Yes, sir.

All right.

All right.

Good morning.

The May 7th, 2026 meeting of the Safety Transportation Engineering Project Sports and Experiences Committee, formally known as Transportation Waterfront and Seattle Center Committee.

Will come to order.

It is 9 30 a.m.

I am Rob Saka, Chair of the Committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Foster.

Here.

Councilmember Kettle.

Here.

Councilmember Lynn.

Here.

Vice Chair Rink.

Present.

Chair Saka.

Here.

Chair, there are five members present.

Thank you.

Uh, if there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing and seeing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Good morning, colleagues, members of the public.

Welcome and thanks for joining us today.

A lot going on.

First and foremost, want to clarify and reiterate that safety remains a top priority for this committee.

At our last meeting, I announced that I've called upon the city auditor's office to conduct a performance audit of the Vision Zero program.

Vision Zero is about saving lives, and therefore one of our most critical initiatives.

Tragically, too many people are still dying and suffering serious injuries on our streets.

This audit will help shed light on what's working and what's not.

At least that's the goal.

From there, we will be in a much better position to refine our approach to prevent further tragedies on our streets.

And sadly, we must start the meeting with on a similarly somber note.

Earlier this week, in the morning of Tuesday, May 5th, there was a fatal collision on the West Seattle Bridge.

At 1 57 a.m.

Seattle police officers responded to reports of a motorcycle crash.

They located a man on the ground below the first Avenue South Off ramp from the West Seattle Bridge.

Seattle Fire responded, and unfortunately pronounced the man deceased at the scene.

Police detectives determined that the motorcyclist driving westbound on the West Seattle Bridge struck a guardrail while taking the off-ramp.

The driver flew over the railing and landed below on the first Avenue South Sidewalk where he died from his injuries.

Anyone with information is asked to call the traffic collision investigation squad at 206-684-8923.

Again, that's 206-684-8923.

Tragically, this is the third fatality collision on City of Seattle Streets so far this year in 26.

We can and must do better.

Today I'd like to also make crystal clear that I'm a strong supporter of the Ballard Link Extension Project as well.

The Ballard Link Extension is projected to carry between 132,000 and 173,000 daily riders, making it potentially the busiest expansion line in sound transit in the entire Sound Transit 3 system.

The project supports the growth of Ballard, Interbay, and South Lake Union by providing high capacity transit to areas with rapidly increasing residential and job densities, facilitating equitable transit-oriented development.

In short, this is a necessary project, and I urge Sound Transit to complete it in a timely manner.

I would therefore support the Sound Transit Board's actions, any actions they may need to take to find creative ways to achieve this.

Strongly support the West Seattle project.

It is first in line.

I appreciate Sound Transit's work and value engineering to find a way to deliver that one on budget mostly, kind of on time.

Uh, we'll need to go through a similar exercise for Ballard.

We need that one too.

All right.

In typical steps committee fashion, we have a very robust agenda this morning.

First off, we will have a briefing discussion and possible vote on Council Bill 12176.

Sponsored by my colleague, Council Member Strauss.

This legislation would bring shared streets to Seattle.

Last year in April 2025, Washington became the first state in the country to authorize shared streets, a shift that could reshape how people move in cities across the state and serve as a model nationwide.

Senate Bill 5595, which is sponsored, by the way, by State Senator Emily Alvarado, who represents most of District 1.

We have we share overlapping uh territory in our respective districts.

As a representative, she's a representative of the 34th legislative district.

That bill allows local authorities like ours to designate non-arterial highways as shared streets.

This vital designation gives walkers and bikers priority, slows traffic, vehicles to 10 miles an hour, and removes jaywalking restrictions.

So this, what we're considering here today, colleagues, members of the public, transformative piece of local legislation that would implement state shared streets policy locally, right here in the city of Seattle and help keep us safe.

It's an important part of our broader traffic safety priority.

So appreciate Councilmember Strauss and his leadership for uh for bringing this forward.

Again, it's a major step toward safety, people centered and people centered streets.

Really excited to hear this agenda item.

Next on the agenda, we'll receive a briefing from our partners at SDOT about the critical new district project or district project fund and implementation of it.

This vital fund is designed to expand neighborhood scale traffic safety improvements and other district transportation project related priorities with funding allocated equally across Seattle's seven geographic council districts.

My office has spent many hours reviewing requests from constituents, working with our partners at SDOT to come up with a list of projects that fit within our own district's two million dollar budget over the course of two years.

And yesterday I sent out a transparency piece in my newsletter to my constituents about some of those specific projects.

But colleagues, I am sure you and your staffs undertook similar exercises in terms of due diligence and aligning on a set of projects that keep your district safe and work best for your communities.

I, for one, am eager to hear about how these vital safety projects will be implemented.

Finally, our third agenda item today, we'll hear a briefing about clerk file 314530, a petition to vacate an alley in Greenwood, North End there.

Alleys are city property and therefore owned by the taxpayers.

Ceding one to a private party, which you know is known as a vacation, is a long and nuanced process that involves multiple appearances in front of this committee.

Part of our responsibility here, colleagues, is to vet alley vacations like this to ensure that the citizens are getting a fair trade for their property.

There's sufficient and adequate and appropriate public benefit.

It's another way of saying that.

Collectively, these items on today's agenda really represent a street-level view of politics.

So super exciting stuff.

Colleagues meeting attendees and those attending tuning in live on the Seattle Channel.

This is what local government is all about at the end of the day, from considering laws designed to create safer communities and advocating for street improvements to considering vacating a public right-of-way.

Today's committee meeting is pretty much local government 101.

Good representation of what we generally do in this committee.

So let's go.

Lastly, a few quick housekeeping items.

This task force will have several key functions in support of the transportation levy, including developing advisory policy and establishing funding recommendations and advising on appropriate revenue tools and financing strategies and ultimately assessing potential equity impacts and come up coming up with the doing all that and coming up with a series of recommendations to advise the council, the mayor, on how to move forward with three with respect to three important asset classes.

Bridges, sidewalks, and roads, pavement conditions.

Colleagues you'll recall we established this important committee a couple years ago during the transportation levy consideration.

So really excited that we're uh that our partners at SDOT are getting started to recruiting this for this.

So uh so stay tuned.

Alright, that is all on my end for now in terms of chairs' remarks.

Thank you.

We will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda and within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Chair, currently we have four in-person speakers signed up, and there is one remote speaker.

Perfect.

Each speaker will have approximately two minutes.

We will start with the in-person speakers first.

Clerk, can you please read the public comment instructions?

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

Speakers will alternate between sets of in-person and remote speakers until the public comment period has ended.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

Speakers' mics will be muted if they do not end their comments within the allotted time to allow us to call on the next speaker.

The public comment period is now open.

We'll begin with the first speaker on the list, Mark Ostro.

Good morning, uh Chair Saka, Council members.

Uh my name is Mark Ostro, and today you have an opportunity to advance shared streets in Seattle, and I hope you'll vote yes.

Uh shared streets are common across Europe and Asia.

But Washington, as you heard, was the first state in the U.S.

to legalize them.

I wish I could say that Seattle would be the first city, but Redmond beat us to the punch by several months.

While STOT will not be presenting a list of streets today, when they do, I hope you'll press them to take a bold approach.

I hope you'll press them to create high-quality examples, and I hope you'll press them to normalize shared streets and apply them broadly across the city.

Shared streets are a tool, they can be applied in obvious places like Bell Street and Ballard Avenue.

But they can also be applied to healthy streets, neighborhood greenways, school streets, festival streets, home zones, low traffic neighborhoods, historic boulevards, and super blocks.

Of those, I think our greatest opportunity is to create home zones in South Seattle and north of 85th and in West Seattle, where people are all ready forced to share the roadway with cars.

In those places, shared streets can be used to reduce speed limits and give pedestrians priority.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker will be Anne Marie Dooley.

Hi, Chair, Council Members.

Uh, my name is Anne Marie Dooley.

I'm a doctor with Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Thank you for allowing me to speak today in support of shared streets.

