Meetings of MCC Board,
General Membership take up special agenda in February
MCC Board to Meet
with Transportation Committee
For the month of February, the Montlake
Community Club Board of Trustees will hold a combined meeting with the
Transportation Committee. The order of business will be a briefing on the first
round of community design workshops by the Trans-Lake Washington Project team.
The meeting will be held Wednesday, February 7, from 7:30 to 9:00pm in the west
modular building of the Montlake Community Center.
CPR training offered at MCC General Meeting
The meeting will begin at 6:30pm, an hour
earlier than usual, on Wednesday, February 14. Note the special time.
Training in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) will be offered to adults and
teens of Montlake families. Plan to take advantage of this opportunity to
improve your preparedness for a health emergency—and make your home and
neighborhood a safer place to live.
Call for nominations
MCC seeks officer and trustee candidates
The Montlake Community Club by-laws
require that candidates for annual April elections be nominated at the March
meeting each year. Shane Doran (see club roster on page 2) is chairing
this year's Nominating Committee. For 2001-02, we have three officer slots open
(1 year service), three 3-year trustee terms, and one trustee term with 1 year
remaining to serve. Please contact Shane if you are interested in joining the
Club's Board of Trustees or becoming an officer of the community club. We would
be delighted to hear from potential candidates. Don't be shy: We need your
help.
Receive neighborhood notices via email.
You may now sign
up at the Montlake community website (montlake.net) to be
notified via email of crucial neighborhood information, meetings, and
deadlines. Notices will be sent sparingly, email names will not be shared, and
it will be easy to remove oneself from the list. Go to the Montlake website,
then follow the links to the registration page for more information and
instructions on signing up.
President’s Corner
Thinking of hearts in
February, we have modified next month's general meeting in order to make a
Valentine gift to Montlake families. Medic 2 will be our guest to give adults
and teens CPR training! Please join us in the interest of creating a safer
community. Spread the word; guests are welcome.
At January's general
meeting, many residents benefited from LuAnn Johnson's presentation on the
city's emergency management programs for neighborhoods. Watch for follow-up
from the community club to help interested Montlake blocks organize themselves.
As noted elsewhere in this
issue, please let us know if you would like to join the community club
leadership. We would love to have you.
--Clarissa
Easton
Transportation issues update
The Trans-Lake Washington
Project (TLWP) is proceeding through the steps required for selecting the
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) alternatives. Included on a double-sided
insert to this issue are two letters that offer the opinions of organizations
that are often not covered in daily papers. We found them informative and
wished to share them with Montlake readers.
The MCC Board of Trustees
strongly encourages you to stay tuned to this issue, since we undoubtedly will
take a stance on proposed alternatives in the near future. To that end, please
be advised of the following public information meetings:
February
7 MCC Board of Trustees meeting.
7:30pm at the Montlake Community Club (modular building).
TLWP team briefing on outcomes from first design workshop.
Public welcome.
February
26 Second TLWP Design Workshop for all Seattle
Neighborhoods.
1:00 to 5:00pm at MOHAI.
Please contact MCC's Clarissa Easton if you would like to attend.
March
6 Seattle Neighborhood Open House to
review workshop designs.
6:00 to 9:00pm at MOHAI.
Open to all Seattle neighborhoods.
If you are
unavailable to attend these public meetings, we urge you to visit our web page
and follow the link to the Trans-Lake Washington Project site. Recent press
coverage is full of discussions urging changes to SR520, often demanding
additional SOV lanes. Please thoughtfully consider the impacts of those lanes
on Montlake, Portage Bay/Roanoke, and Eastlake. Send us your comments.
Board Meeting Minutes
January 3,
2001 The Board of Trustees of the
Montlake Community Club convened at 7:20pm at the Montlake Community Center,
with president Clarissa Easton presiding. Members Dubman, Gibson, Hutchinson,
Jacobson, Judson, Leed, Kolb, Storie, and Thompson were present.
