Information from King County

King County’s Participatory Budgeting team is going to be busy in the coming months.

Last year, the program's 2023-24 steering committee established its framework to determine how to allocate nearly $11.75 million among the county's five urban unincorporated areas (East Federal Way, the East Renton Plateau, Fairwood, North Highline/White Center, and Skyway/West Hill). In the following months, the Participatory Budgeting team solicited ideas for projects and improvements that residents would like to see in their communities.

The communities responded with a total of 638 ideas for ways to improve their neighborhoods with county-funded projects. Last month, organizers went into the communities to help residents learn how those ideas will be turned into a set of finalists for community members to vote on later this year (see photo above from a meeting in White Center).

There will be several opportunities for community members to share their thoughts as Participatory Budgeting moves through its next phase, including the following four in-person meetings in March and April:

• Fairwood – Wednesday, March 20, 6-7 pm at the Fairwood Library (17009 140th Avenue SE)
• Federal Way – Saturday, March 30, Noon-1 pm at the Federal Way 320th Library (848 S 320th Street)
• Skyway – Wednesday, April 17, 6-7 pm at the Skyway Library (12601 76th Avenue S)
• White Center – Tuesday, April 30, 6-7 pm at the White Center Library (1409 SW 107th Street)