Some bits of business…
Future Agendas
Future Agendas is the closest thing the City currently has to a calendar of upcoming City Council topics. It’s not dynamic, ie. you have to click it every time you want to see a new version. And it’s not always accurate. But until we develop a genuine calendar, this can be very useful if there is a particular issue you don’t want to miss.
City Manager Stuff
Always a good read. Budget Town Hall, Recycling Events in coming weeks. City Manager Reports – City of Des Moines, WA (desmoineswa.gov)
SR-509 Stage 2
The virtual open house for SR-509 Stage 2 is open. If yer short on time, here is a direct link to the info most Des Moines residents will want to see: SR 509/24th Avenue South to South 188th Street – I live in, work in, or travel through Des Moines, SeaTac, and southern Burien
If you have questions or concerns about construction at any time, you can contact their 24-hour hotline, 206-225-0674, or SR509Construction@wsdot.wa.gov.
The SAMP
The Sustainable Area Master Plan (aka ‘the SAMP’) is starting. On October 21, the 45 day official comment period will open. What is the SAMP? It is the environmental review for the airport’s next major expansion–which has already begun and will increase flight operations as much in the next ten years as they have in the last ten years.
If you’re concerned about Des Moines Creek West? That’s actually a (tiny) part of the SAMP. How can Sea-Tac Airport grow that much without a new runway and why should you care? Our friends at Sea-Tac Noise.Info created this two minute explainer to answer those very questions.
On October 21, we will all have 45 days to provide official comment on an $8 billion process that the Port has been working on since 2012. Here is another explainer on how this process works and how YOU can comment!
This Week
Tuesday: 6:00pm Burien Airport Committee. The meeting will cover their shared response to the SAMP following our shared meeting at the Environment Committee (see below).
Wednesday Regional Transit Committee (RTC) Our first meeting since we voted to approve the King County master plan in August. For newcomers, the RTC is an advisory committee to the County primarily concerning bus service. My concern is the ‘last mile’–getting people to the main lines (or the Light Rail). That’s what Des Moines residents need most now.
Thursday 10:17am: The Great Shakeout! Learn how you can be prepared for the next earthquake and/or other natural disaster. https://www.shakeout.org/washington/
Thursday: Des Moines Creek Basin Plan Tour. To my knowledge, this is the first visit by the City (let alone any electeds) in at least a decade. As I write (almost) every week, everything in Des Moines comes back to the airport, and this is a key piece. Plans like this were created all around the airport before the Third Runway was built–and they were contentious. There were decades of terrible water pollution emanating from the airport, made Des Moines Creek Trail and all the restorations at the Beach Park possible. This is version five of the plan and it’s a chance to see how things are going and how we can improve on water quality. Then there’s this settlement
Friday: 10:00am: Des Moines Creek West public land use hearing. Notice of Public Hearing LUA2022-0044 This is a huge deal if you are concerned about the expansion of Des Moines Creek Business Park and the removal of all the green space along 216th. But it is not a City Council event. You can participate in person or via Zoom.
Last Week
Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission Meeting (Agenda) Highlights:
The Port reviewed its aviation budget, which is booming. The Aviation Budget correlates strongly with flight operations, meaning noise and pollution. The airport will blow past the SAMP numbers far ahead of schedule. More below.- The Port Commission voted on an order concerning ‘saving’ North Sea-Tac Park. Actually, they voted on a plan to be brought forward to the Commission sometime in Q3 2025. Coverage from our friends at Sea-Tac Noise.Info
- There was also a completely new South King County Fund. This was originally called the Airport Communities Ecology Fund (ACE). It was a response to the Flight Corridor Safety Program (‘tree cutting’). Frankly, almost no one applied for the grants. So, over time the program morphed into broader programs and now the vast majority of monies go to… wait for it… economic development. I mention this because this points out a key flaw in our relationship with the Port. Cities know what to do with these funds. But by making them tiny ‘grants’, which sound so ‘equitable’, we end up actually not improving environmental issues. Look, if your local group gets some money? So cool. But this is greenwashing, pure and simple, and an absolute pittance compared to the negative impacts of the airport and the Port’s development projects.
