Letter from the President By John Davies, AICP, President, Puget Sound Section, Washington APA WHEW... Yes, I am still basking in the glow of the Planning Law Conference. We had 230 planners, attorneys, and even a commissioner or two at Meydenbauer Center - a great turnout and great sessions. I appreciate the positive feedback and everyone's patience with full sessions and a packed schedule. I even got a nice note from Deputy County Executive Fred Jarrett who enjoyed the opportunity and was impressed by our conference. Thanks to our terrific session organizers, speakers and sponsors for your hard work. A special thanks to Robert Thorpe and Richard Hart for coordinating our keynote speaker; George Steirer for drafting a great flyer; and to Andrew Estep at the Washington Chapter office for working with us on everything from registration to brochures. We will be posting the sessions on the PSS webpage in case you want to visit or revisit a presentation. WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE SECTION? Look for our upcoming Spring Brown Bag series in June. Stan May is busy at work assembling a set of speakers and will be getting those lunches ordered (Stan appreciates those RSVPs). As we head towards summer, we will be gearing up for our fall 2011 program. We've got a lot in the works: a University of Washington mixer, another set of Brown Bag sessions, and the annual Holiday party. Should be fun! 2010-2011 WRAP-UP A little know fact is that the Puget Sound Section operates on a July to June calendar - therefore we are almost at year end! 2010-11 has been a fun and challenging year and the Board really worked hard to make the year a super success! With the help of the entire PSS Board, we had a successful Holiday Party, 14 Brown Bag Sessions, and the Planning Law Conference. I am especially proud of the fact we could do all of these events, during such tough economic times. TRANSITION As of July 2011, I will be moving aside as President and Michael Booth will be stepping up as our new PSS President. If somehow you don't know Michael, you will soon. Michael will bring in his energy to the Section and I foresee a terrific 2011-12. For me, I get to stay on for another year as Past President. ELECTIONS We will be holding elections shortly for the Puget Sound Section Board. Being on the Board is a great way to meet other planners and to get instant "cred" as one of the "cool planners". In 2011, we will be nominating and electing a President-elect and a Snohomish County Representative. Contact me or Alex Cohen if you want in or know of someone perfect! SEE YOU SOON... I have enjoyed meeting the PSS Section membership. It was great to see many of you at the Planning Law Conference and at one of the Brown Bags. I'll still be around and active in APA functions (I need CM credits too), so be sure to swing by and introduce yourself. INTERVIEW WITH STEVE BUTLER, FAICP Interview with Steve Butler, FAICP, Community Development Director, City of Mill Creek Steve Butler, FAICP How did you get interested in planning? I got my undergraduate degree in upstate New York at Saint Lawrence University. I had a professor in the environmental studies department, Glenn Harris, who was teaching a land use planning course. His course is what turned me on to the whole world of planning. I went from someone who thought he wanted to be a public interest lawyer to realizing what I really wanted to be was a planner. After a year of law school, I took a leave of absence and became a VISTA volunteer. During that time, I applied to graduate school. I decided to attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison in their planning program and got a master's in urban and regional planning there. What other positions have you held? While at the University of Wisconsin, I got an internship with the North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission in Wausau, Wisconsin. I worked there for the summer and fall semester and had the great opportunity to work on two cities' comprehensive plans, a natural resource plan for a county, and urban growth boundary criteria for another county. Being given that high level of responsibility and range of projects that early in my career was a fantastic experience. After finishing grad school, I went to work doing planning-related tasks for a small-sized engineering firm in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Once my wife was also finished with grad school, we were then looking to relocate to either the Pacific Northwest or the East Coast. We said whoever gets the first job is the one we'd follow. She got a job working for the City of Portland, Maine, so we moved to Maine, where we lived for about eight years. Once there, I worked for a consulting firm and then a council of governments. I became the director of community planning for that agency. In that position and through my role as the Maine Association of Planners' President, I was deeply involved in the creation of Maine's Growth Management Act. Following the law's passage, there was a great need for people with comprehensive planning experience, so I went out and started my