Design Review Needs You . . .

This is one of the best ways to affect the local design decisions in your neighborhood . . . please apply.

Members Sought for Seattle's Design Review Boards

Seattle - Mayor Greg Nickels is looking for qualified candidates to fill upcoming openings on the city of Seattle ’s Design Review Board. The positions will be available in April 2007 when retiring board members’ terms expire.

The city is looking for professionals in the design and development fields, who have proven skills and established careers. It also needs community and business leaders with an interest in shaping new development in their neighborhoods, and a passion for keeping Seattle a great place to live, work and play.

Applications will be accepted for the following board positions. The deadline for applications is Dec. 13, 2006.

Northwest Design Review Board

-- design professional

-- local business representative

Northeast Design Review Board

-- community representative

-- local residential representative

Queen Anne/Magnolia Design Review Board

-- local business representative

Southeast Design Review Board

-- design professional

-- local business representative

Southwest Design Review Board

-- local business representative

Downtown Design Review Board

-- no open positions

Capital Hill/First Hill/Central District Design Review Board

-- design professional

-- development representative

-- local business representative

Board members are appointed by the mayor and City Council and serve two-year terms which may be renewed once. Members serve on one of 7 boards that review projects in the city’s major geographic districts; each board has five members.

Each board is composed of a:

-- design professional

-- development representative

-- community representative

-- local business representative

-- local residential representative

The Design Review Program was established in 1994 to provide an alternative to prescriptive zoning requirements and foster new development that better responds to the character of its surroundings. Boards evaluate the design of development projects based on citywide and neighborhood-specific design guidelines. The boards review mixed-use developments, multifamily housing, and commercial projects above a certain threshold.

Applicants should have: knowledge of, or interest in, architecture, urban design and the development process; the ability to listen and communicate effectively at public meetings; a passion for design and community development; and the ability to work well with others under pressure. Prior experience with community or neighborhood groups is a plus.

Board members must live in the city. The local residential representative must be nominated by a community group or association (e.g. community council) that operates within the board district. Similarly, the local business representative must be nominated by a business group (e.g. chamber of commerce) that operates within the board district. The nominations for these local positions are often facilitated if the board member lives or works within the district he or she is serving, but residency in a district is not a requirement to serve as a local representative. Applicants need not have secured a nomination at the time of application.

Board members should expect to work 12-14 hours a month attending and preparing for board meetings, which are held twice a month, in the evenings. Board members are expected to attend at least 90 percent of the meetings.

Applications will be accepted for positions other than those listed above and kept on file for consideration for future openings.

To be considered for appointment to one of the design review boards, please send an application, a cover letter and resume by Dec. 13 addressed to:

Tom Iurino

Design Review Board

Department of Planning and Development

City of Seattle

700 – 5 th Ave Ste 2000

P.O. Box 34019

Seattle, Washington 98124-4019

tom.iurino@seattle.gov

E-mail submissions are preferred.

You may download an application at www.seattle.gov/designreview or email tom.iurino@seattle.gov

For more information on the design review boards and the city’s Design Review Program, visit www.seattle.gov/designreview.

mation, please contact Tom Iurino, Design Review Program Specialist, at 206-615-1457 or via e-mail at tom.iurino@seattle.gov, or Alan Justad, 233-3891, or via email at alan.justad@seattle.gov

The Nickels Administration is committed to promoting diversity in the City's boards and commissions. Women, persons with disabilities, sexual minorities, and persons of color are encouraged to apply.

For more information on mayor initiatives, please visit the mayor’s web site at www.seattle.gov/mayor. Get the mayor’s inside view on initiatives to promote transportation, public safety, economic opportunity and healthy communities by signing up for TheNickels Newsletter at http://www.cityofseattle.net/mayor/newsletter_signup.htm.

