By March Twisdale
By now, you may have heard that “new zoning laws” are being proposed for unincorporated King County (KC). This includes three rural towns: Fall City, Skyway, and Vashon. I have no idea what is best for the residents of Fall City or Skyway. But, like you, I have some ideas about what might be best for Vashon.
The communication between unincorporated KC residents and our government is a long-standing hurdle that Dow Constantine (our County Executive) sought to overcome by creating King County Department of Local Services in 2018, with full KC Council approval.
Five years later, and partly due to the distraction of COVID, many Islanders haven’t even heard of KC Local Services. This department was intended to serve as a “virtual city hall” for KC’s unincorporated regions. Their mission is to better understand needs, coordinate projects, and deliver government services. They are tasked to listen to us, the local experts. Such as, “We desperately lack assisted living facilities and low-income housing for existing residents.”
Of course, systems are not automatically perfect. They need to be tweaked and improved. Especially when issues as life-altering as zoning laws are being discussed. Or, in this case, not discussed.
When people believe a beloved project is in jeopardy, they look for any and all ways to protect it, regardless of unintended, collateral damage. This happened to our Island this summer.
First, a motion was moved by Katy Ballard and seconded at the June 20th Vashon Maury Community Council (V-MCC) meeting: “That the Vashon Community Council inform King County Councilmembers and the Executive that Vashon residents must be given their legal right to a public forum about this new zoning that would allow drug rehab and psychiatric hospitals in any residential neighborhood on Vashon.”
In response, a local group, Friends of Thunderbird (FoT), reacted on their website with the following: “Please attend the Vashon-Maury Community Council Meeting […] A motion will come before [V-MCC] that we believe is an attempt to raise fear, mislead islanders, and sow confusion. Please become a voting member of the Community Council, attend the meeting via Zoom, and vote NO.”
Keep in mind that Katy Ballard’s motion is what the FoT characterized as “an attempt to raise fear, mislead islanders, and sow confusion.”
To block the motion, the FoT also handed out flyers at their Strawberry Festival Booth, stating: “An immediate need in support of Thunderbird Treatment Center. A motion is slated to be considered by the Vashon-Maury Community Council at its meeting at 7pm Thursday, Aug. 15. The motion pertains to King County’s zoning process and the treatment center. Please attend and vote no.”
These are direct quotes from their material, and the web version of this article includes archived images of the web page and flyer. But the essence of the whole situation is this: Islanders actively encouraged other Islanders to vote against a motion that might lead to the KC Council and/or Dow Constantine coming to Vashon to listen to Islanders about KC’s zoning process and the proposed treatment center.
Whatever their opinion, over 500 attendees showed up at the August V-MCC meeting live and on Zoom, illustrating that we are deeply concerned about the new proposed zoning laws. Because zoning impacts life! And many of us are understandably confused. Who can read and comprehend 700 pages of zoning verbiage, without the help of those who drafted it?
Comments heard repeatedly at the meeting included, “How can this be happening?” and “Who on Vashon would try to stop the KC Council from coming to listen to us?”
Unrelated to Thunderbird, among the zoning concerns I’ve heard, uptown business owners are worried about the impact of homeless car camping, as it could discourage tourism and cause real economic harm. Everyone who loves our rural lifestyle and wide open spaces has reason to question the overall lifting of the lid on density within residential areas.
As Vashon works to provide solid, true support to Islanders experiencing housing instability, there is also an awareness that Seattle and other incorporated regions of KC may be looking for a way to forcibly move thousands of struggling, mentally ill, addicted, and/or homeless individuals outward, into unincorporated regions of the county.
All in all, the current zoning proposals are huge, and the V-MCC meeting was a clarion call to Dow Constantine, Leon Richardson (the new KC Local Services director), and the entire KC Council to “Please come, offer us information, hear our questions, access our wisdom, and work with us hand in hand.”
While we wait and hope for such a meeting to occur, let’s ask ourselves another question: How can we lift up Island voices and deepen our relationship with Dow Constantine and our KC Council? One way is by working more closely with the KC Department of Local Services. At this time, KC Local Services communicates through Community Office Hours. On Vashon, Bong Sto. Domingo is available to meet with Islanders at the Chamber of Commerce every Tuesday, from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
This is fine for personal issues like voter registration, but not for community-wide issues. Community issues must be discussed publicly. Public meetings disseminate information broadly, help residents hear one another’s ideas, ensure instant transparency, and build trust and rapport between citizens and their institutions. Going forward, I propose that Dow and the KC Council task the KC Department of Local Services with two goals for 2025:
#1: Host a monthly public meeting on a weeknight; if it is necessary to recoup this time, Tuesday community office hours could be reduced to twice a month.
#2: These public meetings should be hosted by KC employees who are not Islanders (removing conflict of interest) and who are ideally professional facilitators (preventing a plethora of problems).
KC Local Services can fulfill their purpose by creating public meetings that are unbiased, safe, well-organized, and professionally facilitated. This level of sincere, professional outreach is necessary for KC to adequately understand our needs as Islanders.
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