Wednesday: At my urging, the City invited a co-founder of Artemis Ferry to visit City Hall. This is the firm our ferry consultant Peter Philips has been pitching to the County to create a passenger ferry stop in Des Moines. Given that the Artemis guy was already in town from Belfast for the Ferry Conference organised by Mr. Philips this seemed easy enough. We were joined by Rep. Tina Orwall and Mayor Buxton. Apparently there is some talk about setting up some sort of ferry factory space in Des Moines. 😮 😀
There was no actual product to talk about until mid-2025, though he did have a very nice brochure. There was so much exuberance in the room (I use that term intentionally), and he also had so much jet lag I did not have the heart to be as skeptical as I should be. 😀
But Artemis has walked into a terrible trust situation. Mr. Philips, the last City Manager, and our last Council, needlessly misrepresented this ‘ferry’ thing—wasting hundreds of thousands of City dollars in the process. But I know from other, deeply flawed, past projects (like Des Moines Creek Business Park) that when a portion of the Council develops a passion for something, facts be damned.
It’s so weird that the following never occurred to me before. I attended Americas Cup in San Francisco 2013–the year the boats shifted to (wait for it) composite e-foilers. As a result, they now go four times faster than any sailboat I’ve ever been on. They have about as much in common with the boats I grew up with as a propeller plane does with a Boeing 747. (I think I blocked out this memory because I hate ’em so much. 😀 )
I’m telling you about my hobby trauma 😀 because several companies sprang from those sailing teams (including Artemis) and adopted the technology. So, they have competitors. Eg. Bremerton is working on a larger version of similar tech–which is yet another reason I feel we should simply wait and see how the rollout in other cities go.
Thursday 5:00pm Environment Committee.
I invited members of the Burien Airport Committee and StART to discuss the upcoming SAMP and what the Port has proposed for their StART Agenda. I presented the following outline of how we got to this point. I always stammer at this stuff because condensing twelve years into twelve minutes is challenging. 😀 Handout
In addition to simply saying ‘hello’, I hoped the Burien would take back to their City Council interest in supporting a letter to extend the SAMP Comment period closing date (see below.)
Thursday 6:00pm City Council Meeting. (Regular Meeting Agenda)
October 10 Meeting Recap
City Manager’s Report
Assistant City Manager AJ stood in for Interim City Manager Tim George. She introduced presentations from Sound Transit on the Link Light Rail. Not much ‘new’. It’s still on track (see what I did there? 😀 ) to open in Spring 2026.
She also introduced our new Planning Director Rebecca Deming, previously with North Bend. Until now my knowledge of North Bend has been limited to hiking beautiful spots like Rattlesnake Ledge and so on. So, I started doing some research. And the one thing I know about North Bend? They have a Public Planning Commission. 🙂
New Business
We discussed having a Study Session on November 14 to discuss ‘vision, mission, goals’. There was no actual discussion. And that’s basically because, well, just between us gals, some of us were not exactly wild about paying a consultant $2,000 to facilitate a Council Retreat less than two weeks after the City Manager starts. Actually, it’s over $4,000, if you add in the fees the seven of us get. I hope to be proven wrong and that it blazes a trail towards a bright and shining 2025. Dawn. Morning. You get the idea. 🙂
New Items For Consideration
- I asked the Council to approve a letter to the FAA in support of delaying the close of the SAMP comment period, currently set for December 5. I also asked the City to reach out to the other airport cities to obtain their signatures as well. That was approved.
- However, Councilmember Mahoney added on the notion of re-creating our Aviation Advisory Committee–a proposal I am deeply skeptical about. A full discussion is scheduled for a future meeting. More below.
