Monthly Archives: February 2011

Public Meeting Set on New Seattle Shoreline Rules

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Join the City of Seattle for a discussion about what the new rules mean for you.

Will the new shoreline rules affect you? They could if you’re a waterfront homeowner or business owner, live on a boat, or play along Seattle’s shorelines. The Seattle Department of Planning and Development is hosting a public meeting to discuss the changes and answer your questions.

The meeting is Tuesday, March 8, from 5:30 pm to  7:30 pm in the Bertha Knight Landes Room at Seattle City Hall.  The presentation starts at 6:00 pm.

The proposed new regulations will cause these changes which might affect folks:

  • Increasing shoreline setbacks for new residential development
  • Changing requirements for new and replaced bulkheads, unless water threatens to undermine buildings
  • Clarifying the use of shorelines to support businesses
  • Improving public access to shorelines
  • Prohibiting additional, new floating homes
  • Continuing current regulations that maintain existing floating homes
  • Regulating the number of liveaboards at marinas

Detailed information about proposed regulation changes is available at: http://buildingconnections.seattle.gov/2011/02/09/seattle-shoreline-rules-to-change/. The draft regulations, director’s report, and supporting material are posted at: www.seattle.gov/dpd/Planning/ShorelineMasterProgramUpdate/

Public comments on the proposed Shoreline Master Program update, which regulates Seattle’s shorelines, are accepted through May 16, 2011. Please send your written comments to Margaret Glowacki at margaret.glowacki@seattle.gov. Written comments may also be submitted at the public meeting.

Seattle To Preserve “Salmon in Schools” Education

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The Salmon in Schools program, cut by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife last fall as part of the State’s 2010-2011 fiscal year budget reductions, will likely continue in Seattle schools.

Upon learning that Fish & Wildlife may no longer fund the statewide program, Seattle Council President Richard Conlin requested that Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) find a way to support the program for Seattle school children. SPU is offering additional support for the program at a cost of $10,000 per year through the Restore Our Waters program.

“Environmental stewardship starts young,” said Council President Richard Conlin. “Kids learn best by seeing and interacting with nature and wildlife. The Salmon in Schools program is a successful example of hands-on education. I had to do something to preserve this valuable resource, and I hope that other municipalities and organizations around the state will do the same.”

The Salmon in Schools program, established in 1991, is an educational project that encourages respect for our aquatic resources and promotes responsible behavior toward the environment. Large tanks and salmon eggs are provided to both public and private schools and students learn about the salmon lifecycle and the interrelationships between water quality and habitat issues by watching the salmon hatch and grow into fry. Eggs are provided by state and tribal hatcheries. The salmon are released into local streams after about 12 weeks. Statewide, an average of 495 schools participated each year, reaching 40,000 students. Approximately 50 of those schools are in Seattle.

In addition to supplying the eggs and providing and maintaining the tanks, Fish & Wildlife funding has supported administering the permits necessary to release the salmon into the streams. All schools raising salmon require permits and staffing the administration of these permits will need to be resolved for the program to continue.

Fish & Wildlife is exploring ways to continue the program with private or non-profit funding if the cuts become permanent, and in the meantime SPU has offered to assume the cost of maintaining the tanks used in Seattle schools. SPU will also continue partnering with local watershed groups, Seattle school district staff, and teachers to implement and maintain the educational component of the program.

“This program is an engaging way for youth to garner an understanding of the important connections between salmon and healthy waters,” said Ray Hoffman, Director of Seattle Public Utilities. For this year, salmon eggs have already been delivered to schools across the City and kids and grown-ups alike are excited to watch them hatch, grow and swim away down one of Seattle’s streams.

Hands-on Low Impact Development Workshop Scheduled

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Sustainable Seattle and EOS Alliance are partnering to provide a hands-on low impact development workshop.

The rain running off our roofs, roads and yards is the biggest source of pollution entering Puget Sound’s water. We all contribute to this pollution, and we can all help solve this problem by applying Low Impact Development techniques that slow the runoff down and treat the water. To help you learn about and apply LID on your own property, Sustainable Seattle, in partnership with EOS Alliance, is offering a workshop that combines a class about the benefits and types of LID with a hands-on experience building a rain garden or bioswale so you can exactly what is involved.

Saturday, February 26th will be the theory and background day. We will cover what sustainable design is, what it means to you and its context in the neighborhood, city, region, nation and planet, and its nexus with Low Impact Development, before going into more detail about site assessment and design.

Sunday, February 27th will be the hands-on day. Participants will have a chance to enter their own property into a drawing, the winner of which will be the work site for the rest of the day. We will visit the winning site to do an initial survey, design what to build there to improve its stormwater handling, and spend the rest of the day building what we have designed.

Thank you to EOS Alliance for partnering with us on this workshop.

To read more and register online, visit http://sustainableseattle.org/training/228

The schedule for the two days is below:

Saturday February 26

  • 10:30 am – noon: The first session will cover what sustainable design is, what it means to you and its context in the neighborhood, city, region, nation and planet, and its nexus with Low Impact Development.
  • 12 – 1:00 pm: Lunch and socialising. Bring a sack lunch and we’ll eat together.
  • 1:00 – 5:00 pm: Detailed discussion of Low Impact Design. Topics covered will include:
    • Site assessment
    • Soil analysis
    • Site hydrology
    • Site mapping & analysis
    • Site planning & layout
    • Site design

Sunday February 27

  • 9:00 am – noon: Optional site assessment field trip. We will have a drawing to pick a students house for the installation of a rain garden or other LID design solution. It is understood from the class syllabus that all those participating in the drawing will need to share in the cost and labor of building a rain garden. Participation in this is voluntary and is not part of the basic course syllabus. We will then arrange a field trip to that location for in field practice of site analysis and site planning based on the analysis principles learned.
  • 12 – 1:00 pm: Lunch indoors.
  • 1:00 – 5:00 pm: Construction. We will retrofit a class member’s house with a rain garden and/or bioswale. This is a hands-on physical exercise.

Location:

Vance Building, room 530

1402 Third Avenue

Seattle, WA 98101

Closest transit station: University Street.

What to bring

Please dress comfortably, and bring paper, something to write with and a sack lunch for each day. Most of Sunday will be spent outdoors, so please bring rain gear, boots and work gloves if you have them.  We will provide tea, coffee and light snacks.

SWS Stormwater Group Meets Wednesday @ Uptown

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Our next stormwater meeting will be held Wednesday, February 9th, 7:30 to 9:00 pm at the Uptown Espresso in the Alaska Junction, corner of SW Edmunds St and California Ave. S

There is a letter of intent due February 14th for The Russell Family Foundation. A draft letter of intent has been prepared. The draft will be used to focus our discussion around our project execution strategy.