A forwarded message from CalSeattle and the Seattle Displacement Coalition

The City Council has called a special hearing in Ballard to look at impacts of growth on housing in all of Seattle’s neighborhoods. Please join Ballard community groups and folks from grassroots organizations from across the city under the banner of the Coalition for an Affordable Livable Seattle to call on our electeds to stand up and do something about the continuing loss of both the physical and social character or our neighborhoods at the hands of runaway growth. (See attached op-ed in Seattle Times)

We are asking you to join us to show Councilmembers how widespread this concern is and to call on them to implement immediate controls on runaway growth, including:

· developer impact fees

· one-for-one low-income housing replacement requirements

· and placing a hold on further upzones and permitting until impact fees are imposed and developers pay their fair share of the costs of growth for needed infrastructure their projects demand

See CalSeattle Website for a full list of action strategies the Council could implement immediately to help our communities facing the onslaught of uncontrolled unmanaged growth and sign their petition if you haven't already. http://calseattle.wordpress.com/

Background

Since 2005, over 6500 units of existing lower density affordable units have been torn down (gentrified out of existence) to make way for record levels of new high priced apartments. Neighborhoods from across our city are reeling for the pressures of runway growth—both physical and social impacts. It has brought us a less livable and less affordable city including some of the highest rent increases in the country.

According to the One Night Count, homelessness has increased 15 percent since last year, and waiting lists are years long for public housing. Have our elected even considered solutions to address these issues? Instead, it's just the opposite—they seem more intent on pushing more upzones, more tax breaks for developers, more "incentives" for developers, easing environmental and permit rules for developers in order to induce still more runaway growth. Don't believe us? See the City's work program for the next year. It is loaded with such plans:

http://www.seattle.gov/DPD/cs/groups/pan/@pan/documents/web_information…

This as a unique opportunity for all our neighborhoods to let councilmembers know about the consequences of their inaction on all our communities. We're rapidly losing what makes our city livable and affordable. These issues must be addressed NOW!

For more information on CalSeattle and the Displacement Coalition’s efforts and all other groups responding to this issue, perhaps in your neighborhood, contact 206-632-0668 or go to CalSeattle's site: http://calseattle.wordpress.com

City Council Meeting:
When: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 6:30pm
Where: Ballard Community Center, 6020 28th Ave NW
Focus: Housing and the impacts of growth on Seattle’s neighborhoods and existing affordable housing
Who: Councilmembers Sally Clark, Mike O'Brien, Tom Rasmussen, and perhaps others