For the final step in the process to complete a restoration plan, the Port of Seattle's Lower Duwamish River Habitat Restoration Plan will be presented to the Port of Seattle Commission at their May 5 meeting.

The Port Commissioners will be asked to adopt the plan as a Port of Seattle policy document. 
 
The meeting will be held at a special location of the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center, at 4705 W. Marginal Way S.W., starting at 1 p.m.

A final draft of the plan was released on Jan. 13, this year, which concluded the effort to address comments on the Oct. 29, 2008 plan draft and the State Environmental Policy Act review. 

The plan's purpose is to is to "evaluate estuarine restoration opportunities in the duwamish Waterway and to prepare a planning framework for shoreline and aquatic area restoration coincident with continuing marine commerce and industrial use in the Duwamish Waterway."

According to the project manager Joseph Gellings, staff has only recently established a dialog with the owner of the marine construction businesses located at 523 and 582 S. Riverside Drive. Upon learning from that individual that plans exist to add cargo docks on each parcel, staff is recommending that the river frontage of each parcel be removed from Project 15 as habitat designation.

Each of the parcels has approximately 150 feet of river frontage. The effect of this change on the overall amount of habitat designation in the plan will be to reduce it by 1 percent. It is recognized that the plan development process was focused on a commenting deadline of Jan. 7. Nevertheless this exception is being made based on the critical value of input from adjacent property owners.

The final draft of the plan can be accessed here.
 
The meeting agenda can be accessed here as of May 1.
 
Any questions can be directed to the project manager, Joseph Gellings, 206-728-3368.