Bruce Balick provided the board with a draft he had
prepared of an MCC response to the University of Washington Master Plan and
associated Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). His draft dealt in
detail with the Transportation Plan element of these documents. He provided the
board with an overview of the draft content and some elaboration on what he
felt were important specifics. He addressed the Master Plan’s failure to treat
the University's impact on regional transportation and congestion, its lack of
detail on improving bicycle and pedestrian access to campus, and its incomplete
treatment of transit service; but he particularly emphasized the absence of a
plan to alleviate University-generated commuter congestion on Montlake
Boulevard and to monitor and enforce parking restrictions in Montlake's
residential areas. In Mr. Balick's summary to the board, he indicated that he
was more concerned with what the Transportation Plan didn't say than with what
it included.
Diane Thompson moved that the board adopt without
change Mr. Balick's draft as the club response to the University. The motion
was seconded and passed. Jean Leed expressed the view that the club's comments
should be provided directly and immediately to those evaluating the Master Plan
for the City Council, rather than allowing the comments to reach the evaluators
only via the DEIS comment process. John Hutchinson asked if there was value in
proposing solutions in addition to pointing out deficiencies. Mr. Balick
responded that this was appropriate as a response to the Master Plan, although
not to the DEIS. Mr. Hutchinson suggested adding "environmental
effects" to the list of things section 2 of the response points out that plan
does address. This suggestion was accepted by general consent.
Paul Gibson requested opinions from the board
regarding two elements of the Northeast District Council (NEDC) response to UW
Master Plan. The first, which was opposed by the NEDC, was the University's
proposed lid over Pacific Avenue. Several board members, for various reasons,
expressed opposition to the lid. Mr. Gibson also asked for views on the
proposed changes to Campus Parkway, including vacation of most of its present
westbound lanes. Again, for various reasons, there was general opposition
expressed.
Mr. Gibson reported that he had been notified by Jim
Kearnes of a planned 400-space increase in parking at the garage serving
Children's Hospital in Laurelhurst.
Ellen Judson reported that there had been no change in
site selection status for the new Montlake Branch Library. The sites at MOHAI,
the Montlake Professional Building, and the residential site at the NE corner
of 24th Ave. E. and E. McGraw are still identified as the preferred locations
under consideration.
President Easton said that she liked the club's recent
informal policy on nominating committee membership; i.e., chairmanship by a
board member whose term was not expiring, with the balance of the committee
from outside current board. Accordingly, she would appoint Shane Doran as chair
and ask Paul Gibson, who had also volunteered for the committee at the December
meeting, to step down. She would seek the additional members from outside the
board. A number of names were suggested.
The secretary provided a list of the positions for
which nominees are needed. This consisted of the four officers, the three
3-year board positions for which terms are expiring (presently held by Jean
Leed, Ellen Judson, and Diane Thompson), and the remaining year of the position
now being filled by Jonathan Dubman. He pointed out that bylaw-imposed term
limits prohibit Paul Gibson, Scott Burgett, Jean Leed, Ellen Judson, and Diane
Thompson from being nominated again for the positions they presently hold.
President Easton mentioned that the newsletter editor
was looking for a courier service to transport copy to the printer after the
printer's planned move, and she indicated that she was still concerned about
the possible one-day delay in distribution to delivery personnel. The secretary
reported that he had not yet explored ways to avoid this delay.
Paul Gibson described some of the current elements of
the Arboretum Plan, according to a pre-release draft he had seen. The Plan was
scheduled for public release within a few days, and would be available at
normal locations, including the Montlake Library.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m.
General Meeting Minutes
January 10, 2001 The Montlake Community Club convened at 7:30 pm at the Montlake Community Center, with president Clarissa Easton presiding. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as published by general consent.
Joe Marshall, president of the Arboretum Park
Preservation Coalition, summarized the recently-released final Environmental Impact
Statement for the new arboretum plan as follows:
·
Maintenance and
Operations will expand to 10,000 square feet of contained area.
