Lander Street-Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

On Saturday, Dec. 5 at 10:00 AM Festival Street will open with a ribbon cutting ceremony! Festival Street is that block of Lander between Beacon Ave. and 17th Ave., just south of El Centro del la Raza and north of the Light Rail Station. There will be coffee and donuts donated by local merchants, tents set up in case of rain (in Seattle?), and visits from City leaders. Please come celebrate what the Pedestrian Task Force and Robert Hinrix have worked so hard to bring to fruition.

December NBHC Meeting

The North Beacon Hill Council cordially invites the community to help us celebrate a big year, honor the many who contributed to make it possible, and plan for the year to come.
We'll meet at 6:30 PM, on Wednesday, December 3rd in the Community Room of the Beacon Library. It's a potluck, so bring a dish to share.

Agenda 6:30
Social time, pot luck7:00 A time to honor those who have given so much (and finish eating!)
7:15 Business meeting
-Estela Ortega, Executive Director, El Centro de la Raza: Future plans for development of S. parcel of El Centro property (25 minutes, including Q&A)
-12th Ave. and Stevens St. neighbors request to become an ad-hoc committee of NBHC in order to challenge City Light's installation of obtrusive power lines (5minutes) .vote required -Discussion of final draft, Department of Planning and Development's Neighborhood Plan Update (15 minutes) .vote required to approve/disapprove
-Letter to Council Member Sally Clark, Chair, Planning and Land Use Committee: Action to ensure that N. Beacon Hill Development Design Guidelines are employed in future construction (10 minutes) .vote required
8:05 Future focus: where should we put our energy in the coming year? What are the issues the community is concerned with?
8:30 Closure

November NBHC Meeting

The North Beacon Hill Council will meet Thursday, Nov. 5th at 7:00 PM in the Community Room of the Beacon Hill Library. All are welcome! You are a voting member of the Council if you have attended one meeting previously. The Council is our voice to city government, and your voice makes a difference.This is an important meeting (as they all are!). Lyle Bicknell, Project Manager of the Neighborhood Planning Update team will present the results of the two open houses held in September to gain information on the plans prepared by the Department of Neighborhoods and Seattle Department of Planning and Development. These plans, which affect the area surrounding our new light rail station, are a response to input from the public meetings held here on North Beacon and the survey comments sent to the Department of Neighborhoods. It is important that your voice be heard, whether you agree or disagree, as these plans will be submitted for municipal code review by the end of the year. Please note that board business and issues of concern to many community residents occur at the end our our meeting. You may choose only to stay for Lyle Bicknell's report back, and a small break will allow those who wish to leave at that time to do so.

Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 Agenda
North Beacon Hill Council
Beacon Hill Public Library
7:00 PM

7:00 Welcomes and introductions
7:10 Lyle Bicknell, City of Seattle - Neighborhood Plan Updates followed by questions and comments from the floor
8:00 Community Reports and Concerns (2-3 minutes each)
-Steve Louie, Neighborhood Coordinator
-Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee (Judith Edwards)
-Greater Duwamish District Council (Matthew Stubbs, NBHC rep)
-Neighborhood Planning Ad Hoc Committee
-Jefferson Park Playground
-Seattle Police Department - Safety (Shelly Bates)
-Festival Street Opening (Curtis LaPierre)
-Other
8:30 Close

October NBHC Meeting

North Beacon Hill Council Agenda
Thursday, October 1, 2009, 7:00 PM
Beacon Hill Library Community Room

Please join us in making decisions that affect our community. All are welcome!

