The North Beacon Hill Council meeting, usually the first Thursday each month, has been rescheduled this month to next Thursday, September 9 at 7:00 pm. NBHC meetings are usually held at the Beacon Hill Library, 2821 Beacon Avenue South. Stay tuned—we usually post the agenda here a few days before the meeting. All are welcome to participate in the neighborhood council.
The meeting cannot be held at the library tonight, as all branches of the Seattle Public Library are closed this week due to budget cuts.
It’s that time again—time for the monthly meeting of the North Beacon Hill Council. The meeting is at 7:00 pm tonight, July 1, at the Beacon Hill Library community room, 2821 Beacon Avenue South. Everyone is welcome. As a reminder, you are part of the council when you attend your first meeting, and you have voting privileges when you attend your second.
Here is this month’s agenda:
7:00 Welcomes and Introductions of new Board Members
7:05 Genjo Marinello: Proposed change of apartment house on Horton to mediation house, followed by questions and answers from the community
7:30 Reports and Announcements
Beacon Rocks, Bob Zappone
Pinata Party, Judith Edwards
Public Relations position needed on Board—nominations?
Community concerns
Other announcements
Steve Louie, Neighborhood Coordinator
8:30 ADJOURN
The Beacon Merchants Association will also be meeting this week, Friday, July 2, at 10:00 am at the new coffee shop, The Station. The address is 2533 16th Avenue South, just north of Beacon Hill Station and across from El Centro.
Here’s the agenda and information from the Merchants Association:
“While our grant application has been accepted, the contract has not been completed yet due to delay at the city’s end. We hope to have that completed by Friday. We’ll be moving ahead with outreach plans, hiring our graphic designer, and building our walking map of businesses on the hill. I’ve sent out our proposed bylaws and hopefully folks have had a chance to look them over; anyone requesting an additional copy can reply to this message. (beaconmerchants@gmail.com is the address—Ed.) Bylaws will be passed by acclamation in early September, and board selection and development should be completed by the end of the year. This is the essential groundwork for building an improved business environment on Beacon Hill!”
In the last few days on the hill, some people worked on neighborhood issues, and some had fun at the Beacon Hill Festival, while only a few blocks away, others slept in the park. Photos in this post are by Jason unless otherwise noted. Meeting with neighbors, discussing development... (City Councilperson Sally Bagshaw, at the North Beacon Hill Council meeting on Thursday night. Photo by Wendi.)Proudly displaying pottery at the Beacon Hill Festival...Perusing plants at the Festival...Cooking meat at the Festival... ...and sleeping on the grass in Stevens Place (Triangle) Park.
Pizza, parking lots, and praise for local volunteers are all on the North Beacon Hill Council agenda for this Thursday’s meeting. The meeting is at 6:30 pm (one half-hour earlier than usual!) at the Beacon Hill Library community room, 2821 Beacon Avenue South. As always, all are welcome; you are part of the council when you attend your first meeting, and you have voting privileges when you attend your second.
Here is the agenda, as forwarded to us by Council chair Judith Edwards:
6:30 Pizza and tamales, a gift to the community from the Friends of Lewis Park; and recognition of the following people and organizations who have worked so hard on the trails and parks on North Beacon:
Jefferson Park Alliance
Dr. Jose Rizal Park – Craig Thompson
Cheasty Boulevard Trail – Willie Weir
Lewis Park – Dee Dunbar and Vin Nguyen
“It truly takes a village to make this such a great place to live. Each of these parks or trails has benefited by countless volunteer hours, a true gift to the community. If you are one of those volunteers, please plan to attend.”
6:50 City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, Chair of Parks, Waterfront and Seattle Center Committee (10 minutes – followed by Q & A for 20 minutes)
7:20 Mike Podowski, Seattle Department of Planning and Development: Proposed plan for parking lots at the light rail stations on North Beacon and McClellan/Mt. Baker, as well as El Centro and other empty lots. (10 minutes – followed by Q & A for 20 minutes)
7:50 Board and membership vote of approval/disapproval of DPD parking lot plan, nominations for four vacant Board of Directors positions by full council membership, establishment of Board of Directors by vote of Directors.
Curtis LaPierre forwarded us a draft document from the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) about the proposal to allow temporary surface parking lots near Link light rail stations. You can read it here.
According to this draft, the intent of the proposal is to “promote rail ridership, encourage use of vacant properties and provide economic return until the development market returns,” and it would do this both by allowing existing parking areas in Station Area Overlay Districts to be used as commuter and customer parking, and by allowing “use of extra parking or vacant portions of a lot as commuter and customer parking for land related to existing institutions within walking distance of a light rail station.” The parking would be permitted as an interim use for a maximum period of three years.
