Not able to make it to tonight’s (9/19) public hearing at 6PM in Roosevelt High School’s auditorium on the proposed Roosevelt legislative rezone? There will be plenty of tweets to follow:
Councilmember Sally Clark tweeted earlier today:
Planning to tweet at the Roosevelt Rezone public hearing tonight (6pm, RHS Theatre)? Neighbors are using hashtag #RRzone
Also, according to the RavennaBlog (a fantastic hyperlocal blog by the way) has all the different sides represented via twitter:
For those of you who cannot attend, you have three live-tweeters to choose from: Us (@RavennaBlog), the Roosevelt Neighborhood Blog (@Roosiehood), and one of Seattle Transit Blog’s writers, Bruce Nourish (@brucenourish). If you ARE attending tonight’s hearing and would like to contribute to the Twitter conversation, we’ll be using the hashtag #RRzone. Folks at home can follow along here.
Those following local land use news in NE Seattle may be aware of this rezone and the controversy surrounding it. For those not familiar, this is a quick summary of the situation intended to be wholly unbiased (feel free to comment below to clarify as necessary):
The Roosevelt neighborhood is identified as an Residential Urban Village, a designation that comes with particular growth targets under the City’s Comprehensive Plan. Back in the ’90’s, the Roosevelt developed a neighborhood plan to help growth within their community occur in a manner that was comfortable and characteristic of the community’s vision. When Sound Transit began the siting process for the North Link light rail line, the Roosevelt community worked with Sound Transit to have the Roosevelt station located in the center of the neighborhood instead of closer to Interstate 5. In anticipation of this transit station, the community successfully received grants to update their neighborhood plan which took many years (2006-2011). Through this, the neighborhood came up with a zoning concept which the City Council appropriated money for the Department of Planning and Development to refine for Council’s adoption. After the DPD issued their recommendation, which was similar to what the community developed and met the City’s growth targets for Residential Urban Village, some called for even greater density due to the presence of the new light rail station proposed for their neighborhood. So, the debate is essentially whether the proposed legislative rezone is dense enough.
There are two vocal sides to this particular issue. One side is that of the community’s who are upset that they’ve spent many years working on something which meets the City’s growth targets only for them to feel as though their process is taken over at the last minute by a few vocal bloggers. Another side is that of those arguing for Transit Oriented Development (TOD) which focuses density around transit hubs, which Roosevelt will surely be with its new North Link station, as an effective way to encourage rapid transit and the benefits that come along with that.
The Wedgwood Community Council currently does not have a formal position on the rezone. Therefore, the following is a list of resources to help educate yourself on the issue. Please post below if there are other good resources that are not included.
- Roosevelt Neighborhood Association’s Website
- Mayor McGinn’s Blog Post Calling for Transit Oriented Development in Roosevelt
- City Council President Conlin’s Blog Post Justifying the Roosevelt Neighborhood’s Proposed Rezone
- The Ravenna-Bryant Community Association’s Position on the Rezone
- Several Posts by Roger Valdez of the Seattle Land Use Blog Arguing for TOD
- Seattle Times Article About the Issue