Mayor wants city hall to do most planning work

By Rebekah Schilperoort

Ballard and Crown Hill have done better than most communities at keeping track and implementation of its neighborhood plan, according to assistant city auditor Mary Denzel.

Nearly 900 residents were surveyed for an audit ordered by Seattle City Council member Sally Clark to review the mid-life progress of the 20-year plans. It included people who had helped craft the plans in the late 1990s and some who did not.

The review, released Sept. 20, didn't examine each of the 38 neighborhood plans in depth, but evaluated the progress of 100 projects chosen at random. It resulted in an "unbalanced" survey pool that overrepresented West Seattle and neglected to include other neighborhoods at all.

The audit shows the need for more city support and funding, but gave the city an overall score of about 9 out of 10, 10 being the best. According to the survey, neighborhood plans also helped with major capital investments, such as the passage of parks and library levies.

"We gave the overall effort a very high score," said Denzel. "A lot got done."

But the plans have suffered from the loss of six city staffers and a division director whose job was to help neighborhoods implement the plans. Those positions, which at the time included councilwoman Clark, were cut from the department of neighborhoods in 2003. The city adopted the plans in 1999.

The city workers were able to coordinate various city departments to get projects done. The loss of that support has caused some plans to become "stale," while others have thrived with enough community support, Denzel said.

"If the city wants to do it right," any revision should include adding support at the city level, she recommended.

"That was really successful," said Denzel. "(It) takes someone looking from a broader prospective."

Generalizations about how each neighborhood is actually doing can't be drawn from the audit because it would have taken too long to check in on all 4,300 recommendations.

"It's meant to give us a taste, a flavor of what's been done on some specific items," said Denzel.

But based on conversations with members of the community, she said Ballard's implementation progress and community involvement has been one of the more impressive.

The Ballard Municipal Center has been built, which includes a new library, neighborhood service center and park. There have been numerous sidewalk, curb and bus stop improvements.

The Ballard/Crown Hill plan also received high marks for preservation of natural areas like Bitter Lake Reservoir and Carkeek Park.

The city scored poorly for not providing regular reporting on plan accomplishments. An update process should explain clearly to communities whether it will be city driven or neighborhood directed, according to the audit.

It should also be plainly communicated to residents that the city expects a public service commitment to see the plans through, said Denzel.

"The plans are hugely dependent on community initiative," she said. "It takes grassroots activism."

Council member Clark said the audit was a good first look at the plans but wasn't the "be-all-and-end-all." Progress has been a "mixed bag," but one thing is certain, "people are still ravenously excited about local community planning," Clark said.

Any revision, she said, should include a system for nurturing community involvement and stewardship groups.

"Without those folks in the community knocking on doors regularly the plan does falter a bit," Clark said.

The council began reviewing the mayor's $3.5 billion proposed 2008 city budget this week, which includes about $1.5 million and 10 staff to begin examining the neighborhood plans by dividing the city into six sectors. The proposed structure puts most of the control into the hands of the Department of Planning and Development and Department of Neighborhoods, instead of citizens.

The public process would include approximately two to three meetings per neighborhood and one to two per sector. Each sector would be completed in one year and take five to six years to complete, according the mayor's office.

Clark said she favors a more "citizen driven process."

Jody Hauge, former chair of Ballard's neighborhood planning committee, said the plan gave the community an important tool to manage the growth its experienced in the past several years.

People who never considered themselves "activists" suddenly became involved in community planning, too, she said. Major goals were met, such as finding a new home for the Nordic Heritage Museum closer to downtown Ballard. It will move into a new location on Market Street in the next few years.

The area west of 24th and Northwest Market Street between the Ballard Locks, a major tourist attraction, was "dead" before the plan. Now, it's better connected to the hub of Ballard by creating a more walkable street with caf/'s and other commercial and retail businesses," said Hauge.

"Ballard is a much different place than it would have been without neighborhood planning," she said.

But Ballard still struggles when it comes to affordable housing, with many workers commuting here from outside of the community and city. A revision approach that didn't allow each community to address its individual issues would be a mistake, Hauge said.

"The more they can get it to be a community driven approach, the more rewarding it will be for the communities and the city," she said.

Rebekah Schilperoort may be reached at 783.1244 or rebekahs@robinsonnews.com