2020/06/10 Council Agenda Packet

Ken Ries 3427 Norton Ave 360-631-6980 Kenries63@gmail.com 6/3/2020 Council Members, I am writing to ask that you consider temporarily stopping the Re-Think Zoning project. The reasons for my request are: • Residents of Everett are still working to recover from Covid-19 with job losses, reductions in income and sadly, losses of family and friends to the virus. • Many residents are focused on the protests, looting and rioting, with an ongoing sense of fear based upon continued (mostly false) reports of new threats in our city. • Between the economic losses,the pandemic and unrest in society it's no wonder our residents are mostly tuned-out to the efforts of the Planning Departments Re-Think Zoning project. The City Council should realize that this effort needs to have 100%of our attention to ensure the best outcomes for our city and residents. To move forward with this at the current time with the two principle Planning Department leaders who are leaving prior to the end of 2020 seems like a bad idea to me. Once the City Council adopts this new plan,you will own it and I believe you will adopt an incomplete project based upon a falsely set timeline. I would like to see more citizen participation than has been allowed thus far in this project, it is too important to not hear more voices in crafting this plan. You can preserve the data collected at this point and re-engage once the Planning Department is back at full staff. Since we do not yet know what the Fall and Winter will bring us in terms of new outbreaks you should delay restarting this project until after the Covid-19 virus has either passed or a vaccine has been developed. Regards, Ken Ries