Claudia Balducci, King County Councilmember for the 6th District
King County provides our justice system, transportation, community health, and natural resources for the region. ST3 passed during elections, and will include 116 miles of light rail in total, once complete. Currently working on Metro’s long range plan with better connections and faster commutes. The Bellevue part of the Eastside Rail Corridor will begin development that connects the Cross Kirkland Corridor through the Wilburton tunnel, and eventually to Renton. 2015/2016 General budget is $1.5M. The large sources of budget comes from property tax and sales tax. Almost 75% is dedicated to public safety. We currently have a $400M shortfall to maintain roads and bridges. Kelly Rider, Housing Development Consortium (HDC) Government Relations and Policy Director She will talk to us about the current state of affordable housing on the Eastside and the role of ARCH Eastside Housing's Trust Fund. HDC has 130 members from non-profit, for profit, and government agencies – including ARCH – all focusing on affordable housing. HDC is focused on low income residents. The federal definition of affordable is 30% of income or less for housing; 50% of income or more towards housing is considered burdened. In 2016, the area medium income in King County for a four person household is $90,000. HDC focuses on people earning 60% or less of the area medium income. ARCH is a government agency that administers affordable housing units, funding, and programs. Cities on the Eastside contribute a budget line item to ARCH’s trust fund. HDC advocates for affordable housing, and for cities to increase their contributions to ARCH. At its inception in the 1990’s, ARCH asked Eastside cities to contribute a total of $1M - $2M annually. That hasn’t increased since. HDC’s goal is to increase funding to $6M per year. Moss Bay's Neighborhood Safety Program and Neighborhood Grant We submitted our top two voted projects to the Neighborhood Safety Program. A panel will evaluate the projects on January 10, 2017 based on cost, feasibility, and need. They submit the top ranked projects to the City Council to approve. Aimee will follow up on the Neighborhood Matching Grant program and how we can participate. Developer activity in Moss Bay Spring 2017 – 780 feet of water and sewer line will be replaced on 2nd St S and 3rd Ave S. The road will be closed except to emergency vehicles and local traffic. Traffic signals will be added on 6th St S at Kirkland Way, and at and 9th Ave S. The work at 6h St S will begin in Spring 2017, and will have a major impact on traffic access during development. If we notice damage to streets caused by developer activity, we can call the city and notify them. The city may require the developer to redo patches and other road work. 6th St S is slated to be repaved in about 3 years. It is longer than we’d like because heavy trucks will use that route for development activity at Kirkland Urban, and will add to the damage. KAN (Kirkland Alliance of Neighborhoods) If anyone is interested in participating in the city’s the Sign Review process, reply to [email protected]. Comments are closed.
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