Usually it’s enough to put up an event post on CHS for the monthly Capitol HIll Community Council meetings. But this month, like in January, the Community Council as some big stuff on the agenda, some of which needs to go to a vote. So I feel it is my responsibility as CHCC president to get the word out far and wide about what we’ll be talking about in our general meeting this Thursday (7-9pm, Cal Anderson Park Shelterhouse). You can see the whole agenda here, but below are the big discussion items:

Guest Speaker: Jonathan Dong, SDOT –
Discussion on Metro’s consideration of the replacement of the Electric Trolley System with diesel hybrid buses in order to reduce budget shortfalls. SDOT is collecting feedback from the community on this idea and are presently conducting a straw poll among community members to develop a policy recommendation.

Which option is greener? How much cheaper are hybrid diesesl buses than electric trolleys? Can we have them run on biodiesel? Have all these questions answered and more this Thursday.

Guest Speaker: Ethan Melone, SDOT –
Debrief on current status of the First Hill Streetcar Project.

The Seattle Dept. of Transportation is expected to make a streetcar route suggestion to City Council on Wednesday, and the mayor’s office is holding a First Hill Streetcar Stakeholders meeting on Wednesday as well. That means that there will be a lot of juicy streetcar news for Ethan to tell the community on Thursday night.

Guest Speaker: Tony Russo and Cathy Hillenbrand, TOD Stakeholders Group
Discussion on the transition of the TOD Stakeholders Group into “TOD Champion”, and the proposal to create TOD Champion as a joint committee of the Capitol Hill Community Council and the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce.

This is the big-ticket item of the night. Transit-oriented development, aka what’s going to get built on top of the Broadway light rail station once it’s completed, is a hot topic. Sound Transit will be in charge of writing the contract and long-term lease with the company that will eventually develop the space. In the meantime, the present TOD Stakeholders group is making the transition to a more proactive, advocacy oriented TOD Champion group. The question is, what role with the Community Council play in this process? It’s up for you to decide.