own consulting firm. I did consulting work for four years. At that point in time, we wanted to relocate to the Pacific Northwest and the timing was right with the passage of Washington's GMA, so we started applying for jobs out here. I got a job with the City of SeaTac as Principal Planner in charge of long range planning. I worked in that position for approximately four years before I was promoted to become the Director of Community Planning. All told, I was at SeaTac for about 18 years before leaving for Mill Creek in late August 2010. I was involved with a lot of exciting projects in SeaTac, but I was ready for a new professional opportunity and the Mill Creek position opened up. Mill Creek is a remarkable city, with a strong sense of place, lots of public amenities, and support for good planning and environmental stewardship. I've really enjoyed getting to know Mill Creek as a community, along with the outstanding staff at City Hall and dedicated City Council. The Mill Creek Town Center is such a successful example of how a new, mixed use, pedestrian-oriented "main street" can be developed in a suburban community. We are now looking to take many of the same characteristics of the Town Center and apply them to a new development area called the East Gateway Urban Village, situated in the north-eastern portion of Mill Creek. The City has also just started work on a strategic planning process, which will identify the top issues facing Mill Creek and develop an action plan to address them; this effort is expected to then segue into the City's major comprehensive plan update process. What are some of the best projects you've worked on over your career? I worked on a Greenbelt Plan for the Town of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The plan built upon an informal trail system that was already sort of in place, but expanded the system town-wide and leveraged some public funding to coordinate the effort. The whole idea was to link the trails altogether, so we came up with this greenbelts/pedestrian trail plan and it helped us to work with developers and the local land trust. Through implementation of the plan, developers contributed to the town's open space and trail system as they came in with their projects. As a result, we were able to acquire several pedestrian easements and made a lot of progress in increasing the town's trail and open space system. I make it back to Cape Elizabeth every once in a while and it is great to see that the Greenbelt Plan is still being used. I love checking in on the trail system, which continues to be expanded on an ongoing basis. Today, you are able to travel between the ocean to public parks to almost every part of the town. This project shows that if you plan ahead, think about how a plan will be implemented, work cooperatively with others, and have patience, you can really accomplish great things. At SeaTac, one of our major initiatives was working with Sound Transit on the light rail alignment, where the LRT stations would be located, and how they would be designed. This was a major undertaking, as you can imagine. One of the things we were trying to do, and I think we did rather successfully, was to come up with stations that would not only serve the airport, but also the city of SeaTac. In the case of the SeaTac/Airport light rail station, I believe we accomplished that objective. There's a pedestrian bridge, a pedestrian plaza, and potential for future development. We also worked on a subarea plan for the S. 154th Street station area (next door to the Tukwila International Boulevard station), which has great potential for transit-oriented development. The Sound Transit LRT project was a long time coming, but finally seeing it open was very gratifying. A project less on the planning side, but also important to the City of SeaTac, was working on an interlocal agreement between the City and the Port of Seattle. I was on the City staff team that spent a year and a half of weekly meetings developing this interlocal agreement. Given a long list of jurisdictional issues related to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and the newly formed City of SeaTac, our task was to address how to deal with such issues as land use planning and regulations, SEPA, and services like police. The resulting agreement was groundbreaking in nature, and one that is being used as a model in other parts of the country by communities located adjacent to an airport. If you weren't a professional planner what do you do? That's a good question. Early on, I explored some other career options (including architecture and law) and decided those weren't for me. So, I'm rather set on being a community planner. If I wasn't a planner, however, I think I would still be involved in local government, since my view is that a lot of positive actions can happen at the local level. One activity I might do more of is ramp up my involvement in the APA Washington chapter's "Kids in Planning" task force. Though this initiative, we are trying to bring planning principles to and promote civic involvement in the K-12 classroom. Sharing these concepts with school