More than thirty members of the Burien community gathered in the Council Chambers at Burien City Hall and King County Public Library on the evening of Thursday, October 10, to listen to a presentation by ECONorthwest and weigh in on what they believe Burien's future conomic development should look like.

ECONorthwest was recently hired by the City of Burien to consult on creating an Economic Development Strategic Plan.The presentation was led by ECONorthwest's Terry Moore. Moore is one of the founders of ECONorthwest.Terry’s work focuses on transportation and land-use planning, economic development, growth management, policy analysis, and market analysis.

During the presentation, Moore stated that one of Burien's greatest assets is the city's location at the center of the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area in that it is close to SeaTac International Airport and the Port of Seattle, a 30-minute or so drive from Seattle, Bellevue and Tacoma, and just minutes away from I-5 and I-405. "Cities can change just about anything but they can't change their location" Moore explained. Now is the right time for Burien to develop an Economic Development Strategy because "Burien's last major Economic Development Strategic Plan effort was done in 1998" Moore told the audience.

Half way through the meeting, attendees were split into two groups to take part in an information gathering exercise. One group looked at Burien as a whole while the other looked at the Northeast Redevelopment Area (NERA), 1st Avenue, downtown, Ambaum Boulevard and the southeast Burien neighborhood of Manhattan. The groups then switched exercises until the meeting was dismissed at 8 p.m.

Conversation around Burien as a whole included Burien's "brand" and "vision", as well as Burien's business and arts opportunities and the city's educational and employment challenges. Conversations around specific neighborhoods included topics such as making Burien more walkable, developing neighborhood "nodes", supporting local business development, dealing with parking issues, bringing better jobs into the city, and developing a hotel/tourism industry.

Two smaller meetings with community stakeholders were held earlier in the day. The morning following the public forum, Terry Moore gave the same presentation and the results of the public forum to the Burien City Council advisory board, the Burien Economic Development Partnership (BEDP) at their 7:30am public meeting at Burien City Hall.

ECONorthwest will be discussing the Economic Development Strategic Plan with the Burien City Council at their study session on October 28th at 7:00pm. This is a public meeting that will be held in the Council Chambers of Burien City Hall.

Once the Economic Development Strategic Plan is completed, it is expected to contain specific economic development goals, strategies and implementation measures. The process is expected to be completed in February of 2014. For more information about the City of Burien's Economic Development Strategic Plan or ECONorthwest, visit the City of Burien's website at www.burienwa.gov or call Burien City Hall at 206.241.4647.

Established in 1974, ECONorthwest is the largest economic consulting firm based in the Pacific Northwest. They are based primarily out of Portland, Oregon with additional offices in Boise, Idaho and Eugene, Oregon and have consulted a wide range of public and private organizations including King County, the U.S. Department of Transportation, Weyerhaeuser,
Untied Way, Intel and even Facebook.