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South Wallingford Committee Talks of Secession
By Adam Richter
Genevieve Vayda of the SouthWest Wallingford Neighborhood Planning Group. Adam Richter photo |
In its initial neighborhood plan the Wallingford Community Council neglected to include planning provisions for SoFo. Some residents who live between 40th Street and Lake Union say that they feel so left out of the neighborhood planning process, maybe it's time for South Wallingford to go it alone.
"I would like us to create a kickass plan for where we're going to live," says Genevieve Vayda from the Southwest Wallingford Neighbors Planning Group. On February 4 Vayda moderated the SWNPG meeting where many of the residents who spoke up echoed that same sentiment, also expressing frustration with what they consider a snub by the Wallingford Community Council.
"This neighborhood was left out of the planning process," says resident Michael Flynn.
A group called WEaving Wallingford, created by the Wallingford Community Council, was charged with developing a plan for the neighborhood, but that initial plan--which was conditionally approved by City Council--left out South Wallingford. That meant the area had little direction or guidance to provide developers who are now showing an interest (See "South Wallingford Gets a Neighborhood Plan," Seattle Press, January 17).
As the Wallingford Community Council works on adding South Wallingford to its neighborhood plan, Council President Gregory Hill says the biggest objections he's heard have been about the planning process, not the plan itself. Residents from SoFo, he says, complain that they don't have a voice in planning South Wallingford. That's a charge Hill thinks is unfounded.
"The committees are open," he says. "Anyone can join them at any time.
"The real action, of course, is in the committees," he adds. The problem is, few people show up or volunteer.
But Vayda, herself a southwest Wallingford resident, says the Wallingford Community Council has not listened to her, even though she does sit on one of the council's committees.
"I've been really manhandled there," she says.
David Boyd of the Department of neighborhoods and Jory Phillips of DCLU at the SWWNPG meeting February 11. Adam Richter photo |
"This has some unique elements, but it's a fairly common issue," he says.
Crown Hill residents worked hard to make sure their input was heard when Ballard created a neighborhood plan, for example.
To Boyd, the unhappy residents of South Wallingford should try to work more with the WCC rather than create a new neighborhood, and said so at the SWNPG's Feb. 4 meeting.
"As long as the Wallingford Community Council's [planning] application is underway," he said, "I don't think a competing neighborhood plan is the wisest thing."
Michael Flynn disagreed.
"We really need to take responsibility for our own planning down there," he said.
Vayda says her frustration with the WCC makes the idea of secession appealing.
"I know that I don't want to be a member of the Wallingford Community Council, and I live here," she says.
Boyd, ever the diplomat, sees both sides of the issue. "I wouldn't say that South Wallingford is not being listened to," he says. At the same time, he concedes that the Wallingford Community Council could to more to get participation from SoFo residents.
But Hill says the Southwest Wallingford Neighborhood Planning Group has given him the cold shoulder as well. Vayda's group doesn't share its mailing list with the Wallingford Community Council and does not invite council members to its meetings.
"We're not privileged to that information," he says. Meanwhile Hill says the city does listen to the SWNPG, which belies their claim that they have no voice.
"I think the city at this point is bending over backward in favor of the dissident groups," he says.
Some, including Vayda argue that South Wallingford should get its own neighborhood plan because it shares little, if anything, in common with the north-of-40th-Street crowd.
SoFo has waterfront property, it has more industrial zoning and, because it's on a slope, more view corridors that its residents want to see protected. There is also no equivalent commercial arterial -- such as North 45th Street -- in South Wallingford.
With such different geography and zoning, how could people in north Wallingford know what's best for the people closer to Lake Union? "You know, it's only 10 blocks," says Hill. "How small do you want to carve up the apple?"
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