You know, Monday on the way to the hospital, I saw the aftermath of a horrible crash where a car drove into a woman on a crosswalk.

And no amount of doctoring is going to undo the damage done to that woman.

The reason these crashes don't happen on residential streets right now is the speed limits slower and generally they're a much safer place to be.

When I was a member of ATSAC last year, the Iraq of Transportation Safety Council voting for this measure, as did other people on the council.

I was envisioning a whole network of shared streets, allowing kids to get to school, to practice, people to get to the grocery store, not just big projects like maybe Ballard Avenue or Pike Place.

And I'm worried that these big projects are possibly why a CEPA review has come up.

Doing a CEPA review to put planters and uh signs on a street makes no sense to me.

I mean, public health is a huge part of SEPA, and I think the biggest public health issue right now is that uh motor vehicles are the leading cause of death for people under 10 to 24.

Um I think city engineers sometimes overlook how important communities are.

It's where we care for our for each other.

It's where people meet on streets, it's you know, people interactions between people of different backgrounds, uh things that don't happen in the confines of schools and sports practices.

So shared streets will make us all safer that improve public health, mental health, and despite what SDAP might say, I do think they will reduce carbon emissions uh by reducing unneeded and possibly unsafe car trips.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next public commenter will be Maggie Haynes.

Good morning, Council members.

My name's Maggie Haynes.

I'm here to speak about support for shared streets.

A proof statement that they work is the Pike Place in the Pike Place market, which has been operating as a shared street for over a hundred years.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms.

Hayes, cool glasses, by the way.

Appreciate your feedback.

Our final in-person public speaker will be Heather Peel.

Good morning, Council members.

Thank you so much for your public service.

I'm the president of Friends of the Market, Heather Peel.

We sent a letter in support of the legislation.

I wanted to explain some things about the history of Pike Place.

It is a shared street by necessity.

That's how it started out in 1907.

It's the only loading dock in the market.

In 1971, a voters' initiative was required to save the market from the city's plans and the downtown business established plans.

The Market Historical Commission is the only body that's in place to make decisions about use and design changes at Pike Place.

In 1973, the Pike Place Market PDA was established by the City Council to manage the buildings.

They do not manage the street.

In 1974, the urban renewal plan included a document called the Pike Place Design Report that called out Pike Place as a design area, a character error, excuse me.

In 1979, all the streets in the historic district were made exempt from the jaywalking ordinance.

That should tell you something about the character of Pike Place and the adjacent streets.

Pike Place fits the description of this shared streets legislation, except there actually is no 10 miles per hour limit, speed limit sign on the street.

It's not necessary.

Pike Place is a stream that flows through the market.

It's intended for use, reusing over and over again and using flexibly, not to have permanent elements installed on it.

Finally, I ask for your support in having uh the Pike Place Market PDA manage the street permanently and make decisions.

They are on site and can pivot accordingly.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

We will now go on to our remote callers.

The first one is Irene Wall.

Irene, please hit star six and speak.

Good morning, Council members.

This is Irene Wall from District 6.

When the details of shared streets criteria are finalized, please be sure that they focus on mobility and safety, not exclusivity or favoritism towards any one mode.

Fortunately, SDOT has an example of a street that has successfully functioned as a shared street for decades.

That's Pike Place in the market historic district.

I have personally experienced the street as a pedestrian, a driver, and now as a disabled walker.

It has worked successfully that way for decades.

So once the temporary restrictions on the access to Pike Place during the upcoming FIFA event, all the confusing, unnecessary and expensive signage, ballards, and other obstructions can be replaced with a simple shared street sign.

As FDOT finalizes the criteria for this designation, please ensure that the speed limit applies to all wheels, not just cars.

Also, that a shared street designation does not allow anyone or any group to occupy a street with furniture or other other obstacles without a permit.

There's also one amendment about bikes riding abreast, and please be sure that this does not permit a whole phalanx of bikes from occupying a street at the same time.

That would certainly not be safe.

So thank you very much for this.

I think shared streets are a great idea, and Pike Place is the first place to put the put it in place.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our final remote speaker will be Carlo Alcantero.

Carlo, please hit star six and speak.

Hi, my name is Carlo.

Um I help lead Aurora Reimagine Coalition.

I also live north of 85th.

Um, so I wanted to voice my uh support here for the shared streets legislation uh that you'll be hearing uh today.

Um I think Washington is the first state in the US to implement something like this, and so that positions Seattle in a unique pos in a unique place to really be a leader on this uh or the country and set examples for other cities and states as well.

Um I guess living north of 85th, as you're probably all aware, we don't really have sidewalks up here or the ones that do just aren't really connected, and this is our opportunity to really tackle a big issue that's not going to be solved in what the next 500 years or so.

Um but I want to caution that we we do need to get this right, and that means uh we've tried greenways, we've tried healthy streets, and they've always come with compromises to uh continue to allow people to cut through neighborhoods uh in their cars.

Um, uh that still kind of makes it dangerous for people to be in the streets.

So this is our opportunity to get this right, but we have to do it in a way that uh does slow down traffic and makes it safe for people to walk, bike, roll, etc.

in the streets.

Um this is again a shared streets model, so we're not trying to limit anyone's mobility to get anywhere.

Um we just want to make it safe for all users of the street, um, and especially in those places where you don't have sidewalks, and this is our opportunity to make it safe for those people to walk, bike, and roll in the street without having uh a sidewalk available to them.

Thanks.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh first off, want to recognize that Councilmember Strauss has joined us remotely uh to speak about his um the first item of business, which we're gonna consider in just a moment.

So welcome, Councilmember Strauss.

We will now move on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one council bill one two one one seven six, an ordinance relating to shared streets, adding a new chapter 11.45 to the Seattle Municipal code, adding new sections 11.14.1.562 and 11.52.125 to the Seattle municipal code, amending sections 11.40.090, 11.40.100, 11.40.120, 11.40.160, 11.40 point 220, 11.40.240, 11.44040, 11.44060, and 11.53205 of the Seattle Municipal Code, and amending the title of Title 11, subtitle one part four of the Seattle Municipal Code.

Oof.

All right, you you deserve a breather, Clerk.

Thank you for that.

Uh and thank you.

Welcome.

Looks like our presenters already joined us at the table.

Welcome.

Once ready, uh, please introduce yourselves and begin your presentation.

Good morning, council members.

I'm Calvin Show with Council Central Staff.

Thank you for having me here.

Um, Chair, you mentioned uh in your introductions a lot of what I was going to cover in describing this legislation, so I'll try to be a little bit brief.

But shared streets was uh authorized by the state legislature last year, and at the request of councilmember Strauss, Central Staff developed this legislation to uh basically uh uh bring our code up into compliance with the new state legislature, the new state law.

The key features are that shared streets prioritize pedestrian movements over bicycles and micromobility, and it prioritizes bicycles bicycles and micromobility over motorized vehicles.

It does allow for a 10 mile per hour speed limit, and it has some requirements about annual safety reporting and and the uh performance of these streets.

So the legislation in front of you is really about enabling legislation that is consistent with these changes, and it allows us not to work on implementation rules and to eventually um establish these locations in the city.

So again, just really briefly, this legislation does not designate specific locations, it assigns the responsibility for establishing these designations and procedures to city's traffic engineer, and the Vision Zero team anticipates releasing these designation procedures.

I believe in June.

Um, these procedures would require CPA review.

It's a bit of a judgment call about how complicated a proposal might be or whether uh actual implementation would require it, but if any additional revisions are needed, future legislation could be proposed as well.

That council members, I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Chow.

Before we get there, I want to recognize and again welcome uh council member Strauss um and uh allow him the opportunity to speak directly on this this piece of legislation.

Councilmember Strauss.

Uh uh thank you, Chair, and my apologies for not being in person.

I'm on my way to Sound Transit to make sure that we get to the West Seattle Junction and to save the ballard light rail extension.

So that committee starts in about four minutes.

So I'll make all of my comments now and then I'll probably have to log off.

Just really appreciate everyone's work on this.