·
Three new building will
be added: a 3,000 square foot Administration and Curation building near the
Graham Visitors Center; a 3,000 square foot building to "support
education;" and a 2,500 square foot building between the Japanese Garden
and the south entrance.
·
Parking will be
concentrated in fewer, larger lots and the plan says there will be a net
increase of only one parking space—although, Mr. Marshall felt from his
examination of the document, that there are about 372 parking spaces currently
and the plan would produce about 506.
·
30 plant collections
will be renovated and 21 exhibits and three major loop trails will be added.
·
Arboretum Drive will be
relocated to the Broadmoor boundary, on the east side of the Visitors Center.
Mr. Marshall said that this, the third iteration of
the plan, is much closer to the desires of the Arboretum Park Preservation
Coalition (and MCC's approved resolution), but the Coalition still strongly
opposes some elements and will be asking the City Council to require further
modifications.
Paul Gibson added that the plan triples the total
length of arboretum paths (from 4 to 12 miles) and, as a result of the
relocation of Arboretum Drive, much of the parking would be east of the
Visitors Center. He said that the plan will be presented to the City Council's
Parks Committee on Wednesday, Jan. 24 and, while the meeting will be open to
the public, there will be no opportunity to comment. The Parks Committee will
schedule a meeting in the future to take public comment.
In response to questions, they said that arboretum
admission charges are not presently planned, and that this plan version
anticipates more usage of the MOHAI building, which allows for the reduction in
the number of new buildings.
President Easton then introduced LuAn Johnson, SDART
Program Manager for the Office of Emergency Management, Seattle Police
Department. SDART is an acronym for Seattle Disaster Aid and Response Teams
and, according to Ms. Johnson, the program's purpose is to prepare
neighborhoods to take care of themselves for 72 hours after a natural
disaster—the period of time during which emergency services may well be unavailable
because of more pressing needs or neighborhood inaccessibility.
She began with a question, "What do you think is
the hardest part of my job?". Her answer, "Getting people to
act," was, she said, the purpose of her visit. She pointed out that, prior
to 1965, the longest recorded period between local earthquakes of magnitude 6
or higher was 27 years, and that arithmetic alone should be enough to motivate
people.
Ms. Johnson said that they would like to have six
volunteer teams in each Seattle neighborhood, with each team having three or
more members to try to ensure that at least one would be available if the need
arose. Neighborhoods of 30 to 50 homes have been found to typically provide
enough capable volunteers to staff the teams. She indicated that the necessary
skills are usually already there, so her personnel need to provide
organization, rather than training. She identified the teams and their
functions as follows:
·
Safety and Security: Shut off utilities when lines or pipes break; locate
and "rope off" hazardous areas.
·
First Aid: Take care of those in shock or injured (cuts from
broken glass and broken bones from falls being common injuries).
·
Communication: In the likely event of a breakdown of the local
telephone system (particularly the 911 feature), relay information to and from
the local emergency radio communication station, which, in Montlake, will be
set up at the community center.
·
Sheltering and
Special Needs: Provide a warm dry
place for those in need, including unattended children and elderly, and any
forced out of their homes.
·
Light Search and
Rescue: Make a house-by-house check
to see that no one is trapped or unable to move because of injury.
·
Damage Assessment: Prepares and provides a report on neighborhood
condition to the city's emergency management team after the dust settles and
immediate needs are handled.
Ms. Johnson suggested telephoning her program office
at
233-7123 to request an information packet or to schedule a neighborhood
organizing meeting. 281 neighborhoods have been organized in the city so far,
with at least two in Montlake. Asked about her program’s relations to Block
Watch, she said that it is separate, although both are under the Police
Department. She added that Block Watch captains tend to be natural organizers
for SDART, although a typical Block Watch area is smaller.
