Also on tonight's Olympia City Council agenda is an oral report by Keith Stahley. It's titled "Key Barriers to Development." The report will precede the Council Meeting. It will be delivered to the Council's Committee of the Chairs at 5:30, and this is a public meeting.

Listed as a barrier to development in the advisory packet are view corridor protections. What's the staff recommendation? —To eliminate them (view corridor protections that is.)

The Committee of the Chairs will meet at 5:30 PM tonight in the Executive Conference room.

Link to week of January 5, 2009 Agenda packet PDF: Agenda, January 5, 2009

Link to PDF of "Key Barriers to Development" packet: Barriers to Development

Without further ado:

Olympia council e-mails violated spirit of law

THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Rhenda Strub is not going to like this editorial.

She’s the Olympia city councilwoman who’s miffed that a guy named Steven Segall had the gall to question the City Council’s practice of conducting private meetings via e-mail from the council dais.

Segall, you see, lives in Thurston County, but not in Olympia – a fact that apparently disqualifies him from the right to question the council’s practices.

Strub told The Olympian newspaper, “He’s just meddling in something that, frankly, is none of his business.”

... link to original

The City of Olympia Council passed the amendment to deregulate zoning on the isthmus area of downtown so as to allow for a proposed super-structure luxury condominium development. The vote was 5-2. Council Member Strub changed her vote, leaving only Members Hyer and Messmer to vote in opposition.

I am saddened. Despite my voluminous and multitudinous communications, I don't know if Council Members listened to my concerns: One of which is that this project represents an economic injustice. No one on the Council has adequately responded to this concern about economic injustice, despite repeated, and clearly uttered, statements of the fact. Do you think that by ignoring it that it will just go away?

Do you have concerns that haven't been acknowledged or addressed by the Council? Do you feel represented?

Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation President Brian Johnston appeared on the September 13th installment of the Seattle talk radio program, Cop Talk. You can find an mp3 recording of the 9.13.08 program on the website (scroll down). Johnston is the first guest.

In a short interview with Cop Talk host Ron Conlin, Memorial Foundation President Brian Johnston expressed opposition to the isthmus rezone proposal.

September 13th, 2008 Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial Overlook

Brian Johnston, President of the Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation, expressed explicit opposition to the isthmus rezone based on the situation of the Memorial overlooking Capitol Lake, Heritage Park, and the Puget Sound Budd Inlet.

The Memorial is intended to be a place where visitors and survivors can experience a degree of serenity and peace. That sense of serenity is furthered by views that are unobstructed and unfettered by massive commercial developments.

Another view:

Capitol Lake Panorama from the Law Enforcement Memorial

I sat down last night and typed away for a long time letting loose about my thoughts and feelings regarding the rezone. I still have a lot of feeling and thoughts about the rezone. Part of me is angry and frustrated - because I feel like I haven't been heard. Members of the Council have not adequately addressed my very legitimate and reasonable concerns about the rezone and the proposed luxury development. And there are many people who feel like me - who feel that the Council has more or less overlooked their concerns, or looked down on them in a condescending manner. Even the Councilmembers who voted against the rezone did not wholly encompass the great body of wisdom in the oppositional arguments as they have been presented so patiently, repeatedly and consistently over the past few months. And certainly, the oppositional faction on the Council did nothing, or next to nothing, (at least publicly) to counter or rebut the 4 Councilmembers who seemed so determined to plow ahead in the face of such overwhelming oppositional reason and sentiment. How can the Council proceed without even responding to, much less adequately addressing, the concerns of so many residents of Olympia?

A lot of what I want to say has already been said, most recently and clearly by Janet Blanding in the December issue of WIP. Here's a link to that article: The people of Olympia versus the Olympia City Council : The continuing tug-of-war over the isthmus, and an excerpt:

“It ain’t over until it’s paved over,” declared Bonnie Jacobs of Friends of the Waterfront at a recent citizens forum to save the isthmus. Thought it was a warm, sunny Saturday morning, the Columbia room in the Capitol basement was filled to capacity, standing room only. Event organizers made several trips to the cafeteria to retrieve more chairs to accommodate the nearly 180 people who wanted to know what could be done to stop the unpopular proposed rezone of the isthmus. Among the crowd was newly re-elected Senator Karen Fraser. Sponsored by the Friends of the Waterfront, 20/20 Vision Olympia, the Capitol Park Foundation and the League of Women Voters, the forum featured a number of speakers, who addressed topics ranging from the status of the citizen initiative, to the impact of the rezone on the proposed Heritage Center on the Capitol Campus, to the possible course of litigation should the rezone be approved by the Olympia City Council.

