Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell

I presume you are aware of Seattle Children’s Hospital’s desire to expand their campus. If you are not, here is the issue in brief: Seattle Children’s Hospital is seeking an expansion for its facilities in the Laurelhurst Neighborhood. The City Hearing Examiner has recommended that the Council deny their request. This type of expansion is pursued under a Major Institution Master Plan or MIMP. For this matter, our role on the Council is what is known as “Quasi-Judicial” in that we are serving as the reviewing appellate body of the Hearing Examiner’s decision.

An appeal in this matter was filed on behalf of the Major Institutions and among them is the University of Washington. Other major institutions who support the MIMP and whose appeal has been filed also include the Swedish Medical Center and Virginia Mason Medical Center. It should be noted that a representative from the University of Washington was also appointed to be a member of the Citizens Advisory Council who also publicly supported the MIMP.

Because my wife Joanne Harrell sits on the University of Washington Board of Regents, an issue can be raised as to whether there is an appearance of a conflict of interest should I participate in this quasi-judicial review. Based on research from the City of Seattle Law Department and because of my strong adherence to the City’s Code of Ethics, I do not want this connection to jeopardize any decision the Council may make on this issue. Therefore, I will recuse myself from voting on this issue. The remedies for non-compliance with this issue should I participate would be a reversal of the Council’s action and I believe this would waste taxpayer money and citizens their time, energy and resources.

On Monday, January 11, 2010, the Council voted 7-1 to permit taller buildings in a small portion of the South Lake Union neighborhood. I abstained from the Council vote because of the potential that an “appearance” of a conflict of interest could have been suggested had I participated. My wife Joanne Harrell was appointed by Governor Gregoire to sit on the University Of Washington Board Of Regents and the expansion in issue directly affects the University of Washington Medical Center. The Board of Regents may ultimately pass judgment on this issue and I did not want to jeopardize any decisions made by the Council.

The passage of this “text amendment” permits some buildings to go as high as 120 feet. The previous limit was 65 feet. However, if a development met certain biotech criteria, a height of 85 feet was permitted. A majority of the Council believed passing the “text amendment” was necessary to accommodate development that will attract federal research grant money. This is one of those issues where not everyone will be happy with the outcome. However, this new facility will serve as a key driver of the economic development of South Lake Union’s burgeoning biotech sector. My goal will be to continue to work with the neighborhood communities such that their commonsensical and logical needs for meaningful public open space and construction designs that are truly neighborhood-friendly are met.

I have been hearing from citizens and I have read some recent internet postings regarding the issue of parking lots in the vicinity of light rail stations. Here is the issue: In the early part of the decade, the Seattle City Council passed legislation which established transit overlay zones which prohibits certain types of land uses within quarter mile circles of light rail stations. I am certain this legislation was passed with good intentions. However, the lack of parking lots in the overlay zones are producing unintended consequences for businesses and residents. Case in point: the Safeway store on South Othello and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South sits adjacent to the Othello Station. When the light rail line opened, store management noticed that their parking lot was being filled by light rail riders. Grocery stores do not have the resources to manage their parking lots. In turn, Safeway contracted with Diamond Parking to manage their lot to ensure that the “park and hide” stopped and Safeway customers would have a place to park. Sounds reasonable, correct? Because of Safeway’s location in the transit overlay zone, Diamond Parking was verbally told by the city that they could not operate a “pay lot.” This is a situation where a business is being hampered by city regulation.

I have heard from citizens and businesses in neighborhoods along the light rail line about their disappointment that private parking lots are not permitted in the overlay zones. I have heard that more parking is desired in these areas to help promote economic development. I am looking into a policy change regarding parking lots in transit overlay zones. While the policy to prohibit parking in these zones may have been well intended, it appears as though it was implemented against the will of the people and the discussion needs to be re-introduced.

At the January 6, 2010 Energy, Technology and Civil Rights Committee there was discussion of City Light’s 2009 accomplishments that was highlighted by the progress the Utility has made in significantly decreasing streetlight outages. The discussion included a description of the group re-lamping implementation and the next phases. This will significantly decrease streetlight outages even more.

Examples of Accomplishments:

26,000 or 8% of City Light customers are signed up for e-billing

System reliability—outage frequency below goal of 1 per year

400 line miles of trees trimmed—increase of 100 miles from the previous year—this amidst budget cuts

Financial stability—improved bond rating AA-/ Aa2

$64 million in Capital Improvement and Operations & Management reductions

Greenhouse gas neutral for 5th straight year