Blogs

The AIA Seattle Design Gallery will be hosting Transit-Oriented Communities: A Blueprint for Washington State.

One Eastside city is boasting that its alternative transportation incentive program has been hugely successful in getting its residents to make fewer vehicle trips—nearly 1 million fewer vehicle trips, to be exact. 

The City of Redmond reported yesterday that R-TRIP (the Redmond Trip Resource and Incentive Program) has been successful in convincing 15,001 Redmond residents and employees to take 1,003,081 fewer vehicle trips since the program's implementation in May 2008.

The Bellevue City Council voted unanimously on Oct. 19 to consider changes to the city’s helicopter landing regulations. It also voted down two proposals: one that would have placed an immediate moratorium on helistop and helipad construction, and the other, a code amendment that would have banned all non-emergency helicopter flight in the city.

A new consulting firm opened its doors—most of them figurative—on Oct 19. Critigen, a firm with four area offices and a largely virtual workforce, will provide high-tech consulting on critical infrastructure issues. The company was formerly a department of CH2M Hill, a consulting firm working under a wider umbrella of issues.

As part of efforts to update the state's 20-year-old toxics cleanup law, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) is seeking public comment on vapor intrusion cleanup requirements for contaminated sites.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is in the process of updating the State Freight Rail Plan to meet federal and state requirements. The update will qualify the state for new federal grants authorized through the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. The date for completion of the plan is Dec. 31. (To see Northwest Hub’s coverage of the Preliminary National Rail Plan, which was released on Friday, click here.)

Great City—a group of environmentalists, neighborhood leaders, business people and citizens—issued a new land use white paper this week to recommend actions the incoming mayor and city council could take to create “a better path forward for Seattle.” The intention is to complement efforts gaining momentum around the region such as the Cascade Agenda and the Quality Growth Alliance.

The Seattle Department of Planning and Development (DPD) released its biweekly land use information bulletin today. The following list provides the highlights. For more detailed information, click here.

Downtown Development Scheduled for Design Review

(Pete Buck, chairman of the nonprofit board of Northwest Hub, will be contributing serendipitous observations from time to time. He has a tiny camera in the glove box of his car and an eye and ear for what is good in the world. Anyone with ideas for positive happenings, programs, things, etc., should contact him at pete@northwesthub.org.)

After months of strong opposition to the deep-bored tunnel option as a replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct, mayoral candidate Mike McGinn has shifted his position. He announced in a statement Monday that if elected, he would go along with Seattle City Council’s 9-0 decision to fund the tunnel project.