kids is very important, since they are our future adult members of the public, our future decision makers in some cases, and possibly even future planners; in addition, they are already part of our community today. Right now, the task force is trying to create some different modules for planners and teachers to use in different parts of the state. We are trying to think about what would make aspects of planning interesting to a third grader, a seventh grader, or an eleventh grader… and create materials to make it easier for planners to go into a classroom and positively interact with students. I've had the opportunity to work with a couple different classrooms of different age groups to create these hands-on activities, and have found it to be very enjoyable and rewarding. So, if I weren't a full time professional planner, I would want to spend more time working with youth in the classroom, because I enjoy promoting planning and getting students engaged. GREENROADS PILOT PROJECT GreenroadsTM Pilot Project GreenroadsTM is a voluntary sustainability rating system, or "performance metric," for roadway design and construction. It is applicable to all roadway projects including new, reconstructed and rehabilitated roadways. Similar to LEED certifications for buildings, GreenroadsTM awards points for sustainable choices/practices and can be used to assess roadway project sustainability. The system, developed by the University of Washington, offers communities a structured, step-by-step approach to environmentally sustainable roadway design. Perteet Inc. provides planning, environmental and engineering services for northwest communities. Currently, Perteet is working with the City of Oak Harbor to design and achieve GreenroadsTM certification for its SE Pioneer Way project SE Pioneer Way, Oak Harbor Rendering showing completed improvements. Perteet's SE Pioneer Way Reconstruction project is on its way to being Oak Harbor's first GreenroadsTM Certified Project. The SE Pioneer Way project will add pedestrian-friendly streetscape enhancements and street improvements including widened sidewalks, on-street parking and adding social gathering places. Oak Harbor's anticipated sustainable elements include: Warm-mix asphalt LED lighting Low Impact Development Filterra bio-retention system Electric vehicle plug-in stations Long-life pavement design Use of local and recycled products "Oak Harbor's existing commitment to sustainability and desire to build long-lasting infrastructure made them a natural fit for being a pilot project," commented Dan Hansen, Perteet's Project Manager on the project. The City of Oak Harbor plans to use warm mix asphalt, which emits fewer harmful emissions, use low-maintenance products like road stripes that last four to five years rather than one, create a drip irrigation system for plants eliminating watering trucks, and build wider sidewalks for pedestrians. Like Oak Harbor, many cities may find that they are already close to meeting the required points before they begin to address the voluntary credits to reach the level of certification they desire. The project must meet all of the Project Requirements (worth 11 points), plus 32-42 voluntary credit points (30-40% of total) to be GreenroadsTM certified. The more points, the higher the certification level. Currently, there are four certification levels: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Evergreen. "Today's citizenry wants to know that we are building green and the GreenroadsTM Program enables us to communicate exactly what we are doing in measurable ways," explained Eric Johnston, City Engineer for the City of Oak Harbor. So, how did the SE Pioneer Way Project score? GreenRoadsTM SE Pioneer Way Score Because it evaluates every step of a project - from public outreach to construction materials - the concept of a "green roadway" must be implemented into project planning early in the design process. Through Perteet's work with Oak Harbor, and in case studies for Kirkland and Bothell, we have developed a step-by-step process to assist jurisdictions with a methodology to incorporate GreenroadsTM standards into design and construction. Perteet Process for GreenRoadsTM Projects This holistic approach - looking at tangible improvements, as well as life-cycle and construction practices - allows for a more accurate picture of the overall sustainability of a project. The proof of true cost-savings is still being collected and analyzed and will be based on these first pilot projects. The results, however, are undisputed - sustainable stewardship, long-lasting design practices, and responsible construction methods are of benefit to us all. For further information, contact Stephanie Hansen, AICP, at Perteet, 425-252-7700 or Shansen@Perteet.com. To learn more about GreenroadsTM, visit www.greenroads.us. Greenroads is a pending trademark of the University of Washington. SPRING 2011 BROWN BAG SERIES Announcing the Puget Sound Section APA Spring 2011 Brown Bag Series of Continuing Education Come to the FREE session you need to do your job better! Lunches are still only $5! RSVPs are not required to attend or