Uh Chair Saka, Mark Ostro, Heather Peel described this journey very well from the history from Chair Saka to the need by Mark Ostro and the context from Heather Peel.

I'm not gonna repeat your words because you said it so well.

I will add the additional context of you know my advocacy for this bill started in 2021 as we were turning Ballard Avenue into a cafe street that is still successful today, and in those in sitting in the cafes, it in the break period in our design charrette and how to redesign that street to be more like what Pike Place is.

We were very aware that the speed limit couldn't be reduced below 25 miles an hour.

And if you're sitting in a street cafe, and there's a car going 25 miles an hour.

There's a um, that's not safe, it's not it doesn't work very well.

It's it's not good public policy, and so that required us to go to Olympia to pass the Senate bill.

The uh chair soccer reference, and that gave us the allowance last year.

Mark Ostro is correct.

Redman beat us to us, beat us to it by passing this enabling legislation, and as the Calvin Chow from Central Staff denoted to implement this fully, it the legislature required council matic actions on the streets designated, and so to designate specific streets across the city, we will have to come back and pass that enabling legislation.

This is a great bill.

Uh I'm thankful for everyone who's worked on it and for getting it across the finish line.

Hopefully today and next Tuesday.

Uh and I'm happy to take anyone's questions if you do have questions.

I just want to thank everyone for getting this done.

Excellent.

Thank you, Council Member Strauss.

Uh appreciate your leadership on in bringing this forward and uh your partnership and work with me to to get this done, hopefully um soon.

Colleagues, I welcome any questions, comments, feedback you may have.

Starting first, Custom Barely with Vice Chair Rink, if you have any.

Thank you, Chair Saka.

And colleagues, I could not be more excited that this legislation is before us today.

Um, and huge appreciation to Councilmember Strauss uh for your work in really expediting this process and and thank you, Chair, for getting this on the agenda today.

And I'm ready to to vote yes and support this.

A lot of my questions are just about what comes next.

And so just a couple of quick questions, and I understand we don't have SDOT at the table to speak to some of this, but I want to get some of my questions out there.

Um Calvin, I know on the previous uh slide around let's see, just around um the designation procedures that we'll receive in June.

Can you expand a little bit on what those designation procedures may look like and what we can expect on that?

Council member, I I can't speak on that.

That is uh up to the traffic engineer to establish what those would be, and I think depending on what those look like, there whether that requires additional legislation or not, I think remains to be seen.

Uh I know there is interest among the public and among council offices of having specific locations identified, so there's probably some you know, some ability, some opportunity for discussion there.

Um, but uh we will need to see what those uh skylines look like and how much of it uh there may be different ways that that gets implemented.

But we can follow up with uh a start and um try to make sure that that conversation happens as well.

That would be fantastic.

Thank you for that, Cal.

Yeah, my questions really boil down to what are those next steps?

Um, I know that's one component of it, and then I I think questions around how many uh places are we talking about?

I don't think this legislation limits in any way how many shared streets we can have, um, which really opens up a ton of opportunity around our city, and then um, further just putting this out there as a comment.

Really interested to know kind of from a design perspective.

You know, this legislation outlines um prioritizing pedestrian movements uh over uh bicycles, micromobility, and and so on, and so wondering how that will look like and how we put that into practice.

So um a lot of questions around how we move forward in implementation and just ready to get started on that work and ready to vote yes today.

So thank you, Chair, and thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Uh next up, Councilmember Kettle, floor is yours.

Uh thank you, Chair Saka, and thank you, Councilmember Strauss, who I think has uh left us uh obviously a lot of work that he's put into this.

Uh he's working the issues of the shared streets essentially that we have in Ballard.

Um, and then uh looking to bring uh the the work of Olympia here to our streets here in Seattle.

I had a uh a few questions that my team was um, I think it would be helpful just to walk through and then um essentially like a summary statement.

And um, and one of the things is and I think you may have mentioned it, Chair, but will there be more legislation coming to council to approve once us dot uh sets their standards for shared streets?

Um, it is to be determined.

It depends a little bit on how the the um the rule making process uh goes.

Uh there may be a desire on council members to have specific locations identified and raised to a higher level, so I think that is all possible, but it hasn't been uh uh explicitly described yet.

Beautiful answer, Mr.

Chow.

Thank you, Mr.

Chow for being here, by the way.

Um, because that leads to my next question, which will STOP be solely responsible for implementing shared streets once SDOT identifies potential locations.

Could communities and/or neighborhoods request a shared street designation, and will a process for that be folded into the overall policies and protocol during the their work period.

And uh so I you kind of answered it, but if you want to expand, yeah.

I mean, broadly speaking, shared streets are one of the tools that we will have to be able to deploy, and so like any number of community requests, they need to go through a review from a professional engineer who's going to review the proposal and and frankly um evaluate it professionally and be responsible for the liability if uh for the decisions that are made on it.

So there is a procedure that has to go and be done, and we have to make sure that we're able to take those ideas that come through council members that come through the regular process, um, get the attention in SDOT to uh to have this as one of the tools that could be deployed.

But I can't speak specifically to how the how SDOT is set up.

I know that they are clearly interested in the same type of issues that you get through your district project fund conversations and other stakeholder feedback, and we can continue to work with SDOT of how to make sure that that communication happens on this particular issue as well.

Thank you, Mr.

Chow.

I can see Mr.

Labor uh behind you nodding.

Uh so he's taken in, and no doubt people are at SDART are watching right now taking notes as well.

And then my third question just asks, um, what is the best way for council to request an area be considered for shared street status?

And uh again, you've kind of answered this.

And uh but these are the questions that you know knowledgeable staff have, and it's gonna be questions that the public has.

So I think it's important to ask those questions here in this venue in this forum.

Um but uh I also wanted to add first I want to say thank you for all the public commenters, but particularly Mr.

Ostro, who I've been working with for quite a while in our shared service on the Queen Anne Community Council, and Dr.

Anne Marie, who I've met recently.

Uh thank you for coming and commenting.

I don't and then obviously um Miss Peel uh you know from the market uh all things market and uh and Maggie as well.

Sorry, I forgot some of the last names, but uh um really appreciate you coming here.

And um it really shows you know the issues that are there, and to be parochial, nice D7 representation, thank you.

Um and for D7, I think it's important to highlight because we have opportunities to have shared streets to have this kind of feel uh due to the uniqueness of you know the downtown and up through uptown, Belltown, Uptown, South Lake Union and across uh Queen over to Magnolia.

And so, for example, we're we're essentially creating a civic campus uh on top of Queen Anne.

Yeah, you know, for the follow-on agenda item, you know, on Crockett, I mean uh the school street area related to um McClure and uh Queen Anne Community Center and the pool and Big Howe Park, but also Crockett, some work there on uh Crockett Street, and uh so we have the opportunity to create it's a little bit different, but a civic campus.

But one area, and and I gotta look for Mr.

Ostro when he was going through his checklist of different types when he said historic uh boulevards, um, because that was essentially a softball to me to say the Queen Anne Boulevard Park, and I've had I just had a meeting with uh parks and because I want SDOT and Parks to say, hey, what can we do to level elevate the Queen Anne Boulevard Park?

And one potential way is shared streets for a couple areas, you know, near Marshall Park on the south uh west corner, near the Wilcox Wall, that area right there.

I think there's opportunities, particularly because you have the outlook and and the park, the Betty Bauman uh viewpoint, and then separately over by Bright Cracky Park on the southeast side of the boulevard.

Um that's another area, for example.

Uh, there's no sidewalks there, there's bright cracky, you have these different outlooks.

So we have opportunities to um kind of look to bring into play the shared streets, but then also solidify and build up um the Queen Anne Boulevard Park, because I do want Eston parks to work together, like hey, what can we do to build up that uh essentially city asset, city gem, it's not Queen Anne only because people come from all over the city to walk it nearly four mile uh circuit on top of the hill with all its views and and uh for bicyclists and walkers and all the like.

And so we have these opportunities, um, and I think, and we'll walk through these questions as Mr.