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First Global Green Event

GLOBAL GREEN
A lecture/panel series showcasing sustainable planning and design in
the Pacific Northwest and Denmark

Green Architecture and Urban Design Lecture/Panel
Thursday, November 30, 7:00 - 8:30
Kane Hall, Room 110, University of Washington

Don't miss this lecture/panel series with prominent local architects
who will be showing recent urban planning and design work that
exemplifies application of sustainable strategies. The panel will
feature Bert Gregory, CEO of Mithun, to present the firm's urban
design plan for a sustainable neighborhood at Portland's Lloyd
Crossing; Margaret Montgomery, NBBJ, to unveil design strategies for
the new Gates Foundation Campus, influenced by Scandinavian models;
Robert Miller, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, to discuss the new Ballard
Library; and Architect Rob Harrison, who will show his recently
constructed Green Roof Workshop. Diane Sugimura of Seattle's
Department of Planning and Development will recap the the City's
green building program in an introduction to the panel, and Jerry
Finrow, UW Architecture Professor and former College Dean, will
moderate a discussion following the panelists' presentations. The
evening will be a rare opportunity to see projects that represent
cutting-edge sustainable design at four different scales of work.

This is the first in the new GLOBAL GREEN series. The event is
supported by the Northwest Danish Foundation and co-sponsored by the
Green Futures Institute and the Northwest Center for LIvable
Communities, both in the UW College of Architecture and Urban
Design. Watch for future events that will focus on Sustainable
Energy, and on Civic and Green Infrastructure.

Hazelwolf Film Fest

Please come and join us at the upcoming event at the Green Film Series . . .

Monthly Green Film Series Co-Sponsored by the Sierra Club Seattle Group by Martina Guttenberger

Are you suffering from post-partum election tension syndrome or pre-Christmas anxiety? Or do you only need an excuse for a night out? Whatever the case, come and join us for an evening at the movies. The Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Networks, 911 Media Arts Center, and the Sierra Club Seattle Group invite you to be part of the Green Film Series. Transforming City Spaces and Landscapes is the title of the second installment of these monthly showings of progressive documentaries.

WHERE: 911 Media Arts Center—402 9th Ave N, Seattle WA 98109

WHEN: Friday, December 1, 2006 from 7:30 to 9:30PM (first Friday of each month)

ADMISSION: $5

THE MOVIES: Pomegranate Center (Erin Katz, Celia Beasley, & 911 Media Arts Center, 2004, 10min.) This short film features the work of the Pomegranate Center, a non-profit community design and development organization founded by the artist Milenko Matanovic. Pomegranate’s project managers provide residents of a community with the tools to plan, design, and craft their own, individualized, and vibrant gathering places. The Center’s projects have become a model for how to create lasting, humane communities within today’s dwindling open spaces.

A Lot in Common (Rick Bacigalupi, 2003, 57min.) A Lot in Common accompanies the formation of an urban community garden from renting an empty, fenced-in weed lot for one Dollar per month to its dedication as a community garden and final transformation into a peace garden. The educator and landscape architect Karl Linn, who inspired the creation of this garden as well as the film, encourages people to reclaim the commons to build community by abiding to the simple wisdom of being “in each other’s presence but not in each other’s way.”

The movies are followed by a panel discussion with:

Milenko Matanovic, Executive Director of the Pomegranate Center www.pomegranate.org

Brice Maryman, Co-director of Open Space Seattle 2100, www.open2100.org

Open Space 2100 is a citizen coalition of neighbors, students, nature lovers, designers, artists, ecologists, transit advocates, engineers and neighbors representing many other fields of life, who bonded together to advocate their 100-year vision of a greener,

healthier, self-sustainable, more livable and walkable Seattle.

Representative from City Repair Seattle, www.cityrepair.info

The City Repair Project is a volunteer grassroots organization that encourages communities in reclaiming their urban spaces and assists them in creating gathering places that represent the members and needs of their unique community.

A glimpse at future topics in the Green Film Series (films and speakers tba):

January 5 Blueprint for a Bikeable City February 2 Reevaluating Your Relationship with the Earth March 2 Reducing our Ecological Footprint

For more information got to www.911media.org or www.hazelfilm.org or contact Martina Guttenberger at mguttenberger@gmx.de (preferred) or 206-547-0902 Driving directions at http://www.911media.org/about/directions.html

Seattle and Portland's "High Performance" Infrastructure

Wow, Urban Land and Planetizen bring the second great article from this month's Urban Land magazine that focuses on urban public space. Highlighting the amazing work of Portland and Seattle at beginning to establish new uses for streets as part of a healthy, ecological and sustainable urban infrastructure, author Mary Vogel showcases what we have been doing over the past 10 years.