- Councilmember Mahoney also proposed having either the economic development committee or the municipal facilities committee hire an outside consultant to assess the capacity of Water District 54. I honestly had no idea what he was referring to by capacity and did not support it. We have absolutely zero control over special purpose districts like WD54! Municipal Facilities Committee covers city-owned property. We don’t own WD54. Economic Development has only to do with land we can regulate. Again, we don’t own it! Why we would jump to spending even more money on consultants and taking the Council’s time? The Mayor intervened to have staff report to the Council first.
Councilmember Comments
Both Councilmember Mahoney and Deputy Mayor Steinmetz used their time to speak in support of the tax levy lid lift. I wish they could dial down on the rhetoric a bit. The sky will not fall if the tax increase does not pass. But perhaps we’ve reached a point where the only thing that will get people to reconsider their approach is an election result.
My comments on airport issues
My comments were concerning Tuesday’s Port Commission meeting. The Port’s record profit forecasts are about record flight operations. And that means record noise and pollution and other negative impacts for us.
As I said, I’d be happy to consider an Aviation Advisory Committee but not now. There are several reasons to hold off, but mainly because we’ve run out of time.
The reason I asked the Burien group to attend is because we have a SAMP public comment period that begins in ten days and closes December 5 and we are all totally unprepared.
We’ll be lucky if the FAA allows us that extension. Then we have only a few months to get a professional team in place to file an appeal on the most likely outcome–a finding of no significance. I believe our staff needs to be 100% focused on that.
In the mean time, the Burien Airport Committee has a structure in place. They share most of our interests. They have Zoom and excellent staff support. It’s a forum residents throughout the region can use now to voice their concerns and work together on a shared response to the SAMP. One thing we all agree on is the necessity of getting as many cities together to speak as one voice. For the next few months, the Burien Airport Committee can and should be that.
The next citizen committee we should re-instate should certainly be the public planning commission. This is a group that has the broadest interest from the community and can make the broadest immediate impact for residents. Said it before, say it again: every truly controversial decision in Des Moines is a land use decision. By the way, the Council has received dozens of requests to do this, and zero concerning an aviation committee. As the Council’s resident expert on aviation issues, we should listen to the public on this one.
With all this “planning”, “ferry consulting”, “budget meeting” stuff and the upcoming levy lift vote, the best things that all city leadership can do for the city of Des Moines is GO HOME, LOCK THE DOOR, THROW AWAY THE KEY….and quit spending money WE DON’T HAVE.
THERE IS SUCH A THING AS “MAINTAINING THE STATUS QUO” and not drive citizens out of town.
I get a migraine looking at all the figures where area politicians wanna create Beverly Hills north…
We will survive as a livable city without Ferries, Marina Steps, Whale Rescues and gifted Marina space to politicians’ friends…
BRING BACK THE SLINGS AND BRING BACK ACTUALLY MAKING SOME MONEY IN THE MARINA MONEY PIT!
Love the look of your updated publication. Very clear and easy to understand. Thank you!
There is a lack of communication with the public about what the Des Moines Creek West development means. It wipes out forever an almost unbroken green belt and nature trail that encircles the city. City planners should be thinking long and hard about this.
https://i.imgur.com/k5htOmP.png
Good format…easy to navigate. As always, thank you for all of this information.
On the Harbormaster Report, it shows that we have another Moorage rate increase for 2025; approved by the City Manager. Would this be the new City Manager?
This is concerning…the continuous annual rate increases; when we don’t have nearly the amenities that other marinas have, and…we are still waiting for our restrooms to be upgraded. And, we will be coping with the dock replacement project. Do we know what the increase is for?
We are being asked to consider other temporary moorage; when the docks are replaced; which is perfectly fine. But, this could backfire on the marina…if tenants decide not to return; because they are enjoying another marina better. Basic amenities, such as decent restroom/shower facilities, laundry room, clubhouse room…are all typical at almost every other marina; so our rates should not be comparable to those places; especially when the slip sizes are being increased, to attract larger yachts. These boaters want more amenities and more opportunities to live aboard.