City Councilmember Sally Clark will be a guest at a meeting of the Ballard District Council July 9:

This Wednesday July 9, 7:00 PM at the Ballard Library (5614 22nd NW).

Please take advantage of this opportunity to share your feelings about development with Councilmember Sally Clark, who is an alternate on the City Council's Planning Land Use and Sustainability committee. Councilmember Clark was the chair of this committee (otherwise known as the PLUS committee) in 2010 when changes were made to the land use code that are shaping the current development boom. She has recently expressed concerns about the unforeseen consequences of the 2010 code changes and has publicly confronted a prominent developer lobbyist saying that his "fantasy world construction of people being against new housing poisons debate makes it so much harder to get the truly affordable housing we need." Please encourage Councilmember Clark to further open the development debate to neighborhood residents by attending Wednesday's meeting.

ITEM #2:

Want to share your thoughts on what’s happening in the neighborhood with the press? We have been talking with local press reporters, but would like to broaden the discussion to include other folks and their stories. If you have experiences or thoughts you would like to share regarding Ballard growth or development, please contact us via our website. (info@livableballard.org)

We (and the press) would like to hear from a variety of Ballardians: homeowners, renters, those recently displaced or facing future eviction as a result of development, and folks who are living in new developments. While Livable Ballard is concerned with many aspects of under-regulated growth (including inadequate infrastructure and service expansion, Ballard's declining urban tree canopy, and displacement of existing residents), we primarily advocate for a more robust Design Review process and other modest, common sense corrections to current lowrise land use code (currently filled with loopholes). This effort is intended to prevent new structures from starving adjacent properties of sunlight and privacy by requiring appropriate heights and adequate setbacks, public participation, and design that respects the existing urban fabric and neighborhood residents.