Seattle Times Guest Editorial

The Maple Leaf Community Council submitted a Guest Editorial to The Seattle Times noting that Waldo Woods represents a test of leadership in Seattle. The Mayor has Plans, Agendas, and Initiatives, but we're not able to save the 108 trees at Waldo Woods. The guest editorial asks him to demonstrate some leadership to turn the press releases about saving trees into actions that actually save trees. You can help make this have an impact by writing our city leaders and asking them for help to Save Waldo!

Here’s the contact information:

Mayor Greg Nickels
Email: http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/citizen_response.htm
Mailing: Mayor Greg Nickels, 600 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98124

Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis – Tim.Ceis@Seattle.gov

City Council President Richard Conlin – Richard.Conlin@Seattle.gov
City Council Land Use Committee Chair Sally Clark – Sally.Clark@Seattle.gov
City Council Land Use Committee Vice-Chair Tim Burgess – Tim.Burgess@Seattle.gov
City Council Parks Committee Chair Tom Rasmussen – Tom.Rasmussen@Seattle.gov
City Council Pedestrian Safety Chair Nick Licata – Nick.Licata@Seattle.gov
City Council Transportation Committee Chair – Jan.Drago@Seattle.gov
City Councilmember Richard McIver – Richard.McIver@Seattle.gov
City Councilmember Bruce Harrell – Bruce.Harrell@Seattle.gov
City Councilmember Jean Godden – Jean.Godden@Seattle.gov


The Maple Leaf Community Council has posted most of the developer's documents stashed in the public file downtown on their web site. It makes for an interesting read. Read about all the asbestos in the building, the high levels of lead discovered only after the Maple Leaf Community Council insisted on a better testing method, all the mercury in the fixtures, and the Radon that's above acceptable limits.



It's Crunch Time! - Prescott Homes has filed for building and demolition permits. If you are truly concerned about the terrible impact this development (as currently designed) will have on our neighborhood, you cannot stay on the sidelines. It is not too late, but you need to do two things quickly:

1. Donate to the Maple Leaf Community Council. They need money to hire experts to help protect the interests of our neighborhood. And if it comes to it, they'll need money for lawyers to protect our interests if our elected officials in City Hall won't do it.

2. Write a comment letter to the address listed in the photo above. The letter has to be in by January 30. Tell them how this project will impact the environment, livability in our neighborhood, our water quality in the reservoir during demolition, traffic, parking, water pressure, sewer capacity, garbage pickup, recycling, and fire safety. Do this early rather than late.

3. Join the Maple Leaf Community Council's e-mail notification list to keep informed about important meeting dates and developments.

Current Status - (January 2008) Prescott Development filed detailed development plans for their proposed development. Here's just a taste of just some of the sad details:

Prescott will eliminate 72 of the 108 trees and prominent shrubs on the site. The tree removal is much worse than previously thought because a table in the developer's documents exaggerated how many trees would be saved. A dozen of the doomed trees are ~ 2 feet in diameter and 15 are ~ 1 foot. This does not count the trees that will inevitably be lost during construction and those permanently harmed by placing units too close to the root balls. Planned replacement trees are 2" in diameter and many won't mature for decades. They are also deciduous, which simply do not have the rainwater deflection capacity that our native evergreens will. Most will never be taller than the huge townhomes being built on the property. Eight units will be built inside the drip lines/root fields of the remaining trees, directly threatening an additional ten trees.

The townhomes are 30-35 feet tall. Here's what the poor folks on 86th will get to look at every day if this project goes through (notice the complete lack of trees except for the tiny tree in the background on the left).

There will be refuse enclosures right on the sidewalk on both 85th and 86th. How lovely will this be for folks walking by to get the new park on the reservoir? Garbage/recycling trucks will visit the site up to 10x each week, between 5-10am.

No proposals for traffic mitigation, parking mitigation, or pedestrian safety are included in the documents on file with DPD.

There is no wheelchair access in or out of the parking garage except for the entry/exit ramp on 85th. By law, some of the homes must be wheelchair accessible, and so must the garage.