Clyde Hill News: How to spend $230K on parks
Also: City Council seat vacancy update; agreement that comprehensive plan timelines at risk?
Clyde Hill’s administration outlined its preliminary plans for how to spend the $230K of parks funding it will receive from King County over the next few years and will seek community feedback on those plans, according to discussions at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
More information about the current park spending plan, below, as well as news of shared Mayor-council concerns about the comprehensive plan and an update about the city council seat vacancy.
Disclaimer: while I am a councilmember on the Clyde Hill City Council, I write this newsletter in my capacity as an individual resident. Any opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the position of the City. The information and references here are from public sources. I welcome email responses — and if the topic is about City business I will respond from my City email account.
City Council seat vacancy update
Residents interested in applying for the recently-vacated city council seat can find the application form and more information at the city’s website here (link).
To apply, a resident needs to be registered to vote in Clyde Hill and to have lived in Clyde Hill for at least a year.
The deadline for applications is April 21st. A public meeting to interview applicants is scheduled for May 1st. After the public interviews, the council is expected to discuss candidates’ qualifications privately (in an executive session) and then vote publicly to appoint a replacement.
Non-partisan positions
Thank you to readers who asked about political parties and Clyde Hill’s elected positions!
Mayor and city council positions in Washington are, by state law, non-partisan.
While candidates can talk about their party preferences, the ballot does not show party affiliation the way it does for federal and state legislative offices (or other partisan offices). Ballot information for elected city positions, like ballot information for superintendent of public instruction and many judgeships, does not include political party information. Some links to the relevant state law for anyone who is curious: RCW 29A.52.231 (link) and RCW 29A.04.110 (link).
Clyde Hill parks: how to spend $230K?
The city will seek community feedback on how to spend over $230K on Clyde Hill’s parks over the next few years.
For context, Clyde Hill receives funding from King County’s “property tax levy supporting parks, trails, and open space in King County” (link). From a city memo on the topic (link):
Clyde Hill is currently carrying a balance from the 2014-2019 levy of $13,167.42. Combined with the funds received from the 2020-2025 parks levy through the end of 2022 ($131,174), a total of $144,341.42 is currently available to be allocated to Parks project. The city anticipates receiving an additional $46,000 each year from 2023-2025.
Preliminary spending plans, according to another document in the meeting packet (link), focus on Clyde Hill’s tennis courts:
Resurfacing the tennis court,
Converting tennis court lighting to LEDs, and
Repaving the path, replacing the water fountain, and renovating the restrooms near the tennis courts,
Some suggestions I’ve heard from Clyde Hill residents over the last year include striping the tennis courts so they can be used for paddle- and pickle ball, as well as doing more for the ~200 dogs who live in Clyde Hill.
Comprehensive plan timelines at risk?
The Mayor and council agreed vehemently about their concerns regarding progress on the city’s comprehensive plan at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
“We’re going to have an immediate task force of leadership on this to regroup,” the Mayor said during the discussion of the plan:
We need to really pull this out… I’ve had separate conversations with you on this. If you took a look at my notes on this, it’s in true alignment with what’s being spoken here…. (link)
Comprehensive plans are similar to any organization’s “strategic plan.” According to MRSC (link), these plans are
the centerpiece of local planning efforts. A comprehensive plan articulates a series of goals, objectives, policies, actions, and standards that are intended to guide the day-to-day decisions of elected officials and local government staff.
State law requires cities to update their comprehensive plans every ten years. Clyde Hill’s updated plan is due to Washington State in 2024.
Councilmembers responded to an update from the consultant hired by the city to lead the comprehensive plan effort with strongly-worded concerns about the lack of specifics after a year of work. Here are some of Cm Steve Friedman’s comments that preceded the Mayor’s statement:
“I don’t feel good about what we’ve heard today and this presentation really doesn’t change my concerns. I’m very concerned about the ability of Blueline [the consultant] to adequately assist us and help us get through this…”
“We look to the city manager in the next week to hear from him about how we’re going to get this back on the rails because I don’t see it moving forward in an effective manner. We’re not making progress.” (link)
Council and Mayor also shared schedule concerns about the Planning Commission’s progress and throughput in gathering and incorporating feedback from the community.
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Dean Hachamovitch