Minutes for November 10, 2003
The meeting was called to order at 7:03 PM
Attending: Jennifer Biely, John Burge, John Clark, Jeannie Hale, Joe Herrin, Mark Holden, Mimi Levin, Kate Lloyd, Heather Newman, Barb Ragee, Jim Romano, Don Torrie, Mark Trumbauer, Maggie Weissman, Shawn Whitcomb, Pat Wright, Bonnie Zinn
Excused: Shahina Piyarali and Suan Torrance (leaves of absence), Dermott Noonan, Stan Sorscher
Guests: Ruth Benfield, Administrator, Children's; Suzanne Petersen, Director, Community, Government Affairs & Advocacy, Children's; Steve Scheibe, Director of Facilities; Sarah Erickson, Assistant Director, Community, Government Affairs & Advocacy, Children's; Jeff Hughes, Lead Groundskeeper, Children's; Dave Scalzo, Senior Vice President, Project Manager, Sellen
Update on Children’s Construction and Master Plan:
Patient Care Building: Construction of the new Patient Care Building is underway and visible from Sand Point Way. The building is now 85% complete and will open at the end of January 2004. The Patient Care Building provides two key enhancements -- increasing Children’s inpatient capacity from 208 to 250 beds, and providing single-bed rooms for children.
Landscaping will be ongoing as much of the work must be done in the spring, but the buffer if almost complete. Grading is underway to create a hard surface for the pavers. There will be two-three weeks for installation of large trees.
It is anticipated that there will be a community celebration of completion of the building on January 17th with tours.
Ambulatory Care Building: In the April 2004, Children’s will begin an ambulatory care expansion on the south side of the hospital property near NE 45th Street. Children’s has 50 specialty clinics spread throughout the hospital building and provides ambulatory care (outpatient care) to 160,000 patients per year. The Ambulatory Care Building will bring together ambulatory clinics in a central location for families, and will increase Children’s capacity to provide outpatient care.
The new building will be set back 90 feet from the property line and will have extensive landscaping surrounding it. Trees in the area of the project will be moved this year, continuing into Spring 2004. Some of the plants and trees moved to make way for construction will be used to thicken and enhance the existing landscaped buffer, which will remain during construction. Construction of the Ambulatory Care Building will be complete in Spring of 2006.
Neighbors in the vicinity asked about more screening and this will be done. Shadow fencing will be installed. There will be fewer trucks hauling away dirt and the access to the project site will be much further down 45th (near the 42nd cross street). There will be full time flaggers for safety.
Children’s met twice with the closest affected neighbors. They have provided weekly electronic updates and these updates have been posted on a nearby kiosk.
The new meandering path will be wheelchair accessible. Because the new building will have a sprinkler system, the current fire lane is no longer necessary.
There will be a sunken roof garden on the 5th floor roof between the garage and the ambulatory care area.
Emergency Department/Operating Room Expansion: The Emergency Department / Operating Room expansion will be located at the center of Children’s, at the site of the existing Emergency Department. This expansion is scheduled to begin in Spring of 2006 and be complete in Spring of 2007. This expansion will provide Children’s the ability to handle growth in emergency room activity, and also to support high intensity same-day care.
ADMINISTRATION
Changes to the Agenda: Add South Lake Union petition item.
Minutes: Motion by Weissman, seconded by Lloyd: Approve the September 9, 2003 minutes as presented. Motion passed unanimously.
CALLS AND CONCERNS
1. Alcohol at Husky Stadium: Paul Klemond emailed on 10/14 to let LCC know that he saw a notice of a hearing in the UW Daily concerning legislation passed about alcohol sales at Husky Stadium. Upon checking, Hale learned that the Legislature passed Senate Bill 5560 during the last legislative session. The bill repeals the prohibition on alcohol sales at the University of Washington. It also encourages the institution to feature products produced in the state. The legislation was requested by the UW.
2. Traffic Bumps: Lloyd reported that the humps at the end of Surber where the street meets 42nd have been changed from the yellow larger bumps to smaller white ones. A neighbor reported that cars are now driving over the white bumps instead of staying to the left as required, thus causing problems when two cars are at the corner at the same time attempting to turn right. She will follow up on this.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. Absent: Torrance and Piyarali are on leave of absence. Noonan has the flu and Sorscher had a conflict with work.
2. Thank you! Thanks to Torrie for coordinating distribution of monthly trustee packets and for Lloyd, Noonan and Romano for assisting this month.
3. Sand Point Breakfast: The Sand Point Community Housing Association is hosting its second annual fundraising breakfast at 7 a.m. on Thursday, November 13th at the Sand Point County Club. The event is free, but those attending are asked to contribute. There are three sponsorship levels--$1,000 at the Partner level, $500-$999 at the Benefactor level and $250-$499 at the Friend level.