The next agenda item was a motion by Paul Gibson that
the club adopt the following resolution, which he had submitted via the January
newsletter;
Whereas the Broadmoor Golf Club has for several decades closed
off access to a street right-of-way known as East Lakeside Boulevard and used
said right-of-way as a portion of its driving range; and Whereas the
Broadmoor Golf Club has applied for a street vacation of said right-of-way
which if granted would legalize the exclusive use of the land by the golf club;
and Whereas the Broadmoor Golf Club has offered in exchange certain
wetlands and a parcel which includes the path used by the public for many years
to reach Foster Island; and Whereas the wet lands are protected from
development so that ownership by the City would have no impact on future use of
these lands; and Whereas the public access to Foster Island could always
be assured, either under the doctrine of adverse possession or by condemnation
by the City; and Whereas retaining the right-of-way would allow the City
to collect an annual street-use fee from the golf club and preserve the
possibility of someday using the right-of-way as part of a pedestrian
connection to Madison Park; Then be it hereby resolved by
the Montlake Community Club that the proposed street vacation offers no
significant public benefit and should not be granted.
In speaking for adoption of the resolution, he added
that repeated efforts to create a trail along the waterfront connecting
Montlake and Madison Park had so far been successfully opposed, but that
preserving city ownership of the East Lakeside Boulevard right-of-way was
important to have any chance of future success. After other spoke in support of
the resolution, Don Deibert moved the previous question (i.e., to end debate).
His motion was passed, as was the motion to adopt the resolution.
As a post script to the discussion of the waterfront
trail, Jonathan Dubman reported that he had submitted a suggestion at the
Trans-Lake Study workshops that any design of a proposed SR-520 bridge
modification include consideration of a pedestrian and bicycle link to Madison
Park.
Ted Choi announced that, now that funds are expected
for improving the Montlake Community Center and Playfield (about $3 million
from the recently passed Parks Levy), the Montlake Advisory Council will begin
evaluating last fall's community survey and other data as a first step in
preparing recommendations to the Parks Department and the City Council. He said
that they plan to submit the recommendations by next September.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m.
Announcements and Notices
Arboretum Master Plan,
version 3 released
The third version of a
master plan for the Arboretum has now been released and presented to the City
Council Cultural, Art, and Parks Committee. That committee will hold a public
hearing on the plan in late February or March. The committee will then send the
plan on to the full Council for approval, with or without changes from the
present form.
This
third version of the plan produced by the Arboretum and Botanical Garden
Committee, managers of the Arboretum, is significantly different from the first
version, which inspired a rather boisterous discussion at the Montlake
Community Club in April of 1998. That discussion resulted in passage of a
resolution opposing various elements of the plan. Although the plan has moved
in the direction sought by the resolution, there are still four new buildings
slated for construction in park green space. Most of the small parking areas
would be closed and the parking consolidated in larger lots. The plan calls for
renovation of 30 exhibits and installation 21 new exhibits. The plan supports
an enormous education program, including bringing 20,000 students a year to
Washington Park, from all over the county. This would include every third
grader in the Seattle schools. It is the expansion of exhibits and programs
that creates the need for the additional buildings. Trails would be expanded by
50%. (This expansion was misreported at the January MCC meeting as a tripling.)
The expansion is from 8 miles of trial to 12 miles.
Opinions
on the plan should be sent to City Council member Nick Licata at Nick.Licata@ci.seattle.wa.us.
Other information from the resistance can be found at http://www.scn.org/arboretum.
The
plan should be available at the library or on line at the Department of Parks
and Recreation web page.
Get acquainted with the Montlake Family Co-op
The
Montlake Family Co-op (previously called the Montlake Babysitting Co-op II) is
a great way to meet other families and become more involved with the Montlake
community. Currently, our membership includes approximately 30 families who
have children under age 10. We organize play groups, parent evenings and other
informal family get-togethers. If interested, or for more information please
contact Jennifer Emrich at 323-3439 or email jen@kwatinetz.com.
Montlake Elementary needs you!