The trick now . . . making it standard operating procedure.

http://www.planetizen.com/files/21901.pdf

Learning From Nawlins

While you might need to go to Planetizen to get to the link above. This is a good article. . . to crib from Planetizen.

Well planned urban landscapes can do more than beautify a city, they can provide ecological stability and protect urban areas from threats.

In the October issue of Urban Land, Charles Reith writes rebuilding New Orleans with a more protective urban landscape, and provides some best practices for the management of urban ecosystems.

"As the world becomes more populous, urban, and warmer, we must expect more from our cityscapes. Virtually every urban environment, no matter how densely populated, may be optimized relative to the ecological services provided." Reith stresses the importance of sentinel trees, deep organic mulches, and water-wise morphology and technologies.

"But the most important ingredient, that which is provided by the designer, is integration. ...For instance we've spoken of the way swales guide water, promote infiltration, and encourage deep rooting. The placement of fast-growing and sentinel trees relative to swales will enhance their wind tolerance. The placement of trees in turn should protect against solar heating, north-wind chill, and gale-force damage. And then back to the swales which must be keyed to downspouts and impervious surfaces. Such is the delightful circularity of thought that is design."

"Landscape architects can no longer design without striving for the broadest possible functionality, synergistically addressing such objectives as stormworthiness, water-use efficiency, wildlife accommodation, and more. Neither can they just design solely for conditions of climatic or geologic tranquility. The challenge is to design urban landscapes that beautify, perform, improve, and endure.

Sierra Club: OSS 2100 Event at REI

Tuesday, Nov 21 - 7 pm at the Seattle REI 222 Yale Ave N

Green Infrastructure for Seattle's Next Century

Join the Sierra Club’s monthy lecture series to learn about a new grass-roots 100-year vision for Seattle's Green Infrastructure (www.open2100.org) called Open Space Seattle 2100. Though the back bones of any green infrastructure network are the parks and green spaces of the city, green infrastructure also comprises elements like bicycle and walking networks, natural drainage swales that filter pollutants from stormwater, streams and p-patches. It includes living, vegetated systems that freely and sustainably provide city residents with air purification, atmosphere cooling, carbon storage, flood control, food production, recreation and wildlife habitat.

These issues are particularly important now, as the region rests at a critical crossroads. We face a booming population, with increasingly distressed local and global natural systems ranging from the Puget Sound’s health to the threat of global climate disruption. Smart. green infrastructure networks provide an equitable framework for cities to work with natural systems to achieve pedestrian safety, stormwater management and mitigation, climate change, and pollution control targets.

In Seattle the work of the Open Space Seattle 2100 coalition has recently brought a new vision for the city’s green infrastructure to light. As we celebrate the city’s centennial anniversary of the Olmsted Brothers plan, the time is right to peer into the future to begin planning for strategic greenspace services for a Seattle with twice the current population.

This event is sponsored by the Sierra Club’s Washington Chapter. Speakers will include Brice Maryman of Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture and Nancy Rottle of the University of Washington, who together co-directed the Open Space Seattle 2100 process. Additionally, Nathaniel Cormier of Jones + Jones Architects and Landscape Architects will discuss successful examples of green infrastructure from the Pacific Northwest and around the world, and Peg Staeheli of SvR Design will discuss the green infrastructure design interventions at High Point in West Seattle.

For more information about this event:

REI’s Address 222 Yale Avenue North, Seattle 98109

REI’s phone number 206 223-1944

Chapter Phone number 206 523-2147

Chapter Website http://cascade.sierraclub.org/news

Chapter email cascade.chapter@sierraclub.org

Shortchanging Stormwater Mangement

On the PI's environmental blog today, they report that the Puget Sound Partnership's members have acknowledged that stormwater issues have not been adequately addressed in their draft plan. For urban environments like Seattle, the problem is two-fold: quantity and quality.

In the natural system of the Pacific Northwest, our natural systems absorb 90% plus of all stormwater that hits the ground so that runoff only happens with a small percentage of the rain. Rich layers of duff and humus, evergreen needles, complex multisurface leaves and bark all help absorb that water.

Of course, in urban environments, we are not so lucky. Almost 100% of our stormwater hits the ground and runs into pipes which are either 1) flow directly into our streams or 2) go to West Point for treatment (unless there is too much water, in which case it is sent, untreated into the Sound).

So what are we to do. The biggest bang for the buck is likely to be trees along riparian corridors. They not only control the quantity of water being discharged, but they also improve the quality of the water by removing pollutants and cooling the temperature which is good for salmon.

But there are also upland elements that need to be addressed as well. Green roofs, green walls, swales, natural drainage systems .. . all of these elements help improve stormwater runoff which, in aggregate, make the Sound that much more healthy.

Time to Act is NOW!

Hello OSS 2100 readers--

We have an extraordinary chance to begin to change the way the City functions in regards to open space, but we need to move quickly and act before Tuesday! We have the opportunity to achieve things that various members of this list have been seeking for months and sometimes years , including:

• WAYS TO INTEGRATE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE RESPONSIBILITIES ACROSS CITY DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
  
  
• 100% PUBLIC MEETINGS
  
  
• DIRECT CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT
  
  
• SEEDS OF A NEW COMPREHENSIVE VISION FOR SEATTLE'S PARKS, TRAILS AND GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
  
  
• FUNDING TO BOLSTER THE "BUSINESS CASE" FOR NEW, SMARTER INVESTMENTS IN GREEN IN THE CITY

Again, we must act now. After a long slog of a budget season, various coalition members of the Open Space Seattle 2100 group now have a budget addition and accompanying resolution (see below for the complete text) that would establish a Green Infrastructure Technical Advisory Panel and direct a work plan for that panel, which includes finding to find strategies to implement a new long-term vision of a green infrastructure network for the City of Seattle.


Please write (and encourage others to do the same) to the Seattle City Councilmembers TODAY, supporting "17-1-B-1 - $100K add to OSE for consultant + resolution." You can find some sample support text below.


****************************

Dear Seattle Councilmembers,
I encourage you to adopt Tab 17, Option B which would, "add $100,000 in 2007 to the Office of Sustainability and Environment to hire a consultant to support a Green Infrastructure Technical Advisory Panel to help implement the recommendations of Open Space Seattle 2100 to:

1. Take steps to further develop a 100-year Green Infrastructure Plan with an initial 20-year set of priority actions based on the Green Futures Charrette using city staff and consultants.
2. Create a Green Infrastructure Technical Advisory Panel, half of the members appointed by the Mayor and the remaining half appointed by the City Council, to serve as the client group for the consultants in the development of the above plan and to advise the City on ways to maximize existing green infrastructure efforts underway by the City.
3. Tasking the Panel with planning for investment in green infrastructure by developing a funding strategy that might include a green infrastructure levy, fee structure or other funding mechanisms.

This as an extraordinarily important issue as we think about the future of our city. For a variety of reasons, from ecological robustness to economic integrity, we believe that this long range thinking is a priority for the City to take on.

I also believe that this keeps the hopes and aspirations of the many, many people who participated in the Open Space Seattle 2100 process alive. Their commitment to the future of this City is made manifest in the extraordinary wotk that they did at the Green Futures Charrette in February and

Thank you for your hard work on these issues,

Sincerely,

***************************
Councilmember emails and where they stand on the resolution:

Peter.Steinbrueck@seattle.gov supportive in concept, but did not sign on as a sponsor
nick.licata@seattle.gov supportive in concept, but did not sign on as a sponsor--watching $
jan.drago@seattle.gov co-sponsor of resolution
jean.godden@seattle.gov not sure. one of the swing votes
tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov co-sponsor of resolution
david.della@seattle.gov co-sponsor of resolution
richard.conlin@seattle.gov co-sponsor of resolution
richard.mciver@seattle.gov against
sally.clark@seattle.gov not sure. one of the swing votes

Obviously, councilmembers licata, steinbruech, godden and clark are where we should be knocking hardest.

*********************************

We think that this keeps the goals and ideas of the 350 people who participated in the charrette alive, and keeps the pressure on the city to think comprehensively about where we are going in the coming decades and even over the next century.

Finally, if you would like to serve on the Green Infrastructure Technical Advisory Panel, I might suggest that you throw your name in the ring for consideration when you email the Council

P.S. Next time you see them, please thank John Barber, Joyce Moty, Heather Trim, Diana Kincaid, Nate Cormier, Dave Rogers, Nancy Rottle, Michael McGinn, Jerry Arbes, Craig Skiption and others for all of their hard work lobbying on behalf of this and giving up their time to go talk to the various City Council members.

*****D R A F T R E S O L U T I O N*****

A RESOLUTION endorsing the development of a green infrastructure work plan to implement the visions of Open Space Seattle 2100, directing the Office of Sustainability and Environment to provide staff leadership in coordinating City department actions to support development of a green infrastructure framework for this work plan, and establishing a green infrastructure technical advisory panel and requesting that consultant resources be used to support the development of the framework in 2007.

Whereas, the Seattle City Council has embraced the Goals and Principles of Open Space Seattle 2100 by proclamation in May 2006; and

Whereas, we recognize that our green infrastructure investments across the city contribute to a more ecologically-sound, economically-vibrant, and socially-just civic landscape that creates more robust communities and healthier citizens; and

Whereas, we recognize the overwhelming commitment, investment and excitement generated by the 350 plus participants in the Open Space Seattle 2100 process; and

Whereas, we understand their collective desire to create a new vision for Seattle’s integrated green infrastructure of trees, parks, natural drainage systems, greenbelts, creeks, shorelines and other green infrastructure amenities; and

Whereas, we recognize the need to integrate the services and functions of the eight agencies, including Department of Parks and Recreation, Department of Transportation, Department of Neighborhoods, Department of Planning and Development, Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle Center, and the Office of Sustainability and the Environment to create the most efficient and effective civic expenditures on green infrastructure; and

Whereas, we recognize that the Bicycle Master Plan, the Pedestrian Master Plan, the Urban Forest Management Plan and the Mayor’s Environmental Action Agenda will be stronger if treated as a comprehensive whole rather than as separate plans competing for resources; and

Whereas, we endorse the need to create a spatial framework that overlays existing and future planning needs to identify gaps and opportunities in current planning; and

Whereas, we recognize the need for long-term thinking about changing the way that we, as a city, do business in order to better realize and sustain our long term green objectives; and

Whereas, we encourage creative thinking about opportunities to fund future green infrastructure improvements; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE, THE MAYOR CONCURRING, THAT:

Section 1. There is hereby established a Green Infrastructure Technical Advisory Panel (Panel) to study creating an integrated green infrastructure throughout the City and to engage the citizens of Seattle in discussions about green infrastructure planning. [TO BE DEVELOPED: # of members and interests to be represented.] Half of the members of the Panel shall be appointed 50% by the Mayor and the other half shall be appointed by the Seattle City Council. In order to ensure continued grassroots support and transparency in process, public notice of all meetings of the Panel shall be provided and the public shall be explicitly invited to attend. The Office of Sustainability and Environment shall staff the Panel and shall serve as the liaison to the public regarding the development of green infrastructure in the City of Seattle.

Section 2. City funds included in the 2007 Adopted Budget to hire a consultant to assist the work of the Panel will support the following tasks: (1) using life cycle analysis, compare natural drainage systems versus traditional infrastructure, (2) conduct a feasibility study of implementing government-wide asset management controls into capital improvement projects and to maximize system-wide efficiencies for green infrastructure, and (3) conduct community assessment of implementation pathways and roadblocks, or a best practices report looking at global green infrastructure systems, with the intention of informing the City’s decision about how to create a long-term, integrated green infrastructure plan for the City of Seattle.

