Seattle Times celebrates it as a blow against ‘environmentalism,’ but, really, today’s city council vote on loosening the environmental review process for development projects seems to be more about letting Seattle’s existing rules and codes manage the environmental impact end of things and separating out the public review, comment and mitigation processes. Fine by us — if the council lives up to its promise by providing an alternative, robust vehicle for neighborhoods to have a say in the projects. Worry is that the council erodes the public process from the environmental review and never fully replaces it with an equally strong channel. Assuming that ‘equally strong’ is probably unlikely. Still, in an environment where projects like this and this struggle to please their surrounding communities, maybe we neighbors have earned a downgrade in attention.

You can tell the council members what you think of it all by sending a mail or giving their office a call. If nothing else, ask them to promise to follow this vote with work to create an effective channel for neighbors and neighborhoods to be involved in the development of their community.

Seattle city council contacts
[email protected] 684-8802
[email protected] 684-8806
[email protected] 684-8808
[email protected] 684-8807
[email protected] 684-8805
[email protected] 684-8801
[email protected] 684-8804
[email protected] 684-8803
[email protected] 684-8800