Could this empty lot next to Beacon Hill Station become a parking lot? Photo by Wendi.The next meeting of the North Beacon Hill Council is Thursday, June 3 at 6:30 pm in the Beacon Hill Library meeting room, 2821 Beacon Avenue South. The meeting is starting 30 minutes earlier than usual, and the Friends of Lewis Park are providing pizza and enchiladas. As always, all are welcome to attend; you are part of the council when you attend your first meeting, and you have voting privileges when you attend your second.
A representative from the Seattle Department of Planning and Development (DPD) will be at the meeting to discuss the possibility of allowing temporary surface parking lots near Link light rail stations.
Additionally, the council is seeking four new board members and will be voting on these positions at the meeting. Council Chairperson Judith Edwards writes:
It takes the entire community to make North Beacon the neighborhood we want to live, grow and thrive in. Many of your fellow neighbors are, and have been, serving on the Board of Directors for the North Beacon Hill Council, working to further your visions for our neighborhood. The council has openings for four new Board members. These positions are being created in order to help expand the board and increase its ability to serve the neighborhood in the many areas that are important to you.
What does a Board member do? Board members contribute to the community and our Community Council by being involved in an area that interests them. One of our members monitors and coordinates with the police on issues of Public Safety. We have board members who maintain governmental relationships and another that acts as Treasurer. We have a web guru, and another is currently looking over our bylaws, with an eye to revising that which is outdated. And then there are city committees which originated with the Neighborhood Planning process. They include housing close to the light rail station, a strong neighborhood commercial district, a vibrant Town Center—with El Centro as part of it, and a neighborhood with parks and open spaces that serve its diverse community.
So the question we have for you is, what would you like to contribute to your community? What is it that you want to see happen in our neighborhood? What is the special expertise you might lend the Board? Grant writing? Acting as Secretary? Being involved in bike/pedestrian activities? Parks development? Mixed use housing? Developing a Town Center? Helping to establish a business association? Music and the arts? Whatever your interest might be we want you!
We request that those interested in running please prepare a one paragraph bio sharing with us what you’re interested in, and what you might bring to the Board. Please submit the bio to Matthew Stubbs via email (Matthew.T.Stubbs@gmail.com) These bios will be compiled and presented to the Members at our June meeting, at which time the greater membership of the North Beacon Hill Council will vote on these new board seats.
BeaconArts sent out a notice today that they will be meeting tonight at ROCKiT space, 3315 Beacon Avenue South, from 7:00 until 8:30 pm. All are welcome. BeaconArts describes themselves as “a community organization dedicated to enriching our neighborhood through arts and culture. Members get together regularly to plan, promote and advocate for the arts on Beacon Hill, and to build stronger local connections between artists of all disciplines.”
7:05 – City Councilmember Mike O’Brien, Chair, Seattle Public Utilities and Neighborhoods Committee: Plans for North Beacon Hill, how we can be of help to Mike, how Mike can be of help to us, followed by questions and answers
7:40 – Brian Dougherty, Seattle Department of Transportation: Update on 15th Avenue parking/bicycle lanes, followed by questions and answers
7:55 – South Precinct Seattle Police Department report – Shelly Bates
8:00 – Election of new North Beacon Hill Council Board Members
8:10 Neighborhood updates
Beacon Rocks
Beacon Hill Business Association
Jefferson Park Festival (volunteers needed)
Other announcements, events
June meeting, Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, celebration of park renewals and pizza!
Photo of last year's International Children's Day festivities at El Centro, courtesy Elliott Jones.
There are a lot of events and meetings coming up soon that we want you to know about. Updated with late-arriving reminders of ROCKiTspace events and El Centro’s Cinco de Mayo celebration. Here goes:
North Beacon Hill Planning meeting with Marshall Foster, city planning director from the Department of Planning and Development, 5:30 to 6:30 pm at the Beacon Hill Library, 2821 Beacon Avenue South.
Beacon Family Bike and Pedestrian Plan meeting, 6:30 to 8:00 pm at the Beacon Hill Library.
Seattle Public Schools Family and Community Engagement Symposium, 9:00 am to 3:30 pm at Aki Kurose Middle School, 3928 South Graham Street — free workshops on helping your child with math, science, reading, writing, dealing with bullying, and college and career readiness with keynote speaker Dr. Susan Enfield; breakfast (8:30 am), lunch, and childcare provided.