4. Public Safety Funding: Councilmember Licata and Josh Belzman from Councilmember Will’s office emailed on 11/07 thanking LCC for its letter about funding for Community Service Officers, crime prevention and adequate police staffing.
5. Seattle Channel: Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis emailed on 11/07 thanking LCC for its letter complimenting the work of the Seattle Channel. C.R. Douglas, host of Seattle Channel’s Inside/Out program, and Gary Gibson, station manager also emailed to thank LCC for its letter.
6. Funding for Major Institutions Staffing: Councilmember Conlin emailed today to let LCC know that he has introduced a budget amendment to restore some of the funding for Major Institutions staffing. He will also be introducing a Statement of Legislative Intent directing the Executive to develop a way to assess the costs of this staffing to the institutions so that there would be a consistent and linked source of funds for this in the future.
7. Proposed Changes to Council Rules and Procedures: The City Council voted today to adopt Council President Steinbrueck’s proposed amendments to the council rules calling for a public comment period at full council and all standing committee meetings and to require two town meetings a year. LCC supported these amendments.
REPORTS/ACTION
Crime Prevention: Wright reported the following:
1. As of November 10, there has not been vandalism at the Playfield. There were no problems on Halloween.
2. At the last North Precinct meeting, Diane Horswill reported:
· 1 burglary on 9-29-03 in an unoccupied house in the 3100 block of W. Laurelhurst Dr. NE.
· 1 burglary on 10-07-03 in the 3100 block of E. Laurelhurst Dr. NE.
· She has been very busy in the Ravenna-Bryant area. New flyers were sent to all Block Captains within 1/2 mile of the recently released sexual offender’s residence. She has given many talks on personal safety and house security recently.
3. Captain Oliver:
· Reported that the Greek Row emphasis patrol will continue through “Apple Cup” weekend (November 22). Funding for the extra Emphasis Patrol coverage has come from funds other than the police budget. After Apple Cup the North Precinct will no longer have that extra funding.
· The SPD emphasis patrol has been working with the sororities, fraternities and the University Of Wash. Police.
· The “tip-line” has helped in identifying 25 people after the Sept. 30th riot and 7 arrests have already been made, none of whom were U of W students. Many citations have been issued for noise, traffic, alcohol and other misdemeanor violations.
· The Captain also reported that they have caught and arrested 3 business burglary suspects: The “7-11 Burglar”, the “Grocery Store Burglar” and the Pattern Burglar”. The SPD is working hard to keep Aurora Ave. clear of prostitutes-many have been arrested.
4. Lt. Wedlund reported that he hopes there will not be a demonstration on November 30th, the anniversary date of the WTO meeting held several years ago. The SPD will be ready just in case.
5. George Holzapfel requested that everybody write or call the city councilmembers regarding the police budget before November 6th. Nov. 24th is the date of the budget final vote.
Ragee reported that car windows have been smashed in her area of the neighborhood. Biely reported graffiti and will follow up with Seattle Public Utilities as they have a cleanup program. The graffiti at the Spiger Building still has not been cleaned up. Zinn reported that the back window of a Pathfinder in her area was broken out and that she called the police. Burge reported that someone tried to steal his old truck while it was parked in front of Bartells in University Village.
South Lake Union Petition: The Seattle Displacement Coalition has asked LCC and individual trustees and committee members to sign onto a letter that will be sent to the Council requesting a delay in South Lake Union proposed rezones to allow time for preparation of a comprehensive environmental impact statement and an assessment of costs to the taxpayer. To date, the new infrastructure improvements, not including the cable car that Paul Allen wants, is estimated to be half a billion dollars. Motion by Lloyd, seconded by Holden: To support the South Lake Union petition as an organization. Discussion centered around the application of the Code changes to the Battelle property. Motion passed 10 to 1 with 3 abstentions (Trumbauer, Romano, Levin).
LCC Website: Susan Rucker and Sorscher are working together to update LCC’s website. Rucker cleaned up files names and transfer problems, saved letters in the root directory to the appropriate folders and linked them to issue pages and updated posting of the minutes of LCC trustee meetings. With a new domain, LCC will be able to include downloadable newsletters on the site. Rucker has reserved a domain name www.laurelhurstcc.com. Progress continues!
Elimination of the undergraduate program in Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry at UW: On October 27, 2003 the UW Faculty Senate’s Reorganization, Consolidation and Elimination of Programs (RCEP) Committee recommended elimination of environmental horticulture as an undergraduate major. The Committee did not recommend moving the program to landscape architecture. The Committee’s decision is now with the UW president’s office and the Higher Education Coordinating Committee. Tom Hinckley, Director of the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH), has not responded as to how this decision will affect CUH.