7:00 Introductions and hellos
7:10 Sup't. Jorge Carrasco, Seattle City Light
-10 minutes for presentation - City Light's placement of sight-line obstructive poles on West Beacon Hill in 12th Ave. neighborhood
-15 minutes Q & A
7:25 Brian Dougherty, Seattle Department of Transportation
-Proposed parking changes for 15th Ave. S. presentation (10)
-Q & A (10)
7:55 Community Reports and Council Business
-Seattle Police Department (10)
-Neighborhood Planning Ad Hoc Committee (5)
(Vote needed, quorum required)
If motion is passed, formation of committee to draft a grant for ongoing neighborhood planning work (5)
-Other
Matthew Stubbs as NBHC representative to GDDC - vote required
Announcements from Steve Louie, Neighborhood Coordinator
Other announcements and any concerns from the community
8:30 Closure

Neighborhood Plan Update: Community Open House

On Sun. September 27 (1 p.m. to 5 p.m.) and Wed. September 30 (6 p.m. to 8 p.m.) the City of Seattle will host Neighborhood Plan Update Community Open Houses. These community open houses are another opportunity to take an active role in addressing the local issues and concerns that affect you, your family, and your neighbors. All stakeholders are invited to participate—residents, renters, business owners, property owners, various community organizations and institutions. Please join us for this important community event! PREVIEW DRAFT PLAN UPDATES AND GRAPHICS ONLINE:
MLK @ Holly (Othello)
North Rainier (Mount Baker)
North Beacon Hill (Beacon Hill)
Interpreters will be available in the following languages: Amharic, Cantonese, Khmer, Mandarin, Oromiffa, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrinya and Vietnamese. ACRS is an accessible facility. Please contact us for special accommodations.

July NBHC 2009 Meeting Minutes

NBHC: July 9, 2009 Meeting Minutes
Introductions
Lyle Bicknell, DPD: May town hall meeting summary.
In late Sept there will be a meeting to go over some of the recommendations by DPD. The goal is to have recommendations for neighborhood and city council approval. Where can we find information about the neighborhood plan and the urban village? Concerned about having lots of development up against single family residential. Lyle says: Go to the DPD website and click on neighborhood planning. www.seattle.gov/dpd Lyle Bicknell: 684-0763
Brian Dougherty, Department of Transportation, Multi-modal group (ped master plan, bike master plan, safe school walks):
The city’s bicycle master plan prioritized 15th and 12th Ave from Jose Rizal to Columbian Way for bicycle usage.
Currently: Peak parking restrictions. Lanes are not wide enough for 2 vehicles, but they are wide enough to encourage speed. Studies found that 85% of people were traveling 42.2mph or less, which means that 15% were going faster than this (the speed limit through this corridor is 30mph).
Captain Liggins: SE Seattle Police Department
The last few months have been some of the most interesting in Capt. Liggins’ career. There was a significant increase in burglaries as they entered the summer months. SPD has been able to make significant headway: they arrested a couple of suspects in progress (which was in the paper recently) and traced 300 laptops to these people. SPD has also been able to emphasize collection of trace evidence in relation to this type of activity—getting lots of hit on fingerprints from inside the houses.
Also fortunate in that SPD South Precinct staffing numbers have increased significantly (were at 70 officers a few years ago, now at 100). They are trying to get staffing up throughout the department in order to match the work load city-wide. The schedule change won’t occur until next year, though.
Neighborhood policing program: redefining boundaries for each precinct. Now have 64 geographic areas in the city. The South Precinct now includes SoDo and goes to I-90. , however this is a fairly large area, so they may have to re-divide this in order to make sure no one beat or sector is overloaded.
Judith: Announcements
No formal meeting in August, but the Board will have a social gathering at Curtis’ house.
Greater Duwamish District Council has approved NSF funding to put lights in the pavement for the crosswalk at the library and hopefully a pedestrian safety island. $50k for these projects.
Lewis Park Update:
Vinh has applied for a grant from King County and needs a vote to approve acting as a fiscal agent. Curtis moves that we act as a fiscal agent for “friends of Lewis Park”. Seconded by Shelly Bates. Motion passes.
Report from the ad hoc committee on Neighborhood planning: Jonas Davis
The Committee feels like there isn’t adequate support to review the process and information for the proposals under the timeline given by DPD. There has also been a lack of information from the city that is necessary to prepare [the neighborhood] for an appropriate neighborhood plan update.
The committee would like to formally to ask for an extension so that we get another year to do the planning and would like approval from the NBHC for a proposal to request an extension.