Wednesday, April 28:
International Children’s Day celebration, 5:00 to 8:00 pm at El Centro de la Raza, 2524 16th Avenue South, featuring children’s activities and cultural games, refreshments, and presentations; for more info contact Enrique Gonzalez at 206-957-4605 or email execasst@elcentrodelaraza.org.
Meet Laila Lalami, author of the 2010 Seattle Reads selection Secret Son, 4:00 to 5:30 pm at the Beacon Hill Library.
Thursday, May 13:
Cheasty Boulevard Plan meeting, 7:00 to 8:30 pm at the home of Amit Ranade and Jennifer Faubion-Ranade, 2615 South Edmunds Street.
Friday, May 14:
Neighborhood Plan Update meeting, Mercer Middle School. (We don’t have the starting time for this one yet, but we will post it when we do.)
Sunday, May 16:
Beacon Hill Music Backyard Party fundraiser, 3:00 to 7:00 pm — RSVP requested, email beaconhillmusic@gmail.com for more info.
Monday, May 17:
Beacon Family Bike and Pedestrian Plan meeting, 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Beacon Hill Library.
Saturday, May 22:
Beacon Hill Music Dance Party fundraiser, 7:00 pm — RSVP requested, email beaconhillmusic@gmail.com for more info.
Wednesday, May 26:
Jefferson Park Skateboard Park, Beacon Mountain Playground, and Jefferson Playfield update with the Parks Department, 6:00 to 8:30 pm at the Jefferson Community Center, 3801 Beacon Avenue South.
Judith Edwards writes to tell us about this month’sNorth Beacon Hill Council meeting tomorrow night:
The North Beacon Hill Council will meet Thursday, April 1, at 7:00 in the Beacon Hill Library Community Room (2821 Beacon Avenue South). That’s not an April Fool’s joke! We invite everyone that lives or owns a business here on the Hill to come hear a group of individuals present their ideas for parks here on North Beacon. Each has applied for a Parks Department Opportunity Fund grant. Though all cannot be funded, we hope many will be. This is a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and learn more about the awesome events that are occurring here on North Beacon.
The agenda is as follows:
7:00 Welcomes
7:05 Presentations on applications for Parks Opportunity Fund grants, followed by Q&A
8:00 Community Business
$1M insurance policy which NBHC must take out to cover events on Festival Street
Recognizing the Beacon Music Association as a sub-committee of NBHC
Upcoming music events on Festival Street
Beacon Business Association formation update
Update on Jefferson Park playground
Steve Louie, Neighborhood Coordinator
8:30 Close
As always, all are welcome to attend. You are part of the council when you attend your first meeting, and you have voting privileges when you attend your second.
Bev Graff of Findlay Street Church opens a presentation on the new church building to be built at 14th and Bayview. Photo by Wendi.If you didn’t make it to the NBHC meeting Thursday night, here are a few things you missed:
Al Terry and Barb Graff from Findlay Street Church presented the plans for their new sanctuary with affordable housing to be built at 14th and Bayview. You can see the slides on the church’s website. Some concern was expressed about parking impacts, but by and large the proposed development appeared to be welcomed.
Cheryl Sizov from the Seattle Department of Planning and Development presented an introduction to the DPD’s process of revising the Seattle Citywide Design Guidelines, originally created in 1993, used in the design review process, and used as the baseline for the various neighborhood design guidelines since. Largely, it’s a simplification and clarification measure, reducing the five original categories to three and the 31 original guidelines to 13, but bringing extra attention to the “sub-issues”, increasing them from 19 to 50. See the proposed revisions on the DPD website. Public comment is accepted until March 31st.
A motion was made to provide a vote of support to Glenn Herlihy’s 12-acre multi-focal gardening project on the western edge of Jefferson Park along 15th Ave S (some details in the forum), for use in applying for $250,000 in grants to advance the project. There was hesitance expressed by several attendees about issuing formal support for a project most of the council wasn’t terribly familiar with, and the motion was tabled until the April 1st NBHC meeting. Hopefully, there will be more details about the plan available here or in the forum by then.
David Gackenbach and Andrew Abian presented some initial thoughts about submitting for Parks funds for a project that would add to the open green space on Beacon Hill by using grant money to negotiate the purchase of the entire block at 17th and Walker, currently occupied by a single home, and converting it to a park. Expect more details about this project to appear here on the blog soon.
A neighbor involved with the 12th and Stevens power pole situation reported having their best meeting yet with Seattle City Light last Thursday, and that they are feeling optimistic. NBHC Chair Judith Edwards said “City Light is actually bending!”
This was another well-attended meeting, with likely more than fifty neighbors turning out. Next month, expect an appearance by City Council member Sally Bagshaw, speaking about parks and open space. Hopefully we’ll see you there!
