developer who's involved both in the Madison corridor and the 23rd & Union area. He's met with many of us, turned up at a neighborhood cleanup, and is clearly sensitive to many of our issues as well as those of others in the area. He's selected an architecture firm that we've had positive experiences with, and I think we'll all enjoy working with him to guide our neighborhood in its inevitable redevelopment.


If some of the text here seems more cogent than normal, it may be because I'm blatantly plagiarizing the Squire Park group's announcement of the meeting, though I could not resist putting my oar in to undo some of their good work.

Saturday Central Area Plan Meeting

I recently drew your attention to a meeting this Saturday to re-interest neighbors in the Central Area Neighborhood Plan (1:30 to 3:30 PM Saturday, Garfield Community Center, 23rd & Cherry).

My previous post started with a facsimile of a postcard sent out by the Neighborhood Plan Implementation Team. Several of the bullet points (OK, frowny-face points, ☹) on the postcard appeared critical of developers. The team wants to emphasize that they are aware of both well-intentioned and less well intentioned developers, and were not wanting to paint with a broad brush.

I might add that I have been extremely impressed with Jim Mueller, a developer who's involved both in the Madison corridor and the 23rd & Union area. He's met with many of us, turned up at a neighborhood cleanup, and is clearly sensitive to many of our issues as well as those of others in the area. He's selected an architecture firm that we've had positive experiences with, and I think we'll all enjoy working with him to guide our neighborhood in its inevitable redevelopment.

I invite you to come along on Saturday to talk about the Central Area Neighborhood Plan, and how we can use it to guide our neighborhood in the direction we'd like to see it go.

(As noted, in part, before). The Madison-Miller area took part in neighborhood planning as part of the Central Area plan process from 1996 to 1998: the resulting general plan is posted on the City website together with the scary and incomprehensible "Approval and Adoption Matrix" .

The Madison-Miller area, with the guidance of some very talented consultants, also produced its own Master Plan as part of the planning process, although it was never posted online by the City. I have now scanned and posted the Madison-Miller Master Plan: see the "Madison-Miller Neighborhood Plan" list of links, on the right of this page, just below the "Miller Links" list.

(Just found this great 1 page explanation of the Comprehensive Plan and Seattle's neighborhood planning efforts!)

For a flavor of the neighborhood planning process, check out the Spring 1996 "Miller Times" For some early results of the planning, see the Fall 1999 "Miller Times" and City's 2004 Fact Sheet on the plan.

Previous views of where the plans might be going are in the 2004 Priority Report and the 2005 Priority Update, which seem to be the City's last obvious neighborhood plan related activities. Councilmember Clark (a Neighborhood Plan Steward in a previous life) has expressed special interest in auditing and updating neighborhood plans. You can watch a video of the 5/19/07 Neighborhood Plan Workshop hosted by Councilmember Clark.

Sound Transit Capitol Hill Station Meeting

(Here's a Flyer from Sound Transit about the meeting and a diagram of the Capitol Hill Station)

Betsy Hunter of PPUNC writes:

After years of fluctuating plans and timelines, it's time to re-engage on Sound Transit and how it will impact all of our lives. This issue goes far beyond Broadway and touches us in the Pike/Pine,12th Avenue, and Squire Park neighborhoods as well.

See the map - for 8 years, significant portions of Broadway, Nagle Place, John Street, and Denny will be a major construction zone. While this is going on, businesses will be relocated, buildings will be demolished, and trucks, noise, and dust will be part of our daily life. When construction is completed, what should the property over the station areas look like? What kinds of retail space do we need? Should the housingabove be rental, condo, affordable, market rate?

The Capitol Hill Stewardship Council and Chamber of Commerce have invited Sound Transit to present their updated plans and it's time for all of us to comment. Strong attendance is vital for Sound Transit to hear from our community.

See the invitation below from the Chamber and Stewardship Council. And bring your friends and family members to the meeting next Tuesday.

SOUND TRANSIT CAPITOL HILL STATION UPDATE

COMMUNITY MEETING
Tuesday, June 12, 2007 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Seattle Central Community College Room 1110

The Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce and the Capitol Hill Neighborhood Plan Stewardship Council are hosting a meeting regarding the planned Capitol Hill station for Sound Transit’s regional light rail. Sound Transit will present its current plans for the station entrances, property acquisition and relocation, and construction timeline. The Chamber and Stewardship Council will outline community driven principles for the station, related construction impacts, and subsequent redevelopment.

In late 2006, the Sound Transit Board authorized work to design and construct the “University Link” which extends light rail from Downtown to the University of Washington including a station in the heart of Capitol Hill. This station, located on the east side of Broadway between John and Denny, is projected to have 12,000 boardings a day. Since the first of the year Sound Transit has been working on their plans for the Capitol Hill station and has initiated land acquisition and relocation. Their current timeframe calls for a seven year construction period.

Sound Transit is now coming. The Chamber and the Stewardship Council recognize the benefits to the neighborhood and Broadway of improving connections to Downtown, the UW and the region as well as the potential for regional light rail to improve transportation mobility.

However, it is also recognized that the station and subsequent redevelopment on Sound Transit land is a “hundred year” decision for the Capitol Hill community. From a neighborhood perspective it is critical the station entrances are appropriately designed and located, construction period impacts are addressed, and subsequent redevelopment supports mixed use buildings with strong retail on Broadway and housing that serves a mix of incomes. This is the critical decision making period.

The meeting will have a short presentation, question and answer period, and an open house component for your questions and comments.

Fire Station 6 Relocation Meeting

The lovely Art Deco Fire Station on 23rd at Yesler (already an official Central Area landmark) is being replaced as part of the 2003 Fire Levy.

See meeting details below if you're interested in the possible relocation sites (and ask them for me what they're planning to do with the lovely old building: the one on 15th made a lovely video store!). Click on notice below for a more readable version.

Addendum (from Christina Faine, Fire Levy Communications Officer)

Yes, the existing structure has been designated as a landmark to
protect its historic character. Once the new station is built, the
current building will no longer serve as a fire station. The City
intends to sell the property and return the proceeds to the levy
program.