Sustainable Shoreline Education Association

Public Participation

Meeting where the City seeks input from the citizens on the proposed goals

The 10 goals the City Council finally adopted

This list below was created by those in attendance at our April 2007 General membership meeting.

1. A plan is needed to preserve affordable home ownership. A Sub Area Neighborhood Plan gives guidelines to achieve this goal.
2. Land use: How does the City use public property example Echo Lake. Why not use it for commercial development since the use by non profits brings in no tax revenue?
3. Sustainable Development as described in Document A
4. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Examples referring to the City Building code. Do not allow building anything on stream banks and wetland buffers that will destroy fish habitat. Do not allow a net increase in impermeable surface. Reduce the total amount of traffic on all city streets. Do not allow City total population to increase past what the environment can stand where the test of environmental vitality would be such changes as reversing loss of salmon stocks etc. [1]
5. Education for sustainability. Ensure that no social and economic barriers including neighborhood instability stand in the way of any an all students achieving their academic potential. Education use of sustainability problem solving as a part of the hands on curriculum.
6. Reexamine the relationship between the City and law enforcement services. Would we be better off with our own police department?
7. Council of Neighborhoods. Create a democratic process for electing representatives as opposed to who gets told there is a meeting and based on who shows up. The role of the Office of Neighborhoods is technical assistance. Neighborhood boundaries are defined by the neighborhood. Overcome entrenchment. Staff at office of neighborhoods is not the problem. The role of the Council of neighborhoods is to bring the concerns of the neighbors to the city Staff and Council. This can't happen unless Neighborhood Associations are organized from the bottom up. Office of neighborhoods should reach out and revisit this intention
8. Reduce Aurora Corridor to Reasonable cost. Scale back the size and scope of the project
9. Use money saved on Aurora for things like paying off the Parks Bond early and or for providing basic services like sidewalks.
10. Rents on Aurora are too high. Need to establish opportunities for affordable rentals for businesses
11. Undue the damage of 4 lanes to 2 in North City. The original plan was multi use. Small business at street level set back upper floors. Actual practice is vertical high rise at the sidewalk line.
12. Preserve small businesses. Use incentives to drive small business since they provide the economic health of the City. We want local business instead of large National Chain
13. Make Shoreline more environmentally friendly. Provide incentives to use alternative energy sources such as Solar and Wind and foot power (pedestrian friendly)
14. Consider impacts on the environment which is in all areas West of the Cascades. Example loss of Salmon in the Puget Sound Region due to high rate of development in the region. ( This problem is not addressed by the Growth Management Act which accepts as a given increased growth but pushes the growth toward crowding cites).
15. Reuse recycle as part of City's policy and promotion to the public. We are doing some we could do more
16. Pea patches, Where How can we have more?
17. Viability What does it take to make Shoreline as Self Sufficient as possible? What resources exist within the City for its survival in the event of a disaster? How to deal with rising water levels in Puget Sound. Where are the gaps in sustainability ?
18. Understanding Sustainability Define the limits to growth. At what point do the use of resources balance the rate at which they are replenished. Can we see the economy as a component of the community of Shoreline and the community of Shoreline as a component of the environment? Instead of separate but equal aspects of the whole picture. Research to determine what we need? What we can produce? Can we use less imported energy? Can we use less imported capital? Recognize and utilize the human capital for producing goods and services needed by and used with in the City. Can we educate for the job market requirements for locally owned small business. Maintain and develop:
Natural Capital ( Food Water, Wood, Energy Fisheries, Fertile Soil, Water Filtration, Air Mountains, Forests, Seashore, Wild animals Birds, Human and Social Capital . Build relationships between people in the community. Neighbors, small businesses community organizations schools, Built Capital buildings, Equipment Information, Infrastructure.
19. Addiction prevention program.
20. Use the words Ecosystem and Local Resources instead of environment
21. Small goals for a small city we can't solve the world's problems, but we can set an example and if other communities duplicate our efforts, together we will go a long way to solving the worlds problems.
22. Democratic process is for the common good.. Trust the group decisions.

[1] Notes from the Chair on item #3 regarding limiting population increase: One method to limit population growth is to tie permit approval to the water supply. Beyond that I am not sure limiting population growth is enforceable. Population growth is a challenge that is not going to go away and it needs to be discussed and dealt with creatively, possibly using different methods for different areas of Shoreline.

If we are able to limit population growth the unintended consequences would be an increase in property value because Shoreline would represent a scarce commodity. Gentrification would take place as only the very wealthy could live here,..like Queen Anne or Mercer Island.

Further, as population increases in the state people would be moving into less expensive areas, driving further to and from work and impacting water sheds elsewhere that still over all would further degrade Puget Sound and our air quality. Regional planning is needed to deal with that

If we allow unrestricted growth we will also encounter numerous problems we are already familiar with. Too much traffic, noise pollution, air pollution, higher taxes etc.

I think the real answer lies doing "smart growth" instead of over growth in our city. "Smart growth includes increasing density but only in certain areas that are already set up to handle the traffic and restricting the quantity of density while insisting on quality. Limit run off by using permeable surfaces, and making sure that basic services are sufficient to handle the population in a given area. Maintain the integrity of neighborhoods by honoring existing land use codes. Listen to the people and engage them in having a say on what their neighborhoods want or need.