My name is Phillip Duggan and I’m the new North District Council Representative for Pinehurst. I wanted to share some info from the latest meeting that I thought was relevant to the neighborhood.
- Bridging the Gap / Neighborhood Street Fund projects are being considered for the next round of funding.
- The North District Council is going to be ranking our projects to pass along our recommendations and I’m working to make sure the sidewalk on 115th is one of our top priorities.
- This project has been proposed previously and people have been working to get it done for a long time now
- Some residents from Pinehurst showed up at this meeting to support this project which helped show how important it is to our community
- There was a update on the Mayor’s proposed budget from the city.
- The economy is forcing many cuts though it’s an early proposal so I suspect things will change
- On a positive local note, the early plans call for the Lake City Library to stay open 7 days a week with extended hours.
If anybody has any questions please let me know.
As someone who has lived on 115th St for over 20 years I am very concerned about its many issues. I had hoped that closing the park and ride might reduce traffic, but no. The plan to open 8th Ave and Northgate Way to all way traffic should help. I appreciate all efforts to get that sidewalk. The problems I have encountered are 115th is outside the urban center and planners need to be reminded constantly that it requires attention.
The good news is that residents who live on 115th have been very proactive at bringing this issue to the attention of folks throughout the City (the Mayor's office and SDOT). And, this is the #1 priority for sidewalk funding in Pinehurst.
I am part of the Northgate Stakeholders Group and have been closely following all SDOT plans for Northgate and have not heard anything about opening 8th Ave NE to all way traffic. I am curious where you heard that.
Please see pg ES-10, E-8 CTIP report
Anonymous –
I have a question out to the experts on this at the City.
Renee
Here is more insight from Paul Fischburg, Senior Policy Analyst from Seattle Office of Policy & Management who is leading the Northgate Stakeholder process:
Hi Renee,
I confirmed with Tony that the intent of CTIP project E-8 is to open 8th Ave NE both to left turns in all directions and to north-south traffic across Northgate Way. Since I wasn't part of CTIP's development, I don't know the history of community support/opposition to the idea. This has come up in the context of our developing the green street/streetscape plan for 8th Ave NE as part of the rezone/urban design strategy. Our intent has been to incorporate the CTIP projects into our thinking. And incidentally, my read of the blog post is that "anonymous" thought this was a good idea: "The plan to open 8th Ave and Northgate Way to all way traffic should help."
In any case, there's no immediate plan to implement this CTIP project over any others. The idea is to adopt the streetscape plans (for 3rd and 8th) into the right of way manual so that if and when developers propose projects adjacent to 8th Ave NE, they will be given the streetscape plans as guidance for their actual development. I would expect that the green street design will have the effect of slowing traffic on 8th. We'll be able to take comments on this at the Pinhurst meeting on the 26th.
Feel free to give me a call if you'd like to discuss this further.
Paul Fischburg
Paul got it right, I DO think its a good thing for 115th St. How many times have people gone to the post office,(for example) then been forced to go to 115th because they cannot turn east on Northgate Way. 8th has many traffic calming strategies,with more to come,no worries. This will encourage folks to use arterials. And again, I live on this street.