Montlake
Elementary PTSA is asking it's neighbors for support in the effort to raise
$75,000 to help pay for basic needs the school district does not provide. The
PTSA pays teacher salaries to reduce class size for reading and math, buys
library books and computers, provides an art program and more. All Montlake
students benefit and student test scores reflect our dedication to learning.
Please help support your neighborhood school! Call Meg Watson at 726-7893.
Committee Reports
Trans-Lake Washington Project Committee
Thought getting to the moon was tough? Try
getting across SR 520 at rush hour! The Trans-Lake Washington Project is
evaluating alternatives for improving mobility in the SR 520 corridor. Late
fall 2000 was a busy time for the project. The Executive Committee made a key
decision, identifying which alternatives will be developed and evaluated in
more detail. In July 2001, the Executive Committee will select which
alternatives should be included in an environmental impact statement. Feedback
from the community on these alternatives was sought through the first in a
series of community design workshops and open houses. These workshops and open
houses, held in four locations along the corridor, gave the community an
opportunity to tell the project community issues are most important and what
design ideas best address the community's concerns. Some of the things we heard
along the corridor were:
·
Reduce
noise, air, and water pollution.
·
Improve
access for pedestrians and bicyclists.
·
Reduce
traffic cutting through neighborhoods to reach the freeway.
·
Protect
existing natural areas.
·
Reconnect
the neighborhoods across SR 520.
The
input received from participating community members will be incorporated, as
much as possible, during the design work and will be forwarded to the project's
committees (Executive, Technical, and Advisory) to consider as part of their
decision-making process. Another round of community design workshops will be
held in late February/early March. Two open houses have been scheduled in March
for community members to see the latest work on the project. They are: March 6,
6:00 to 9:00pm, at MOHAI, March 8, 6:00 to 9:00pm, at St. Luke's Lutheran
Church, 3030 Bellevue Way NE. For more information on what we heard from the
first round of workshops and open houses or other project information, contact
the project hotline at (206) 448-6611 or visit the project web site at www.wsdot.wa.gov/translake.
If your organization would like a briefing on the Trans-Lake Washington
Project, please contact Amy Grotefendt, Public Involvement Manager at (206)
269-5041 or email the project at translake@wsdot.wa.gov.
CUCAC Meeting Report
The
first City/University Community Advisory Committee (CUCAC) meeting of the new
year was held on January 9 at the usual meeting site, South Campus Center. All
interested persons are invited to attend any meeting without special
permission. Sometimes the sessions tend to be quite lively—but not this week!
The
committee wrapped up its deliberations on an extensive set of comments on the
University of Washington's Campus Master Plan (CMP). These comments were due on
January 10. Copies of this comment letter, as well as the CMP, are available
for anyone to review. Give me a call if interested.
The
next steps in the process call for University planners to respond to the
volumes of comments received, revise the plans as they deem necessary, then
submit the revised plans to the University Regents and the Seattle City Council
for approval. This CMP is required by the City/University Agreement and is
meant to guide physical development of the Seattle campus through the year
2012.
Other items on the agenda included presentations of preliminary plans for extensive remodeling of Conibar Crewhouse and expansion of Blakely Village student housing between the Silver Cloud Hotel and Office Depot on NE 25th Avenue. These projects do not seem to add to our traffic problems in Montlake.
NEDC Meeting Report
by Paul
Gibson
The
principal business of the NEDC in January was preparation of comments on the
University Campus plan and the attendant Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
A number of objections to the plan were raised. Those of particular interest to
Montlake included the University’s plan to close a portion of Campus Parkway
and otherwise alter the flow of traffic at the north end of the University
Bridge. Any impediments there would tend to push more traffic to the Montlake
Bridge. We urged the University to retain the traffic measuring techniques that
have been employed in the past so that legitimate comparisons over time could
be made. We indicated skepticism with regard to rather rosy projections for the
UW’s transportation management plan.