September NBHC Meeting

North Beacon Hill Council Meeting
Thursday, September 10th at 7:00 p.m.
Location: Beacon Lutheran Church across the street from the library at 1720 South Forest Street
Agenda:
7:00 Welcome
7:05 Lyle Bicknell, Neighborhood Planning Update followed by Q & A
7:35 Brian Dougherty, Seattle Department of Transportation - 15th Ave. Parking
7:50 Goodbye to Eric Sano, Seattle Police Department
8:00 Community reports and concerns
-Steve Louie, Neighborhood Coordinator (3 minutes)
-Neighborhood Planning Ad Hoc Committee (10 minutes - includes time to vote)
-Community concerns (10 minutes)
-Next month/announcements (7 minutes)
8:30 Close

June NBHC 2009 Meeting Minutes

NBHC: June 4, 2009 Meeting Notes
Introductions.
Fredrica Merrel, Neighborhood planning ad hoc committee (urban plan):
Report from advisory committee. She will post report to the blog. You can sign up through her: 1x-2x/month. Have been meeting weekly, lately. Proposals for infrastructure, ideas for public benefit for zoning, sharing concerns with DPD, trying to get word out to the community. Seven proposals. Feels that we are lacking in analytical support re: growth targets, etc.. Sees the process as brainstorming. Would like to propose that committee evaluates the process. Will ask for a vote soon.
Judith (on neighborhood planning advisory committee) has asked for these types of resources from the city. City has a comprehensive plan that it wants bookmarks for each neighborhood. Rumor is that the plan isn’t due until next March—why do we need to rush plan if it’s not due in Dec.?
Bob Webb, a resident of the hill died. He was one of Tuskegee airmen and one of the founders of the NBHC.
Vinh Nguyen: Lewis Park
Vinh has been working for 2 years. You can email him to be added to the list. Work there every Sunday 9-1pm. Outreach of students, neighbors and volunteers. Lots of volunteer hours. Most of the volunteers are from east Seattle, north, south. Not many people from Beacon Hill have gotten involved—please volunteer.
Good news: got award from DPD $15,000 grant. Helps them to hire a geologist to study the slope. Working with private contractors to work on the slope site (need $250k to restore long-term). Have planted nearly 1k native plants and trees to improve the environment for everyone in our neighborhood. Need a native English speaker to help to educate students/youth.
Bad news: professional thieves came to Lewis park and stole a lot of plant—picked rare and expensive plants. If you see any cars parked a Lewis park, write down the license plates to keep a log. Security at PacMed will help watch, too.
Matthew Stubbs: Jefferson Park Festival: NBH Table. Set up at 10am, until 4pm.
Megan Hoyt & Curtis LaPierre: DPD/Transportation. Lander Festival Street:
The project is in the hovering phase while they build the street…once the street is built, it can built out. Expect construction to start in September if all goes well. This was funded by the Neighborhood street fund grant ($200k) and a neighborhood large project fund grant which paid for some of the planning work. Robert—do we want to have an opening celebration in Mid-October(ish)?
Megan’s job is to make sure the Festival street is built as soon as possible. Many of the people on the project are Beacon Hill neighbors.
Festival street will feel like a plaza and to vehicles it will feel slow. Latest rumor is that the private land owners do not want fences around their individual plots to disrupt the space. The neighborhood planning center (Steve L.) will have the key for bollards to close the festival street.
Estella Ortega: El Centro de la Raza:
El Centro is in the process getting artist renderings for possible projects with property in time for the July 18th light rail station grand opening. Estimates are that on the weekend of the 18th-19th: 100k people will end up riding the train! Estella feels like they are a little behind schedule, but are working with SEED now on the process.
Martin Padilla is the architect on the project. They are thinking about establishing some kind of plaza within the development similar to a traditional “zocalo”. El Centro will use feedback from pancake breakfast and neighborhood planning meetings in order to make sure it fits in the neighborhood. The process is still in the works to figure out how to do outreach, but will likely include affordable housing, offices, retail, etc.. They also will need big community rooms for events and cultural activities. El Centro plans to retain the existing historic building.
Current businesses in the businesses located at El Centro include: Travel agency, church, dance studio, acupuncture, technology company, couple nonprofits (homestead, global visionaries). Empty spaces have been renting up because train is coming.
Shelly Bates: Crime Update
Shelly recently attended a block-watch group that included Mark Solomon, Ed Haynes, John McGoodwin. The meeting focused on alcohol usage and the impact, but concluded that there was almost no chance of getting an alcohol impact area on Beacon Hill. Perhaps we can push for an alcohol impact area as part of neighborhood planning—keep asking for it!
Alcohol problems were cited as a concern. Police suggestion was to call 911 and request a “report number” and keep a log. We can supply the information to John McGoodwin to build a case for license renewal in order to press for a good neighbor agreement from area businesses.
Prostitution: In Columbia City, they organized a sting and arrested 5 johns.
If you have seen underage sales at the Valero, please record times and instances. Provide information to Officer Haynes, Shelley Bates or John McGoodwin.
Update on the permit for change of use zoning at First Choice Auto Detailing—the current space is permitted for retail, and is located in an area zoned for pedestrians (no drive-in or drive through businesses). Essentially, because they keep coming back to DPD, they keep getting extensions. There were some drawings already on file with DPD and the owners were able to take those into account. DPD needs additional information from the owners.
Shelly wrote a letter to send to Diane Sukimora (DPD)and Sally Clark. Beacon Hill blog photo-pool has a photo that can be sent with it. Mira suggests that we comment into the Seattle pedestrian master plan with photos. Project # for reference: 6216884.
Steve Louie:
Tim Galagher has been sponsoring community Meetings: June 15th on VanAsselt. Jefferson park on June 16th. He wants to talk about strategies that the parks department is looking at. Light rail opening is supposed to be on time in Beacon Hill.
Judith: Other items:
Michael Richmond is putting together a candidate forum. Contact Michael at Beacon Hill Mail.
Picnic and Pinata Party date not set: should we have it the same weekend as ST opening?
June 18th: City Neighborhood Council’s Candidate forum for all candidates running for the council. 5pm. At city hall.
June 24th, 6:30pm Greater Duwamish District Council Meeting at Library at 6:30pm.
July meeting is July 2nd, but conflicts with the 4th of July holiday weekend. Voted to move it to the 9th. Hope Sally Clark comes. Lyle Bicknell. Must check to see if the library is available but if not available, we can probably meet at the Church. Freddie suggests we get an update on current and proposed zoning changes (maybe Michael Jenkins?).
Suggested that NBHC doesn’t meet in August.

