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
By George Howland Jr – Outside City Hall, July 27, 2016
“You can fight city hall and win!
Earlier this month, the Seattle Green Spaces Coalition (Green Spaces) and TreePAC saved the Myers Way Parcels, 33 acres of open space in the middle of neighborhoods with poor air quality, concentrated poverty and a high number of people of color. Myers is bigger than Madrona Park and Beach (31 acres) and much bigger than Gas Works Park (19 acres).
In order to preserve Myers, the activists had to persuade Mayor Ed Murray to change course. He planned to sell the property to raise $5 million for homeless services. Now he will preserve Myers and find the money to fight homelessness elsewhere.
How did they do it?”
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.”
By Mark Hinshaw – Crosscut, April 26, 2016.
Ellen Sollod’s “Cloud Veil” at 12th Avenue Square Park. Credit: Seattle Parks & Recreation Credit: Alex Garland
Forget what you think you know about green Seattle parks. A new park just south of Seattle University shows us an important aspect of the future in a more densely developed city.
The recently opened 12th Avenue Square Park is the sort of open space we will likely see more often. It is more like a piazza, surrounded by development — both older and newer, with more buildings to come.<–more–> Continue reading
Sketched Jan. 6, 2016
A seven-story apartment building is planned for this Northeast Seattle lot. The house is in disrepair, but the property also includes a couple of sizeable trees that stand out at an intersection laced with parking lots.
I assume they’ll be cut when the house is torn down. But what if the owner had happened to nominate them for heritage status?
City of Seattle arborist Nolan Rundquist told me anyone can nominate a tree with the consent of the property owner, and more than 150 notable trees have received heritage status under a program that started in 1996.
Cass Turnbull, a member of the Heritage Tree Committee, said the program has helped save some trees but can’t guarantee preservation. With so much development, a stricter tree ordinance is due, she said. “The green stuff we love so much is disappearing under concrete.”
By David Ham
SEATTLE —
Cass Turnbull said she’s among hundreds of Seattle citizens petitioning Seattle city leaders to save unused Seattle City Light surplus land as green spaces.
“It doesn’t make sense and it seems wrong that people are making profits off of land that the city owns, and the city is going begging for green spaces,” said Turnbull, who is also involved with Tree PAC.
Seattle City Light is in the process of selling 22 of its unused former substations and other surplus land.
Three properties have been approved by the city council to sell; nine other properties are under review for sale by the city council, and 10 other properties may also be reviewed by the city council for sale at a later date.
A spokesperson for City Light said that since the properties were purchased with rate-payer money, state law says they have to be sold at fair market price.
“They have every right to sell it and they’ve gone through the necessary notifications,” said Arvin Vander Veen, who is the agent for one of the properties for sale at 80th and Aurora.
He expects City Light to get at least seven offers for that property that will sell at a minimum of $600,000.
“The market we’re in right now – multi-family – is creating a lot of demand. I mean, Seattle’s creating a lot of jobs,” said Vander Veen.
In protest, Turnbull said that concerned citizens are planting trees and shrubs on some of the properties City Light has listed for sale.
“I think somebody called them guerilla plantings or drive-by plantings. I don’t know who’s doing it but somebody cares enough to bring the plants over,” said Turnbull.
Councilmember Tom Rasmussen understands the importance of preserving green spaces in the city.
He said he is working with citizen groups to see if there’s a way that the city can keep the properties for public use.
The council will be considering a Statement of Legislative Intent on Friday.
According to meeting records, the item would: “identify potential inconsistencies or opportunities for improvement in the City’s current policies concerning the acquisition and preservation of open space and natural areas, especially as they relate to existing City goals such as those found in the Urban Forest Stewardship Plan and the Climate Action Plan; and ii. make recommendations concerning the management and operation of an Open Space Opportunity Fund, including recommendations on how the OSOF could help advance City and community goals and priorities.”
“It also doesn’t make sense to ask the public to raise money to buy land that the city already owns. It’s just not right,” said Turnbull.
“People come here for the jobs and the great climate and because it’s green,” said Cass Turnbull, founder of the nonprofit Plant Amnesty, and TreePAC, a political nonprofit formed to advocate for urban trees.
“Pretty soon it will just be for the jobs,” she said. “That would be sad.”