“The Bottom of the Third”

“This issue is in the bottom of the third inning,” said Jerry Reilly, Chair of the Capitol Park Foundation, when he spoke at the citizens forum. “It has a long, long way to go.” Former Olympia Mayor and Friends of the Waterfront founding member Bob Jacobs outlined the steps required to rezone the isthmus: A Comprehensive Plan Amendment, a height amendment, and an amendment to the Shoreline Master program. Thad Curtz gave a brief overview of what threatens to be a very long process of litigation, which may ultimately involve the Department of Ecology, the Growth Management Hearings Board, the Court of Appeals, the State Supreme Court, and the Shoreline Hearings Board. “Should this whole scenario play out,” says Curtz, “it would be four to six years before anything could be built on the isthmus.” And that’s if all rulings are in favor of the developer.
[...]

The current assessed value of the parcels on the isthmus that are under consideration for park rezone come to be about $20 Million, so about $5 Million an acre. A big price tag. [*editor's note: please see price-tag rebuttal by T. Curtz in comments section]

When the feasibility study is finished, how much will be too much for a park?

I imagine after the study is finished, the cost to de-construct existing buildings and rebuild park infrastructure will tip at about $30 Million or more.

For reference, the city spent nearly $10 million to buy eight park sites, totaling 49 acres.

So when does this parcel of land cost us too much? Is there a point when proponents of the park say the park is too expensive? Or will the benefits outweigh the costs?

What if the price tag tips $50 million? That could buy a lot of parks. Maybe even a couple schools.

Let's assume for a moment that the rezone proposal is brimming forth —full of merit. In that case, if that truly is the case, then why can't a decision on the proposal be postponed until next year? The rezone decision will have decades long impact on the character of downtown Olympia. So why rush such a formative and high-impact decision?

Tonight at the City Council Meeting I spoke about the conflict between the Isthmus Building Height Rezone Proposal and the Isthmus Park Feasibility Analysis. I believe that rezone proposal discriminates against, or lessens, the feasibility of creating a park on the Isthmus.

Members of the council responded, and I will have to go back and look at the meeting again to assemble a more specific re-response, because it's worthy. But for starters, and to mention here, at least one Council Member indicated a belief that approving the rezone would not impact the Park Feasibility Study or the feasibility of creating a park on the Isthmus. Does that seem believable? Is that true? Is that even possible? Several reasons were given, though I didn't take notes. It seems to me that approving the rezone would increase the financial property value of the land - thereby damaging the feasibility for a park.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 25, 2008

Can you describe your favorite thing about Olympia, in a poem? As part of the celebrations surrounding the City of Olympia's 150th Birthday, the Olympia Arts Commission is partnering with the Olympia School District in sponsoring a call for poetry from Olympia K-12 students! Historic information about Olympia, and the community's public art collection can be found on the Olympia School District's website to provide points of inspiration and interest for aspiring poets and/or their teachers! Poetry application forms can be found at the same website or on the city's website or by calling Olympia Arts & Events at 753-8093. Deadline for applications is December 15, 2008. Submitted poems will be posted on the City's website, and selected poets will be asked to read their poems at the City's Birthday Celebration on January 17, 2009. If you have a poem you would like to write for the City - we would love to read it!

Contact:
Stephanie Johnson
Arts & Events Manager
Olympia Parks, Arts & Recreation
(360) 709-2678
sjohnso1@ci.olympia.wa.us

I believe that Parks, Arts and Recreation Department can be one place where the rubber meets the road in terms of sustainability.

So, I am glad that I hauled myself down to yesterday's public input workshop on the City (of Olympia) Parks Plan. It was a great turn-out. There were somewhere between 150 and 200 people there.