CUCAC Update: Holden reported on the November 4th CUCAC meeting. There was in-depth discussion of the University response to the recent riots in University Park and the incident prevention team. Copies of the UW’s new guide to off-campus living were distributed at CUCAC and the LCC meeting. The guide asks off-campus students to be good neighbors, but provides no recourse to impacted neighbors other than to call 911.
There was some discussion about the University’s plans to upgrade its marina. Concerns were raised about loss of informal public access to the water. The proposed changes mean that the new facility will be only for larger, more expensive boats.
There was some discussion of tree removal at the Center for Urban Horticulture. Also, two cottonwoods have been cut on NE 42nd near the student housing.
Neighbor Appreciation Day Art Contest: The Department of Neighborhoods and Safeco are again sponsoring a greeting card contest for Neighbor Appreciation Day for K-12 schools. Neither Laurelhurst Elementary School nor Villa Academy has participated in this event before—despite great talent among our young people! It would be wonderful for our neighborhood schools to get involved in this effort. Last year, LCC discussed the possibility for featuring an art display of entries from the neighborhood at the annual Neighbor Appreciation Day reception. Volunteers are needed to contact the schools. The deadline for entries is Monday, December 15. Biely agreed to contact Laurelhurst School about the contest.
SR 520 Meeting: Herrin attend attended the informational meeting on October 29th at the Museum of History and Industry regarding TransLake and SR 520. The draft Environmental Impact Statement for the bridge replacement project will consider four options: four lanes (maintaining the current four lanes of capacity of SR520 while replacing the floating bridge, adding shoulders, and strengthening or replacing sections of the corridor vulnerable to earthquakes), six lanes (adding one combined high-occupancy vehicle (HOV)/bus rapid transit (BRT) lane in each direction), eight lanes (adding on HOV/BRT lane and one general purpose lane in each direction) and the no action alternative. Costs range from $1.8 billion to $7.4 billion, without improvements to I-5. The draft EIS will be issued in Summer 2005. A preferred alternative should be identified by Summer/Fall 2005.
A new committee—the SR 520 Arterial and Street Impact Study Committee has recently been formed as a result of a $250,000 appropriation in the 2003-2005 state transportation budget and an equal amount matched by the City. Membership on the committee is specified in the state budget to consist of two representatives each from the Portage Bay/Roanoke Park Community Council, the Montlake Community Club and the North Capitol Hill community organization and the secretary of transportation. The funding is directed at analyzing the impacts that an expanded SR 520 Evergreen floating bridge will have on the streets of North Capitol Hill, Roanoke Park and Montlake. This will be separate from the analysis of environmental impacts that will be studied in the EIS for the bridge replacement project.
The draft scope of work for the consultants undertaking the study is included in the packets. The draft scope lists several streets that will be studied, but does not include Montlake Boulevard (from Husky Stadium to 25th) or Pacific (along where the UW hospital is located).
NEDC voted unanimously at its November 6 meeting to write requesting that representatives north of the Canal be added to the committee. This is because streets north of the Canal impact the targeted area of study. LCC has written a similar letter per Jean Amick’s request that will be included in next month’s agenda packets.
Proposed Changes to the Magnuson Park Overlay District: The Parks Department is proposing amendments to the Sandpoint Overlay district to allow commercial uses such as pet health care and grooming, pet owner education services, snack bars and restaurants and a 500 person movie theatre. Parks is also proposing amendments to allow larger signage and more kinds of signs, taller buildings and permitting for a Sandpoint Branch Library (with no specification that siting the library would be located on non-park property to comply with Initiative 42.
Christmas Ship Contribution: The Parks Department has again requested that community groups contribute $50 for the annual Christmas Ship event at Magnuson Park on December 18. Volunteers are also needed and will start decorating the park at 3:30 the day of the event. The Civic Christmas Ship will dock offshore from Magnuson Beach and provides holiday music from the Dickens Carolers and festive lights and remain from 6:50-7:20 p.m. Those who come early can view the luminaries, warm themselves by the bonfire and enjoy hot chocolate and cider. Motion by Lloyd, seconded by Biely: To contribute $50 to the Christmas Ship event at Magnuson Park. Motion passed unanimously.
Federation Rep: LCC is a long time member of the Seattle Community Council Federation. The Federation generally meets the last Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. at NOAH’s Lake Union Headquarters. The next meeting is November 20th and the city librarian, Deborah Jacobs will be the featured guest. Because government offices are on high security alert, the Federation needs to know ahead of time who is coming so that their name can be included on a list with the guard at the gate. Weissman expressed interest.
Advisory Council: Torrie reported that the last Advisory Council meeting was cancelled because Dave Yim was sick.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM.