This Should Be Interesting - Neighborhood Status Report Updates

The Prologue: My faithful readers might know that the Neighborhood Plan Updates are supposed to be coming to a neighborhood near you in the next few years. Three southern neighborhoods (Othello, Mount Baker, Beacon Hill) got the quick-start version of the NPU because their Light Rail Stations were opening this year and the City wanted to have a Plan in place before developers started in on the juicy, juicy transit-oriented development.

While I love the idea of Neighborhood Plans and their Updates, what I've been hearing the City's relationship with the our southern neighbors and with the Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee (made up of neighborhoody activist types) hasn't been good. I think the word "railroading" would apply. This is unfortunate, but not entirely surprising given that the Dept. of Neighborhoods, the City Dept. in charge of this process, has Mayor Nickels for its boss.

The Announcement: Before all this fun can start on the Hill, or any other neighborhood, the Dept. of Neighborhoods first has to conduct a Neighborhood Status Report Update. The Status Report Update is supposed to find out, through a series of metrics, what has changed in the neighborhood over the past ten years since the Neighborhood Plans were created.

For the Hill, the Neighborhood Status Report Update process begins at a meeting on June 22nd from 6-8pm at the South Lake Union Armory (860 Terry Ave. N). I think it's basically a public comment meeting; the press release says

Please join members of the Seattle Planning Commission and the Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee in the first of a series of two important community meetings. These two citizen groups want to hear your thoughts. Come and tell us how your neighborhood has changed since your neighborhood plan was adopted. Your comments and input at this meeting will help the City of Seattle complete a status report that will look at how well your neighborhood plan is achieving its goals and strategies.

Since this is the first step for the neighborhood in the Neighborhood Plan Update Process, it's a pretty important meeting. The Capitol Hill Stewardship Council and the Capitol Hill Housing Improvement Project (among others) will be discussing their approach to this meeting and what metrics of change they think are the most important very soon. I'll keep you (my faithful readers) updated as soon as I find out anything interesting.