Chow was noting in his answers and chair and the work that you're gonna be setting up here with with the committee and the full council.

But uh I think again commenters for being here, the organizations that they represent were the old Queen Anne Greenways, now shared streets, different names, Street Alliance.

Sorry, Street Alliance, um, Queen Anne Community Council, the various pieces of the market include Friends of the Market, which we did receive a letter uh right here.

And um, and so I really like the engagement, and we'll continue to do the engagement with through the District 7 neighborhood council, at least from the district seven uh piece.

And um, so again, thank you, everyone, and thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Council Member Lynn, you're recognized.

Thank you.

Also very excited about um this and um a little bit concerned about uh the CPR CEPA review.

Uh I'm just struggling to see the benefit of CEPA review here, and but I see a lot of I have a lot of concern about delays in implementation that could occur through uh just appeals, which we see so often.

So just mentioning that, I think it's just another area where we could um update our CEPA procedures potentially.

Uh so be interested in working with colleagues on that if needed.

Um, another thing, just uh very excited to uh see um I think not only the designation, but um I'd be curious to find out what are the engineering changes that are needed to make these truly safe.

You know, it's one thing to designate something legally, but it's another thing to signal that through um you know the physical environment, and so I'll be very interested to learn um how how we can do that to ensure that um these truly are shared streets um and not just a name only.

Um thank you.

Uh look forward to uh uh the next steps.

Excellent.

Thank you, Councilmember Lynn.

And last but not least, Councilmember Foster, you are recognized.

Thank you so much, Chair, and thank you, committee members.

Sorry I can't be there with you in person today.

I um stayed home with my germs as I came down with a cold, but I just wanted to say I'm really excited to vote on this, and I want to echo some of the comments that actually, Councilmember Lynn just made.

This is such an important uh moment for us to get to implement the shared streets legislation, and then as we move forward and identify those locations, we want to make sure that we are understanding what other changes may need to come with those so that we can have really truly wonderful places um that are working for all of our residents here in Seattle.

Um, I want to appreciate Councilmember Strauss for um his leadership on this bill as well.

Um, and thank you, Chair, for bringing this forward and looking forward to voting today.

Thank you.

Excellent, thank you so much, Councilmember Foster.

Uh a couple couple quick comments and self-reflections from my perspective.

Uh, first off, I too want to thank our public commenters, including the folks who joined us in person today, Mark Oshrow, Anne Marie Dooley, Maggie Haynes, and Heather Peel.

Really appreciate every last one of you for sharing your feedback.

Very insightful and and strong support in our into our callers on online who joined us online and share their perspective as well.

Really appreciate you.

Uh, as Mr.

Ostro noted, uh, we would not be the first local jurisdiction to implement this.

Redmond beat us to the punch.

Take that as you will.

Uh I haven't done a side-by-side analysis, nor have I directed our central staff to perform a side-by-side analysis and compare and contrast, you know, our bill versus their legislation and this and that and the other.

Don't know, don't care.

Um here's what I do know.

And no disrespect to our our friends in the city of Redmond.

They do great work, great peer government.

We happen to be larger, but they are a peer.

Um, but here's what I do know the opportunity and the potential impact of this legislation here in the city of Seattle is far greater than anywhere else in the state.

Redmond, plenty of suburban sprawl here, city of Seattle, dense urban environment.

Even in our even our suburbs, are more dense than most dense locations in surrounding jurisdictions.

So the opportunity for impact and to drive true safety and bring to life this legislation in a safe manner is greater than any locality around.

And so I know that to be true.

I also know that I work with some of the smartest central staff authors that helped us write this up.

I have some of the smartest colleagues who uh who directed and and wrote this legislation as well.

Working with some of the smartest engineers and planners at SDOT.

SDOT is a leading global or a leading agency recognized globally for its engineering expertise and work.

I'll as I say I'm confident in my team.

I'll put my team against any team.

So first is not always best.

And the opportunity here is greater than anywhere.

That those are those are the truths I do know.

Um but I'm really excited.

Uh but also I'll echo as was noted passing the legislative framework is an important next step.

Uh but implementation.

We'll we'll have to continue, colleagues, and members of the public, monitor implementation, and I know our partners at SDOT are motivated to get this done as well, which which I really appreciate.

Again, I'll put my planners and engineers against anybody's planners and engineers.

Um my central staff against anybody's all right, colleagues.

We I am gonna break my own customary rule for uh ordinances where we typically hold at least two committee meetings, um, one to initially hear, and the second a particular council bill, piece of ordin or legislation ordinance, and then the second to vote on it.

I'm gonna waive that here for a couple couple reasons.

One, this directly advances our committee's shared priority of advancing safety off the top, very important.

Uh next, this is a council generated piece of legislation as opposed to executive-generated piece of legislation.

Um, so considering here today, would would it directly advance a council priority?

Important factor.

Uh, and there's clear interest and excitement from community and and my colleagues to to get this done.

So we're gonna we're gonna dispatch of it here today at committee and uh and hopefully move it forward.

That said, let me go ahead and formally do that.

I move the committee recommend approval of council bill one two one seven six.

Is there a second second?

It is moved and seconded to recommend approval of council bill one-two-one-one seven six.

Are there any further comments?

Councilmember, there is uh, I believe one friendly amendment that is uh, yes, yes.

Uh that is true.

Let me get that.

I think that's my own amendment.

Um so we move the main bill now.

We can now we can uh move the amendment.

So I move to pass amendment one to council bill one two one seven six as presented on the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second, it is moved and seconded to uh pass the amendment number one.

Is there any comments on it on amendment number one?

Councilman, would you like me to describe it very very briefly?

Sure, yes.

So, council member, this uh amendment was uh brought forward as a friendly amendment.

Uh SDOT staff had a couple of very minor clarifying language um to help with the interpretation of the law.

So um it is really just these two pieces in red that you see in front of you, uh, just clarifying exactly how the language should be implemented.

It does not substantively change the legislation in any real way.

Thank you.

Any final questions, comments, colleagues?

No.

Well, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of amendment one?

Councilmember Foster.

Yes.

Councilmember Kennel.

Aye.

Councilmember Lynn.

Yes.

Vice Chair Rink.

Yes.

Chair Saka.

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

All right.

The amendment passes.

Uh now let's vote on the main bill as amended.

Which is already.

Do we have to move the now has been amendment uh amended?

No.

Okay.

Moved already.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right.

So let's let's vote on the main bill.

Council bill one two one one seven six as amended.

Will the clerk is there any comments on the bill as amended?

Hearing it seeing none, will the committee clerk chair?

Yep.

Just to say thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, Councilmember Shrouss.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh sorry.

Clerk, please call the roll on the on the bill before us as amended.

Councilmember Foster.

Yes.

Councilmember Kettle.

Councilmember Lynn.

Yes.

Vice Chair Rank.

Yes.

Chair Saka.

Aye.

Chair, there are five votes in favor and zero opposed.

All right.

Thank you.

The motion carries in the committee recommendation that the council approve council bill one two one seven six will be sent to the May 12th, 2026 City Council meeting.

Thank you.

Congratulations, Councilmember Shrouss, and appreciate your leadership and partnership in getting this done.

Moving it on.

Alright, we will now move on to our second item of business.

Will the clerk please read item two into the record?

Agenda item two.

All right, thank you.

Uh welcome.

Looks like our presenters are joining us at the table.

Welcome again.

Once ready, please introduce yourselves and begin your presentation.

Thank you, Chair Saka.

Members of the committee.

I'm Bill Laport from uh the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Good morning, council members.

I'm Jim Curtin, uh Manager of Project Development Division at STOP.

Okay.

Uh I'm gonna get started, but first I want to note that uh the person who runs this program, our program manager Simon Blensky, who I think you've all had time to interact with is out sick today.

I think he's got maybe the cold uh the council member foster has.

So Simon, if you're watching this at home, I hope you get well soon, buddy.

Uh but let's dive in.

We're here to talk about uh the district project fund here today and provide you all with an update on this new program.