Section 3. City staff in collaboration with the Panel, in 2007 shall develop a green infrastructure framework for a work plan. The work plan would serve as the basis for funding a future consultant report to create guiding green infrastructure principles, GIS overlays of city plans and projections for the spatial locations of an integrated green infrastructure, and investigate ways to integrate green infrastructure planning into the City’s capital projects. The Panel should also in 2007 begin to determine a funding strategy, and analyze potential funding sources, including but not limited to a green infrastructure levy, a fee structure and other funding mechanisms.

Adopted by the City Council the ____ day of _________, 2006, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its adoption this _____ day of __________, 2006.


*****I S S U E P A P E R*****
Tab # 17

Open Space 2100

Norm Schwab

November 1, 2006
Issue: Does the Council want to help implement the recommendations of Open Space Seattle 2100 through City actions? If YES, how so?

Background: Seattle’s population is expected to double by 2100. Open Space Seattle 2100 (OSS 2100) seeks to develop a comprehensive open space network vision for Seattle's next 100 years that will complement the city's predicted growth and density, and to build the broad constituency and strategies required to implement this vision. The University of Washington's Department of Landscape Architecture is joining with leaders and citizens from civic, environmental, professional, neighborhood and community groups to create plans for connected open space that will serve residents, businesses, and natural systems for the coming century.

OSS 2100 held a two-day Green Futures Charrette on February 3 and 4, 2006 involving over 350 people and produced a comprehensive report entitled, “Envisioning Seattle’s Green Future.” The City Council embraced the goals and principles of OSS 2100 by proclamation in May 2006. OSS 2100 is seeking further City support to implement the visions contained in its July 2006 report.

OSS 2100 is asking the City to:

1. Take steps to further develop a 100-year Green Infrastructure Plan with an initial 20-year set of priority actions based on the Green Futures Charrette using city staff and consultants.
2. Create a Green Infrastructure Technical Advisory Panel, half of the members appointed by the Mayor and the remaining half appointed by the City Council, to serve as the client group for the consultants in the development of the above plan and to advise the City on ways to maximize existing green infrastructure efforts underway by the City.
3. Tasking the Panel with planning for investment in green infrastructure by developing a funding strategy that might include a green infrastructure levy, fee structure or other funding mechanisms.

Proposed Budget: The Mayor has not included any funds to directly support the request submitted by OSS 2100. However, the City has funded a number of initiatives in Departments that are consistent with and relate to OSS 2100. The Mayor’s Environmental Action Plan includes significant funding requests for projects and programs such as the Climate Action Plan and Restore Our Waters. Together they include over $5 million of new hires, targeted actions, and strategies. Also, the Green Seattle Initiative, which includes the Urban Forest Management Plan and Green Seattle Partnership, proposes to invest another $4.4 million to enhance and improve the health and beauty of Seattle’s tree canopy and green areas. The Mayor’s proposed budget includes $196,000 in the Department of Planning and Development for a Strategic Advisor ($146,000) to work on sustainable infrastructure and consultant services to analyze green infrastructure life-cycle costs. ($50,000).
Option A:

Option B:






Option C:


1. Adopt the Mayor’s budgeted as proposed.



2. Add $100,000 in 2007 to the Office of Sustainability and Environment to hire a consultant to support a Green Infrastructure Technical Advisory Panel to help implement the recommendations of Open Space Seattle 2100 to do the three things listed above in the Background. Also, adopt a Resolution supporting the request of OSS 2100 (draft attached).



3. Add $50,000 to the Department of Planning and Development’s (DPD) budget for additional consultant work to augment the Mayor’s proposed budget on sustainable infrastructure. The added $50,000 would support further analysis of ways to address green infrastructure recommendations from OSS 2100. The Council could also adopt an alternate Resolution that would endorse: 1) the goals of OSS 2100, 2) the numerous complimentary environmental efforts underway at the City (Climate Protection, Urban Forest Management Plan, Restore Our Waters, Green Building Team, Sustainable Infrastructure, etc.), and 3) creation of a citizen advisory panel to provide integrated community feedback on the City's environmental activities.