July NBHC Meeting

North Beacon Hill Council Meeting
Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 7:00pm
Beacon Hill Library Community Room

The North Beacon Hill Council is the voice of the community and everyone is welcome. Attendance at one meeting makes you a voting member! Come learn about the future of our neighborhood planning process, the opening of Sound Transit's Light Rail Tunnel, and much, much more.

Agenda:

7:00 Welcomes, agenda and introductions
7:10 Brian Dougherty, Seattle Department of Transportation: Proposed parking revision on 15th Ave, followed by Q&A
7:30 Lyle Bicknell, Department of Planning and Development: Results of May N. Beacon Hill Town Hall Meeting, Comprehensive Plan Amendments, followed by Q&A
7:50 Ad hoc committee report followed by Q&A - vote may be required
8:00 South Precinct SPD or Shelly Bates
8:10 Community Concerns Upcoming Events
-July 18, opening of Light Rail Tunnel Festivities
-No Picnic and Pinata Party in the Park due to above (but we'll be back with a great celebration next year!)
-Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee update
-Pedestrian Crossing at library
-Lewis Park grant from King County - vote needed
-Other?
8:30 Closure

Piñata Party hiatus in 2009

Hi Neighbors,

We've decided to skip the annual Piñata Party in Triangle Park (Stevens and Beacon) this year.

We had originally planned the event for July 18th. Now that's Link Light Rail's first day. After thinking about it, we decided to take this year off and come back with a great party in 2010. The tentative date we set is Saturday, July 10, 2010.
If you want to help organize the 2010 Piñata Party, let me know and we'll connect closer to the event.

Happy summer!

Jon Gould, for the Piñata Party Organizing Committee
206.328.8310
jongould@cablespeed.com