Um so uh as a reminder, want to go uh provide a quick overview of the program itself.

Uh this program funds neighborhood scale traffic safety improvements and other district priority projects at the direction of City Council.

Uh there was seven million dollars allocated in the 2025 budget and seven million dollars allocated in the 2026 budget to support this program.

And since this is a capital program, all funds will roll forward if they are unspent to future years.

But do want to uh note that after 2027, there is no funding secured for this uh program.

So uh action would need to be taken if we wanted it to continue.

And today we're here to provide an update on the 2026 project selection process and the next steps.

Our annual program schedule um is uh is quite simple in the fall and winter.

We share project selection resources with council members.

Uh council members provide uh project ideas to SDOT by March 1st, and uh SDOT then takes about two months to uh review those projects, right?

Uh we look at uh a number of different things, make sure the project's feasible, come up with cost estimates, and we share those with you on May 1st, which was just a couple weeks ago.

Um, and then council members, you have until June 1st to uh basically select the projects that you'd like to see uh proceed in the district project fund.

And just one clarification there.

Um, this year the uh deadline for council members submit projects was pushed back a month to April 1, and that was just because it's the first year of an active program, so um, but in if funding is available in the future or for future submittals with existing funding, the deadline would be March 1.

Yeah, I appreciate that, Bill.

Thank you for the clarification.

Uh, and then you know, once we get the projects selected by council members, SDOT constructs those projects typically within one to two years.

And so uh this March we've received 60 project requests across the seven council districts.

This map here shows the locations of those requests across each district in the city.

The number of projects varies by district, but several requests were made uh by each uh council member.

Again, 60 projects were received uh across the districts.

We're not here to get into the specific details of those projects here today, but we do want to share some highlights of uh the various different projects, some common themes that we saw.

Uh projects I think range from street maintenance projects to public realm improvements.

Uh I think Councilmember Kettle had mentioned previously, like school streets uh adjacent to McClure Middle School.

We have transit stop improvements and we have some plazas in various uh different parts of the city, including uh council member Lynn's district.

Uh we have a ton of requests.

The majority of the requests were for uh enhanced crossings, marked crosswalks, flashing beacons, and traffic calming.

Um, and so most of the projects that you all shared with us directly support safety and improved connections to schools, parks, and businesses as well.

In March and April, SDOT uh reviewed all 60 of those projects.

Uh we had a small but mighty team of folks at SDOT lead the review.

We pulled in other subject matter experts when needed, uh, and were able to get through the review process and approve the preliminary concepts uh as needed.

Again, we were looking at the different project proposals to ensure that they were feasible based on city and federal standards, guidelines, and best practices.

As part of SDOT's review, we developed cost estimates, which included some very high-level design uh construction, uh standard contingencies and staff review time.

Uh the average cost of the staff review was pretty small, about a thousand dollars per project, with some project costs being a little higher for projects that required a little bit more data collection or analysis.

Uh the good news is that those review costs and staff time uh data collection, all those things are what we would do for a standard project anyway.

Um so uh if the project is selected, we now have a head start on the planning and design of those individual projects.

We then prepared project review forms with comments, design concepts, cost estimates, and this information was all shared with you all last week.

And where appropriate, we provided multiple design options uh for your consideration.

Uh most of those options were to provide lower cost and higher cost options uh for these projects to achieve your project goals.

I think a good example of that is uh for like a curb bulb.

We have an option for a lower cost painted curve bowl or a higher cost concrete curve bulb.

Okay.

And again, uh out of the 60 projects that we received, we recommend moving forward with 55 of those projects.

And most of those projects can be delivered by SDOT crews in 2027.

There are a couple of projects that are recommended for 28 2028-2029 delivery due to overlapping uh work and uh opportunities to coordinate, limit construction fatigue uh for the community out there, and just take uh advantage of our resources and maximize efficiencies there.

The five projects that were not recommended um fall into a couple of categories.

The first category is projects that were already planned or funded, right?

There are three projects that were already planned or funded, and the good news is those projects are going to move forward um and they're gonna get built through other SDOT programs.

There were two projects that fall into uh another category where SDOT is not able to deliver those.

Um, you know, they're good ideas, good improvements, but better suited for a third party to fund and deliver.

Uh SDOT can still play a role and support the delivery of these improvements uh through our standard permitting processes.

And we also want to note that projects that were not recommended to move forward have already been uh shared with the council members and discussed with them as uh their respective offices as well.

So council members have uh until June 1st to select projects.

Um again, there's two million dollars currently available for each council district.

Uh the program includes one million in 2025 and 1 million in 2026, but since this is the first year, we are running a project selection process uh where there's two years of funding available or two million dollars for each district.

Total project costs for some of the districts currently exceed two million dollars, so we may need to consider some of those lower cost options or defer some projects, and as you weigh those different options as you take that into consideration, the district project fund team at SDOT is here to help you and support you in that decision-making process.

And again, reminder any unsped funds are going to roll forward and can be used in subsequent processes.

So, as far as next steps are concerned, uh the team again is on standby to answer any questions that you all may have about the project reviews that we provided to you next week, the cost estimates that were included as well, and we encourage you to reach out to us uh to discuss any of the projects ahead of that June first deadline.

Again, council members have until June 1st to select those projects to fund and move forward in this uh inaugural round of the district project fund, and then we're gonna be rolling into the design and build process process, and most of those projects again will be delivered in 2027.

And lastly, I'll just say that we are going to provide you all with regular updates as we go through uh the process.

Um, we're on standby to help you in any way uh uh that you need, so feel free to reach out to us, and uh I think we're all really really happy.

You guys all provided some great projects for us that are undoubtedly going to provide a great benefit to the community.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate the presentation here.

Uh, colleagues.

Uh at this point, I will open it up to any questions or comments from your perspective.

Starting first with uh Councilmember Rink.

If you have any.

Thank you, Chair.

No questions or comments for today on this topic.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Council Member Lynn.

Thank you, Chair.

Um just want to thank SDOT uh for all the work uh that's gone into this.

Um it's uh been a you know really great process to learn about how these projects uh get designed, how they get implemented.

Um, really excited to kind of get to the next step to actually see um these um get built.

Um I think as your presentation noted uh the overwhelming uh sense from the request is that neighborhoods um are concerned about safety, right?

And and we were talking about this earlier with shared streets, and just uh it's been a you know top priority for this committee around vision zero.

And you know, this um it's been interesting to see neighbors galvanizing and and demanding hey, we want uh increased safety in our neighborhoods, where our kids are um and you know, to give them a voice in um and to allow them to sort of engage in this process and to learn um how to make our street safer.

Um it has been uh rewarding in that regard as well.

So uh just want to say thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Lynn.

Councilmember Kettle, floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, like Councilmember Lynn, I just wanted to thank the SDOT team uh for your work across the board.

Uh, really appreciate it of ours.

I I do believe we had one that was already on on the books.

Um, and I think we figured that out earlier rather than later.

And um, and so we were able to engage you know with Vision Zero as a guiding light uh for projects across Uptown, Queen Ann, uh Magnolia, and I think all the projects um will facilitate uh you know other projects like the civic campus point I raised earlier in the previous agenda item, or when I talk about neighborhood villages within the com plan approach, like you know, in terms of uh the D7 part of Magnolia, that one part of Magnolia that doesn't really have that kind of village, and I think the transportation to match the land use as I've often said two sides of the same coin.

Usually I'm talking about that related to uh PSRC and the COM plan and and sound transit in terms of the Ballard Link extension, but applies here too.

That land use and transportation um ideas and work really need to be paired up closely.

So uh thank you for that, and um that's all.

Thanks, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Kettle.

Uh I too want to thank start off by thanking our uh partners at SDOT, Mr.

Curtin, Mr.

Labor, Simon who's uh unfortunately sick today.

Um, and I hope he's not laid up at home sick, tuning into the Seattle Channel to watch this.

I hope he's resting.

Uh yeah, we can life life goes on, the world keeps on spinning.

We can catch him up later.

