2005/04/20 Council Agenda Packet

don't always care about the City and the people who live here. This is hoping for a lot. Are you willing to take this responsibility? The Planning Commission should not take action on this zoning change until a downtown plan is in place that includes: design review; and other tools that will provide some assurance that we will be getting the kind of development we envision for the city in these four blocks. This vague proposal opens the door to casting huge shadows over much of the surrounding area at any given time of the day and denies other property owners the right to sunlight and fresh air. Simply imagine the Grand Canyon that Rucker Avenue could become. We believe the entire western portion of the cp.p qnd qll of the area west of Rucker to the waterfront between Everett Avenue and Pacific 4$venyo shptilc be put into a sub- area planning area to be considered much the same as The City is contemplating with the Station sub-area plan. This proposal seems to favor Alternative 3 high density growth and that is contrary to the City Council approved recommendation of Alternative 2 for medium density growth. We are not anxious to stand in the way of project put forth by developers and property owners who are vested in the community and care about its future. But everyday we are forced to look at the kinds of buildings (designed with no thought of their negative impact on the street) that have come from out of town developers who just do not care about Everett. Please do not open the door to such speculative ownership and development that produces big, ugly, unfriendly buildings in and around downtown. The first and most drastic impact usually takes place on the outer edges of a zoning boundary. We believe there will be future pressure to rezone to the North, South and West where the comp plan shows the same designation. We believe this is a reasonable time to reintroduce the notion of a large plaza adjacent to the Library that was to have been part of the restoration plans when the Library was renovated in the early 1990s. Lastly, if you decide to move forward with any aspect of this proposal, we in The Bayside would like the commission to adjust the height in the R- 4 and R-5 areas of our neighborhood, north of Everett Avenue, to the same levels as the adjacent historic overlay district. What is the rush and what is the project we are trying to accommodate? Possibly it is a project we are willing to support, but with so little information available it is extremely difficult to back when there are so many possible negative factors that would directly affect our neighborhood and Pt. Gardner Neighborhood. Simply put: this proposal puts the cart before the horse. Thank you for your consideration. The Bayside Neighborhood Association %-i