Next meeting of Seattle Tree Ordinance Working Group:
Saturday May 26, 2018 3 PM to 5:30 PM
Northgate Public Library
10548 5th Ave NE, Seattle WA
Seattle City Councilmember Rob Johnson has introduced a framework to update Seattle’s current Tree Ordinance. This is something many citizens and organizations have been urging for almost 10 years.
We would like your organization to join with us and others to strengthen our coalition effort to coordinate and carry out a focused effort to update our outdated tree ordinance, last passed in 2009 as an “interim ordinance”. Continue reading
The Death of Single family zoning starts in HALA, Urban Villages + ADU’s near you! And Exceptional Trees Will Not Survive. – story by Richard Ellison
“Exceptional trees are incompatible with Urban Villages and backyard cottages” says Seattle OPCD employee Brennon Staley (at the Oct 27, 2017 EIS Scoping meeting at the Hales Brewery). When I asked Brennon how, in the best possible circumstances, under ANY possible conditions could Exceptional trees be saved during development. He smiled and said that was not really possible.
So, with the City about to (1) eliminate Single Family Zoning in all Urban Village areas, and (2) allow extra ADU’s (mother-in-law units/ backyard cottages) in the remaining Single Family Zones, Seattle is going to accelerate the loss of Exceptional Trees and limit the available soil areas where new trees might ever grow to a large size and maturity.
Read the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to study the potential effects of removing barriers to creating accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in single-family zones. Visit the ADU EIS website to learn more and provide comments.
Staley, Brennon 206-684-4625 brennon.staley@seattle.gov
It was a large and vocal event for the City, taking comments on the 2 new proposals: An EIS for zoning changes, and public comments on new ADU’s.
Seattle City Council Position #8 – Teresa Mosqueda
From This Week in the Mayor’s Office – Oct 13, 2017
Protecting Seattle’s Tree CanopyMayor Burgess signed an Executive Order focused on strengthening Seattle’s protections for trees on private property today. The order directs the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections to better implement existing tree regulations through: • Strengthening the existing regulations through new and updated Director’s Rules; • Increasing penalties for illegal tree cutting; and • Developing a fee-in-lieu program to mitigate tree loss Further, the order asks City staff to explore how Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) policies could support Seattle’s urban forestry goals. “Seattle’s tree canopy is a treasure that provides critical health and economic benefits to our city,” said Mayor Burgess. “It must be protected, nurtured, and expanded. As we grow as a city, we must also grow our commitment to be good stewards of our urban forest.” ———————————————————————————————- TreePAC recommendation – Thank Mayor Burgess for his action and urge the Seattle City Council to strengthen this effort by updating the interim Tree Ordinance passed in 2009 which is still awaiting action by the City Council. They need to hear from concerned citizens. |
GENERAL ELECTION CANDIDATE FORUM
TUESDAY, OCT. 3, 2017 – 7 P.M. TO 9:30 P.M.
POCOCK ROWING CENTER, 3320 FUHRMAN AVE. E.
IN SEATTLE’S EASTLAKE NEIGHBORHOOD
[LOCATION IS NEAR SW CORNER OF UNIVERSITY BRIDGE
PARKING IS ON STREET, OR IN PARKING LOT SPACES DESIGNATED FOR POCOCK
This forum, sponsored by the Eastlake Community Council, Friends of Seattle’s Urban Forest, Plant Amnesty, Portage Bay/Roanoke Park Community Council, Seattle Audubon, Seattle Greenspaces Coalition, Seattle Nature Alliance, Thornton Creek Alliance and TreePAC
The Forum focuses on the four Seattle citywide offices and Seattle Port Commissioner races.
7:00 Introductions and announcements
7:05 Candidates for Port of Seattle Commission
7:35 Candidates for Seattle Mayor — Cary Moon vs. Jenny Durkan
7:55 Candidates for position #9 — M. Lorena González vs. Pat Murakami
8:10 Candidates for Seattle City Attorney — Pete Holmes vs. Scott Lindsay
8:40 Seattle City Council position #8 – Jon Grant vs. Teresa Mosqueda
TreePAC has worked to inform the city that second houses on single family lots, called back yard cottages, would have a major impact on Seattle’s urban forest ( though more in scale with neighborhoods than apartment buildings also being suggested).
Why? Because two houses on a lot break up the contiguous green space that hosts trees into narrow slivers of land. The same lot coverage by one big house provides the room needed for big trees.
Multiplied by thousands of homes over 50 years, the cottages will likely have major environmental repercussions.
See what the Seattle Times Editorial Staff had to say about the legislation proposed to encourage more cottages in the article at http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/ruling-calls-bluff-on-seattles-misguided-housing-policy/ or by reading an excerpt below.
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Published December 15, 2016 at SeattleTimes.com. Written by Seattle Times editorial board.
SEATTLE reached a turning point Tuesday when a hearing examiner excoriated City Hall’s plan to allow density to increase by as much as threefold in city neighborhoods.
For the first time in recent memory, the bluff was officially called on the city’s poor planning and misleading rhetoric as it enthusiastically boosts development.
Hearing Examiner Sue Tanner’s ruling suggests that residents were being bamboozled by the equivalent of post-factual, fake news.
Instead of creating more affordable housing as Mayor Ed Murray and the City Council proclaimed, the policy on backyard cottages would make housing less affordable.
Continue reading at at http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/ruling-calls-bluff-on-seattles-misguided-housing-policy/
As green as Seattle likes to portray itself to be, the city hasn’t put much emphasis on protecting its tree canopy. From a long time after non-native settlers arrived, the idea was to cut down the trees. As the city re-greened itself through the 20th century, some of the canopy came back, but the city government didn’t start paying much attention to tree policy until early this century.
Today, other cities are doing better by their trees. Atlanta, Austin, Portland, Vancouver, B.C. —why, even development-crazy Vancouver, Washington — have much stronger protections than Seattle. In all of those cities, a homeowner must obtain a permit to remove a tree above a certain size, and must replace the tree. Portland even has an “inch per inch” rule, requiring that the size of the tree replacement correspond with the size of the one lost, further protecting large trees. Not so in Seattle.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016. By Knute Berger.
I admit that my expectations might be way off. I grew up in Seattle in a part of town you might call The People’s Republic of Olmstedia.
The Olmsted Brothers firm shaped modern Seattle into the livable city we know, the city we fear losing bit by bit. Their innovative landscape designs and parks vision are part of our foundational infrastructure. But has it runs its course?
There are certainly indications that the city’s interest in maintaining that vision is at risk.
Continue reading
By Adiel Kaplan and Investigate West, Seattle Weekly, June 22, 2016
So-called pavement parks are a growing trend in major American cities and they’re one of the new ways Seattle is looking to increase open space without spending billions
From atop a steep slope above Myers Way in West Seattle, Cass Turnbull peers over a tangle of blackberry bushes. Her perch affords her an exceptional view of the distant Cascades. But her gaze fixes instead on the island of undeveloped acreage more than 100 feet below the blackberries.
“My dream for this area is a nature play area,” Turnbull says, noting the wetlands, slopes, forests, fields and creek below. Her vision: “Kids get to interact with nature and explore.”