But um, but appreciate his his partnership and and helping to implement this vital program and working so closely with me, my office, uh, my colleague, the the offices of my colleagues here to uh get us to this point.

Um, plenty more work to do, of course.

You know, we basically just at the selection phase right now.

Uh and and but I want to thank SDOT for their partnership.

Colleagues, I want to thank you all for your partnership and and strong engagement in this this vital safety program in our neighborhoods.

Uh to say it's been wild wildly successful is probably a gross understatement based off the engagement that I'm hearing, um, discussions that I had and and checking in with our partners at SDOT about their interactions with the respective offices as well, so which is terrific news.

Um, just to kind of level sit on the or remind about this vital program and how it was established from from my perspective, uh, as you know, one of the architects, actually, this was all the entire council passed this, um, so my name wasn't solely on it.

The entire council passed this budget item two years ago, uh, during the fall 2024 budget process, and we established funding for uh calendar years 2025 and calendar years 2026, approximately one million dollars each for each of the seven respective council districts.

Um, and at the time to date, uh this is intended to allow our city to be collectively more responsive to local hyperlocal needs, hyper-local needs, and also advance critical safety projects in our neighborhoods at a high level, those are the two goals.

Um what ends up happening?

So our council, we we provide funding for any number of programs and services within any of our executive departments.

In this case, uh SDOT uh has numerous traffic safety programs and investments and and funds of money they can use to do any number of cool things to keep people safe in our on our roads.

Uh for example, there's the neighborhood initiated safety fund, the legacy neighborhood street fund before that.

Uh there's a safe routes to school fund.

There is the neighborhood traffic calming program, vision zero program reset resources, and so much more.

And we as a council have funded each of those vital programs with tens of millions of dollars.

So the department retains plenty of discretion to figure out where to best spend and and build those projects and advance those programs from a citywide perspective.

What we here at council were keenly interested in is how we can what's best for citywide isn't necessarily best for our districts.

So here go this program.

We passed implementing legislation last fall to establish the parameters and we worked closely with the SDOT and the executive to do that.

So we all we're all operating from the same uh sheet of music, same shared understanding of how this will be structured, run, and implemented, and we established uh basically a floor of of things, including timeline and and uh each of us are free to uh to beat those timelines.

Um, and I've I've done worked hard to do that on my end and would encourage the department to to do the same on their end.

Um as Mr.

Curtin noted, and as I noted as well, so this this program was funded for two years after this year 2026.

There is no current funding established for this program.

Uh given the wild success of this vital program and the direct tie and nexus to advancing our critical safety traffic safety priorities.

I would strongly encourage the executive to include funding to renew this program next year and beyond.

In fact, we may consider legislation calling on exactly that.

In any event, great program, really appreciate our partners at SDOT for all your work uh and partnership and getting us to this point.

I've already, as your slide, Mr.

Curtin, on I think slide nine notes, the council members have until June 1st in advance.

I've already I've already beat that.

We put our our projects forward.

We uh we endeavor to be great partners, and to the extent there's a there's a you know a lag or delay or you know, some latency, uh we don't we don't want the blocker to be on our end.

So I uh so I appreciate your uh your partnership and getting these done.

Oftentimes, and another kind of real-world example of how how this comes up through the context of one of the projects that uh I disclosed in my newsletter yesterday that we're gonna that were selected for funding on the uh Bearmont Park Fauntleroy projects, installing traffic, cross crossings, so and the the lighting signals, sorry, I should know the engineering appropriate engineering terms for those.

See my newsletter per my last email.

Uh but since I took office in 24, almost immediately we started receiving calls and emails and constituent requests from families at the school, people who never go don't go to the school at all, but regularly use the the park, the city park that's right next door, and the play fields that's right next door, and walk their dog, and you know, go to support the local businesses on the other side of the street, etc.

Because it's close to the Morgan Junction.

Whatever it is, we we started over the last two years, we received hundreds of calls and emails asking for a traffic light or some some way to facilitate safe travel from one side of that street to the other.

And today, and let me describe the system that's in place today.

It's uh it's those old-fashioned wooden poles with the with the orange flags.

On each side of the street, the idea is like hey, we as a city we know pedestrians are crossing here, there's no Mark Crosswalk, but this is our effort to ideally make it as safe as possible, recognizing we need to probably do more and have a more permanent solution.

Um, and so regularly families, hundreds a day probably, uh, are crossing from one side to the other, crossing across a major thoroughfare, Fontleroy, a major arterial Fauntleroy.

Um, and so when we got those requests, you know, over the over the years, we just we'd forward them onto the department, and again, unfortunately, sometimes these projects fall below the cut line from a citywide perspective, and uh so that's why this program is so important.

It helps us expedite and accelerate and fast track these vital projects and and and programs across across the city to keep people safe.

And as and I would uh although in the in the legislation, you know, our partners at SDOT we aligned on on some sort of minimum standards for timing.

I would encourage the department uh to find opportunities to exceed expectations on some of those key projects, not all, it's a lot of projects.

I get that.

Uh, on top of all the other great work that's going on across the city, it's a lot of projects.

Um, but I I look forward to working with you all to kind of prioritize and figure out which ones we can get done this year.

Um, and as a starting point, I would posit that uh if anything, any projects that are connecting people to schools.

I mentioned one in my district, but I heard of an I'm aware of at least another in another district in a middle school, um, you know, advance that help you know facilitate though that those safe connections.

I would strongly prioritize those, but again, look forward to working with the department offline to figure out which ones we can uh get done and deliver this year and and exceed some expectations.

So in any event, thank you again.

Really appreciate it, colleagues, uh and s.

We will, unless you all have anything to add.

I just want to say thank you to all of you and your colleagues because you really submitted an incredible list of projects, and you know, I got to be a little bit more involved in the project development process than I normally am just because this is a council member program, and I working with the core team, they really had a lot of enthusiasm and continue to have a lot of enthusiasm about these projects, and so just thank you for putting so much thought and into them into your submittals.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

All right, uh, we will now move on to our third and final item of business.

Will the clerk please read item three into the record?

Agenda item three, clerk file 314-530.

Petition of the ULLC for the vacation of a portion of the alley lying within block two, Wegener's edition to the City of Seattle, being the block bounded by North 87th Street, First Avenue Northwest, Palatine Avenue North, North 85th Street, and 8623 Palatine Avenue North.

All right, thank you.

Welcome.

Let's see, we don't need to formally commence the public hearing until they speak, right?

Um, that public hearing either before or after the presentation.

Okay, let's let's get the presentation going.

Welcome presenters.

Uh very full and robust table today.

Uh, welcome everyone.

Uh, why don't you go ahead and begin your presentation and then we can kick off the formal public hearing process.

Just uh frame what you're gonna hear today.

Uh Lishwitz and council Central staff.

Um, this is uh public hearing for a alley vacation in the Greenwood neighborhood.

Um, as a reminder, the council has up to three sort of touches on a vacation proposal.

Um, when uh property owner first petitions the city uh to vacate the right-of-way next to their property, uh the council may choose to receive a briefing on the proposal at that point and provide input.

The committee or the transportation committee received a briefing on this proposal in February of 2024.

Once that petition has been filed, city departments and the Seattle Design Commission review it and develop a recommendation to the city council about whether or not it should be approved and what conditions should be placed on the approval.

That's the stage we're at now.

This is really the substantive decision on this vacation.

So in front of you is whether or not to approve this vacation and whether or not the conditions that SDOT has proposed are appropriate.

The final step is after approval, once all of the conditions that the council has placed on the vacation have been met, an ordinance will come to you, and at that point you are providing the final agreement that they've met the conditions and the city cedes the right-of-way.

At the back of my memo for today's meeting is a set of proposed conditions based on SDOT's recommended conditions.

At your next meeting, if you agree with those conditions, they'll be added to the clerk file, and the committee would recommend approval with those conditions.

And I'll hand it over to uh SDOT to kick off the more substantive unless there are questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Woodson.

So my Mia Copa appreciate that that terrific overview from a central staff perspective.

Let's let's let's actually uh give everyone the opportunity to introduce yourselves and then we can we can um take it down the line to do the substantive presentation portion.

So go ahead.

I will just start.

I am Molly Lawrence from Van S.

Feldman representing the owner of the Greenwood Shopping Center.

Hopefully, this is the last you will need to hear from me.

Lishwits and council central staff.

Bill Aboard STOP.

Judge Clary, I'm the architect for the ownership.

Amy Gray, Seattle Department of Transportation.

Michael Jenkins, Director of the Seattle Design Commission.

Kelsey Timmer, SDOP.

Jeff Swanson, President, Greenwood Shopping Center Incorporated.

Thank you very much for your time today.

So as Lish noted, the vacation petitions for an alley remnant in District 6 to develop an apartment project in the Greenwood area.

STAT reviews alley vacations in accordance with the City Council adopted policies and the criteria in the Seattle Municipal Code and the revised code of Washington.

Any street vacation is evaluated on two important elements public trust and public benefits.

Public trust looks at once the alley is removed, how do the remaining functions work on the site?

The project has been through a thorough review by SDOT with the street improvement permit review, transportation operations, zoning reviews, all other types of reviews.

I'm sure that the development team could talk extensively about, and they're all weighing in to address impacts if the alley is vacated.

We have evaluated the petition with respect to the roles that streets and alleys serve.

Access and services to the site have been addressed, and the land use implications have been evaluated and the scale of the project fits in with the surrounding community.

Other functions that alleys serve, like circulation utilities, light and air, open space, free speech, and public assembly have also been addressed.

The public benefits are appropriate and will improve the pedestrian experience.

They reflect the work that just work with the adjacent community, and the community has had a voice in forming the proposal.

It balances what the developer receives versus what the public receives.

And SDOT is recommending City Council approve the petition with the conditions described in our recommendation.

And I'll turn it over to Michael to talk about the design commission role.

Great, thank you, Amy.

Like Amy pointed out for you, the council policies, you ask the design commission to look at two the two fundamental issues: public trust and then public benefit.

And in this case, I think you'll see very clearly, this is really an opportunity to address an anomaly.

It is a remnant of an alley that exists because other portions of that alley were never vacated.

And so this is really an opportunity to look at new development that can exist with that alley removed as opposed to a no vacation alternative that would have two separate structures that frankly probably, and and the applicant made a very convincing case to the commission, they're probably not economically viable or feasible.

So the vacation allows a more functioning development that would return and enhance a right-of-way that currently does not exist.

And I think you'll see that as well.

The public benefit package, much of which you'll see exceeds the city's code requirement, which is a requirement for public benefit, allows the completion of a public realm sidewalk, planting areas, and other amenities to really create a profile of the street that does not exist today and would not exist if the alley was not vacated.

They're also doing something really unique, which is taking an existing conservation drainage easement and turning it into a public asset through improvements, improvement in planting and enhancement along the sidewalk through art and other things that makes it more of a community resource.

And finally, we spent a significant amount of time looking at other public benefits, including enhanced access to Sandal Park, which is to the north.

I think we all quickly agreed that the expense of doing that work would limit their ability to create the significant resource that they are creating along 87th and along with the enhancements to the uh facility, the drainage facility.

With that, I will send it to the applicant's way to give you the presentation.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council, for your time today.

Next slide, please.

The project's located in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle, and uh it is on Palatine and 87th, just one block directly west of Greenwood Ave and a couple blocks north of 85th Ave.

Next slide, please.

Zooming in on the site, you can see where the Greenwood Fred Meyer is if you're familiar with that as a landmark.

But here you see the Palatine 87th and our project site.

You also see in the dashed white line the existing alley that was vacated for previous work heading towards 85th, as well as in the white lines going through the project site, the alley that currently exists today.

Next slide, please.

Within this sort of diagrammatic nine-block analysis, you see the site.

You see a dash line that shows how our site sits in the uh northern edge of the Greenwood Finney Ridge residential urban village.

The urban village is the area that's been identified as where higher density would occur within the neighborhood.

And again, a little bit how that alley sits within the site.

Next slide, please.

Existing conditions, this shows a little bit better of a diagrammatic view of street level of how the alley sits and the remnant parcel that would have been created.

The remnant parcel, if you look at the existing alley through south, you kind of see that narrow little strip between the alley and the white line, that's the property line.

Next slide, please.

So one of the first things that uh we are asked to do is look at the vacation versus no vacation option.

So looking at this picture to the left, the no vacation, you see the dead end alley, the remnant parcel it creates, and the two lots that I would then have to create basically two small buildings with versus on the right, the vacation option, which allows for a much more cohesive residential development.

Next slide, please.

So the community engagement that we involved in was uh several fold.

We did the uh electronic and digital outreach, the department and neighborhood, and then we had two in-person meetings.

The first in-person meeting was early on in the process, and here we focused on some of the initial public benefits as well as sort of the building structure, how it meets the ground, and what sort of give and take.

It was a good meeting that we had.

We actually uh at that point met the neighbor that lives directly across the street, got her input on the height, bulk, and scale of the building, as well as the desire to you know really activate that streetscape on that side.

The second meeting, we really put in front of them the public benefits and our notion of extending that public benefit across the whole of the block.

And next slide, please.

That's kind of what drove us to where we're going.

Um I'm gonna quickly here you see in blue the required uh right-of-way improvements that we would have to do, and that just sets up the stage for the next slide, please.

Street level uses.

We focused on trying to make the street level use as engaging as possible.

We have townhomes, which activate residential entries along the street, a bit of amendy areas facing the street.

We have our own little courtyard, which is again part of our building itself, to activate one corner of the site at Palatine 87th, and then as we move down 87th, more pedestrian entry, bike entry, of course, an auto entry, and trash and loading locations, which we used.

Next slide, please.

On the public benefit.

So now we see again that blue required right-of-way area.

So the public benefit is twofold.

Number one, we used a little bit of uh additional area along Palatine as well as a little additional sliver of area on first and increase those sidewalk widths.

Again, this is to promote pedestrian access and movement around the site.

At the edge of the urban neighborhood, we heard from the public that this area wants to receive people walking to the store, moving around.

One of the bigger items we always wanted to do was item two up there, which is extend the sidewalk that required to build and complete the block.

And in completing the block, we'd complete the sidewalk with which it's currently just a uh what I call a goat trail, a little bit of a dirt path that didn't have much access.

So we create an actual usable sidewalk and then some planting along it as well, six-foot sidewalk, six-foot planner.

Secondly, or thirdly, rather, number three, we increase the corner, provide some seating blocks, a little bit of signage, some opportunities for people to gather.

That's one thing we heard back as well.

And then four, we enhance this conservation parcel, clean up the landscaping, provide some public interest within that landscaping, and what we importantly heard in the second meeting was provide some ongoing quarterly maintenance to that area so that it always maintains visual access and visual appeal.

Next slide, please.

And so scrutinizing in a little bit, you'll see uh the extension of the sidewalk on Palatine, adding a little bit of extra what we call shoulder room so people can pass or two people can walk abreast.

We felt in this part of the neighborhood begin at the edge of where the neighborhood district starts.

That helps for people kind of maneuvering, and then on the other side of the slide, the larger uh public area that we're gonna enhance.

Next slide, please.

Public benefits of the green space.

So the green space itself has you know a lot of bit of overgrown vegetation.

So the goal there is to clean it up.

We worked with our landscape architect to find native grasses, native plantings that would create a meadow.

And so the story of there's quite a bit of songbirds, quite a bit of wildlife that occurs here.

What are the plantings that we can do to kind of enhance that?

Is the theme we started to play with?

Next slide, please.

Um, discoveries in the neighborhood, that's what we kind of just turned the starting to work with the artist.

That idea was okay.

Now, if people are gonna sit at the corner and we have some seat blocks at that corner for people to rest, look in.

What can we do to create visual interest?

Well, inside of it, we can create bird houses, we can create some signage opportunities inside that offer some of the story of what the native vegetation and or uh birds are, and then as well as what could be decorative fence panels that we put on the fence to kind of engage people just from a more aesthetic side.

That was the spring point for bringing next slide, please.

Thank you.

For bringing an artist on board.

That was the direction of the design commission.

And so we brought in a local artist on board, and she's proposing that we work ideas of different signposts and bird houses that explain, you know, the heights of what a great blue heron nest might be, or what um some of the chickadee nests might look like.

And we provide signs like that in the area.

Next slide, please.

And then the mock-ups.

Um, so this is a mock-up idea of what the artist would create.

This artist has worked with SCL on some of the wraps of some of her their products around covering up sort of their utility boxes, and she came up with this idea here of a graphic that would be compelling and give you an idea of what you think you could see at different times within this green space.

I tried to be concise in the interest of time, but thank you for your time.

And if there's any questions, we're here to help.

Thank you.

As presiding officer, I am now opening the public hearing on clerk file three one four five three zero regarding the U Alley vacation.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up for this public hearing?

Chair, we do not have any remote speakers or in-person speakers.

All right.

Looks like there is not a member of the public present in person or virtually for this public hearing on clerk file 314-530.

And therefore, this public hearing is now closed.

Thank you, presenters, for joining us today, and for sharing uh more details about the pending legislation, this proposal.

At this point, I will open it up to my colleagues for any questions, comments, feedback that you may have, if any, starting first with Vice Chair Rink.

Thank you, Chair.

No questions or comments on this topic.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh colleagues, anyone else?

Oh, Councilmember Lynn.

I uh thank thank you for this presentation.

I've got sort of a side question.

Just on the green space, uh, is there um just curious?

Did you is it possible to do trees here?

There's you know, there's this growing movement for I'm not even Mia Walkie forest, so it's like this, you know, native forest and dense uh forest.

It seems like a nice site, but I'm not sure if it given the function of it, if it needs to be um kind of more open space.

Thanks very much for that question again.

Molly Lawrence from Van S Feldman, I guess I will speak.

Uh long and short of it, is this parcel is referred to as the conservation parcel because it is actually subject currently to a public use and developer or a PUDA agreement that requires that it be used um for stormwater as well, which has limited to some degree the vegetation that we can use.

So I think our focus was on native plantings that would be consistent with the stormwater uh functions of the site as well.

Yeah, so a little bit of a limitation there.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, I was just wondering about the stormwater if trees sort of in are in hospitable to that stormwater function or or incompatible with it rather.

Um, but anyway, so thank thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you, Councilmember Land.

Councilmember uh Kettle, floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair.

I just wanted to uh say thank you.

Um, usually the uh alley vacations are in my district, so it's good to have something that's not in my district.

So uh thank you for coming uh back.

And um I find it very interesting, and you know, that kind of urban wildlife piece is very uh very important as you hear news about the loss of bees and you know, and the songbirds, the very small birds and the various pieces.

It's we cannot underestimate the value of all these little pieces like this and what that means.

And I'm also very interested is a technical term, goat trail.

Was is that what you said?

Uh that might not be technical.

Okay.

Well, I appreciate the presentation and uh and that just proves that we are listening.

Thank you, Chair.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Councilmember Foster, floor is yours.

Thank you so much.

Um I just want I wasn't gonna comment on this, but I was I'm since Councilmember Lynn brought up the Neoki Forest.

I'm gonna just do a quick follow-up and say, you know, those um I uh I have a neighbor of mine who's done one of those in a very, very small space, um, you know, to bring back sort of native trees and pieces, and so I it that concept is not typically constrained by size, as I've been sure presenters know.

So I just would sort of say I think that's a great question, Councilmember Lynn, and maybe an opportunity to explore at this location.

It feels actually pretty um, it feels like you're kind of halfway there already with the native trees and what you're what I'm seeing in the slide deck.

I think I would call that a comment, not a question.

Kevin, I don't know if you have comments about the trees.

Unfortunately, although we are a robust team today, the one person we are missing is our landscape architect.

So we can certainly follow up with these.

One of the biggest focuses was just getting out the non-natives.

There's some invasive blackberry um and other invasive plants, and then just trying to get in the more the focus was on color and and native sort of vegetation that would encourage the pollinators and the birds.

So we were maintaining the existing trees that are within that side, though.

Yeah.

Well, thank you.

Really appreciate uh the presentation again.

Uh really appreciate my colleagues for your thoughtful questions and remarks.

Um colleagues, just to just to remind sort of where we're at in this process, as was noted, it was heard in originally in February 24, so a little over two years ago.

I think that was at the resolution stage level, uh, and that was our preferred, I'll say preferred, not only or sole opportunity to provide directional feedback.

So the trees, you like the species, and like that is excellent feedback.

Um here at the ordinance stage, and I think the I think the team is free to implement those terrific suggestions, even if it's not expressly and explicitly included in the ordinance.

That said, colleagues, to to level set and remind about our our fiduciary and accountability responsibilities here, although it would not be preferred, generally, and the people here, you know, that would suffer the consequences of that, uh, because they'd essentially have to go back to the drawing boards.

Um, we are free to reject this ordinance today or whenever we vote on it, uh, and and call on a better proposal that does include the public feedback because there's a whole expert team within the department within the city that does an analysis of of you know cost benefit, like does the public benefit, you know, is it is it outweigh whatever the standard is to determine if this is a sufficient public benefit.

But colleagues, we are the only ones in the city that are that are accountable uh to the voters um for for living up to this.

So that's so again we are we are encouraged to provide uh directional feedback and guidance at any time, but the the most meaningful and the preferred time to do it is at the resolution stage.

That said, if if something's not right, pull a chain.

We are accountable.

We colleagues are accountable for this.

So but we're not voting today.

Just keep that in mind.

Um but excellent, excellent, excellent feedback.

All right.

Is there any final comments today?

No hearing and seeing none.

Let me just quickly remark and clarify a couple comments I made earlier about the city of the city of Redmond.

I see you pointing at Councilmember Foster.

Councilmember Foster, go ahead.

Floor is yours.

Thank you so much, Chair.

I appreciate that.

I just I appreciate your comments just there.

I wanted to clarify.

I'm not signaling dissatisfaction in my comments.

I would just signaling interest in the particular concept that my colleague raised.

So I thought important to close that out, especially since I'm not in the room so folks can um see or understand my intent fully.

So thank you, Chair.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

That that was my read as well.

Um and I just wanted to to clarify and level set on on what is possible, and uh, you know, like depending on appetites.

And again, the team is free to implement that those terrific suggestions, even in the absence of express like statutory uh guidance.

So thank you for that.

Very helpful.

I want to close out by clarifying some of my earlier comments on the city of Redmond.

First off, shout out to Mayor Angela Burney.

Uh I I provided a lot of nuance to to that to that conversation.

But let me provide some more.

Let me make crystal clear.

City of Redmond is a co-equal jurisdiction in our state.

Coequal jurisdiction to the city of Seattle.

Uh I do think the city of Seattle is a leader, policy leader on many things, many initiatives, but not necessarily all initiatives or or or things.

And I do think the city of Redmond and other cities across like do lead and do great work on things.

We all learn from each other.

We're all in this together.

Um, and others lead on certain things, we lead on certain things, and I trust my my team, and I am confident in my own city.

So this is a this is a race to the at the end of the day.

This is a race to the top.

I'm competitive, trust my own team, capable, we're putting in the work, and I know they are too, and and this is a race to the top where uh the taxpaying public wins because people are gonna be safer at the end of the day when we're talking about the shared streets legislation.

So uh shout out again to the city of Redmond, appreciate their uh their leadership and passing the first framework.

And and I I I feel our implementation is gonna be best, but we'll see.

Um thank you all.

We have reached the end of today's meeting agenda.

Our next meeting will be held on May 21st, 2026 at 9 30 a.m.

I'll ask again one final time.

Is there any further business to come before the committee before we adjourn?

Hearing and seeing no further business to come before the committee, we are adjourned.

It is 1107 a.m.

Thank you, thank you.