Written by After more than an hour of unusually technical and highly passionate debate last night, Renton City Council voted four-to-three against the Planning and Development Committee Report recommending that the current version of the Shoreline Master Program (SMP) be approved immediately in it’s current form. Instead, the council ultimately decided via a six-to-one vote to move the SMP discussion to the Committee of the Whole (a committee which is composed of the whole council and chaired by Council President Don Persson.) In addition, we scheduled the issue for discussion and intended resolution at the September 27, 2010 Committee of the Whole Meeting, immediately prior to the regular council meeting (exact time to be announced next week).
Council members are intending to use the next two weeks to dig deeper into remaining issues brought up by the public at last night’s audience comment, as well as to collect written staff responses to concerns Marcie Palmer and I wanted formal closure on. Specifically, Marcie Palmer is asking the Parks Department for an assessment of how the proposed SMP language will affect maintenance and/or expansion of park facilities, and I have asked for an assessment by Public Works regarding whether proposed SMP provisions could increase risk to bridges and city center river-front property, and if so how can we mitigate this (see my previous blog entry).
Citizens who wish to participate in this process are advised that (per normal protocol) you will not have an opportunity to speak at the Committee of the Whole meeting on the 27th, but you can instead make comments to council at the normal audience comment periods near the start and end of next week’s council meeting (on September 20). You can also participate via email and letter. The Council President has requested that everyone please try to keep their inputs as crisp and to-the-point as possible, as council is working through copious written materials already in the records.
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