As chair of the NEDC, I receive what might be considered bonus junk mail—errr I mean, unsolicited mail. Included this month were two messages that merit mention. The city’s Car Smart Communities program is offering grants up to $1,000 to fund projects that reduce car trips by encouraging alternative modes of travel. The application process features rolling deadlines. Got a good idea? Call 615-1550 or go to www.cityofseattle.net/carsmart
The other item was both a
solicitation and an offer of help. A program called Christmas in April is a
non-profit, one-day home repair and rehabilitation program for low-income
seniors, person with disabilities and families with children. To either apply for
help or to offer help, call 682-1231.
The
NEDC is composed of representatives from the MCC, the Portage Bay/Roanoke C.C.
and various organizations (mostly community councils) located north of the
canal to NE 95th Street and between I-5 and Lake Washington. It is one of 12
District Councils that send representatives to the City Neighborhood Council.
Responsibilities of the CNC include review and recommendations regarding City
budget issues, including especially the Neighborhood Matching Fund and the Neighborhood
Street Fund. Thus the system of district and city-wide councils provide a
formal structure for neighborhood organizations to influence City policies.
Questions? Call 323 - 1851.
Letter to the Editor
Montlake Neighbors,
Montlake
has a wealth of bicycle and pedestrian trails, from the Arboretum to the
Montlake cut to Interlaken Park and the Burke-Gilman trail just to the north.
But there are two very important missing links in our trail system, not just
for Montlake residents but for the region at large: There is no trail across
the 520 bridge, and none to Madison Park without going all the way around the
Arboretum and Broadmoor. The Trans-Lake Washington Project is currently in the
conceptual design phase (see wsdot.wa.gov/translake)
and I’m pleased to see that all the design options on the table other than the
“no action” option already include a bicycle link, even if no lanes are added.
It’s amazing to think that it’s no further from Montlake to Evergreen Point
than once around Greenlake (under 3 miles) and with a trail along 520 it would
often be faster to bike from Kirkland to Montlake than it is to drive alone
today at rush hour.
The
other missing link is a trail from Montlake to Madison Park. To get to Madison
Park now, unless you’re in a canoe, you have to go all the way around the south
end of the Arboretum and Broadmoor and then come back along busy Madison
street, adding a whole extra mile to the journey. Since the 1970’s, an idea
that came to be known as the “Arboretum Lakeside Trail” has been the subject of
a great deal of study, including two Environmental Impact Statements (the
latest in 1999, available at our local library.) The trail was to start near
the Foster Island bridge in the Arboretum and head east, skirting the north end
of the Broadmoor golf course on the edge of the wetlands via public right of
way (see January’s Montlake Flyer.) It was to end at 37th
Avenue NE from which one could stroll a few pleasant blocks to the Madison Park
beach and shops. Of course, the bicycle organizations loved the idea, and quite
a number of Madison Park residents were also vocal in their support for the
trail as it would allow them to walk to the Arboretum. However, some
environmental groups who ordinarily support trails came out against this one
because of impacts on the wetlands, so it got whittled down from a bicycle
trail to a narrower pedestrian-only trail. Ultimately after years of planning
and politics, the city council voted against it.
Now
that the trail link across 520 is being considered, we have a new opportunity.
Why not connect a 520 trail to Madison Park? It’s surprisingly close from 520
to the two unimproved public street ends in Madison Park—37th and 43rd
Ave. NE, and no motorized boat traffic crosses that area. Compared to the cost
of a new 520 bridge, a small, tasteful, environmentally friendly cable-stay
bridge, boardwalk or floating trail would be a drop in the bucket. It would
provide the long-sought direct connection between Madison Park and Montlake
without impacting the wetlands, and simultaneously trim 2 to 4 miles from a
Madison Park-to-Eastside bicycle commute. Imagine bicycling from Madison Park
to Medina in 10 minutes, or from MOHAI to Madison Beach in 6 minutes. Both
would be possible with this trail. Let’s build the best kind of new capacity
for the Trans-Lake Washington Project and promote the “Madison Park link” for
the good of Montlake and the region at large.
—Jonathan
Dubman