to buy a lunch. RSVPs are used to estimate the number of lunches to order. Please RSVP before Noon Monday each week to Stan May: stan.may@bhcconsultants.com or (206) 505-3400. AICP CM credit PENDING for all four Spring 2011 Sessions! Topic Time Place Speakers! Implementing the BiOp This presentation will put the FEMA Floodplain BiOp issue in context by illustrating patterns of floodplain development in Puget Sound, the scope of flooding problems, and the cost of flooding to communities and taxpayers. It will then clarify what the NFIP BiOp does and does not accomplish and what FEMA is and is not requiring jurisdictions to do to comply with the ESA. Noon to 1:15, Wed Jun 15 Mercer Island City Council Chambers, 9611 SE 36th St. Dan Siemann , National Wildlife Federation; Brian Murray, King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks Green & Sustainable Water Infrastructure This session will discuss principles and benefits of green infrastructure and sustainable water infrastructure, and highlight examples of practices, partnerships, programs, technical assistance, and resources provided by EPA to communities that promote or implement green infrastructure and sustainable water infrastructure solutions to more effectively deal with wastewater treatment, drinking water, and stormwater issues. Noon to 1:15, Wed Jun 22 Mercer Island City Council Chambers, 9611 SE 36th St. Bryan Fiedorczyk , EPA; Dino Marshalonis, EPA Growing Transit Communities Participants will learn about the Central Puget Sound region’s new 3-year, $5 million program that will support efforts to capitalize on the more than $15 billion investment in new high capacity transit systems that will serve places where job and housing growth will be focused in the future. Noon to 1:15, Wed Jun 29 Mercer Island City Council Chambers, 9611 SE 36th St. Ben Bakkenta , PSRC WATERFRONT SEATTLE CONCEPTS PRESENTED Waterfront Seattle Concepts Presented Waterfront Seattle is envisioning downtown Seattle's future waterfront. The second public event 'Toward a Great Waterfront' was held on Thursday, May 19 at the Bell Harbor Conference Center. Lead Designer, James Corner and the project team presented their initial design ideas for the new waterfront. The concepts included the "folds" and the "tidelines". Mark Hinshaw recently put out a nice summary of the presentation if you want more details. Additional information will be posted on the Waterfrontseattle.org website. An initial kick-off event ('Waterfront for All') was held on February 17, 2011 at the Seattle Aquarium. A capacity crowd of over 1,000 people heard the project team's approach and gave input on the future vision and potential uses of the new waterfront. 'What Makes a Great Waterfront?' was the primary question aimed at understanding the public's larger vision for the waterfront. This question was asked in a variety of formats including the website survey, hard-copy survey as well as large graffiti boards and one-on-one video interviews at the February public workshop, over 2,000 responses were submitted. According to respondents, the following attributes make a great waterfront: Opportunities for views, including the possibility of saving a remnant of the viaduct; Better access to the water - from downtown and adjacent neighborhoods; Activities, events, destinations and reasons to gather; and Promenades, parks and open spaces. In response to the question, "What is unique about the Central Waterfront in comparison to Seattle's other waterfronts?" people highlighted: Connection to the bustle of the downtown through proximity to commerce, density and city life; Diverse views of the mountains, the city, ships and ferries; and The waterfront's history of working maritime culture and present use as an industrial working waterfront. When asked what they would most love to see on the waterfront, responses were extremely varied with equal weight placed on many attributes. Respondents generally focused on: Opportunities for views, including the possibility of saving a remnant of the viaduct; Opportunities to touch the water, either through stairs or beach restoration and natural habitat; and Parks and open spaces. In contrast, in response to the question about what would be most disappointing to see on the waterfront, respondents focused on: View blocking structures and large-scale private commercial development including condos, hotels and offices; Oversized roads and parking lots and too much hardscape; and Tourist-oriented uses including chain restaurants and shops that do not feel authentic to Seattle. The information will be used by the project team to better understand public preferences for the future waterfront and will inform development of the waterfront framework plan and concept design, to be completed in the Fall of 2012. Further information can be found at www.waterfrontseattle.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/WaterfrontSeattle Twitter: www.twitter.com/#!/WaterfrontSEA

IN THIS ISSUE LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT INTERVIEW WITH STEVE BUTLER, FAICP GREENROADS PILOT PROJECT SPRING 2011 BROWN BAG SERIES WATERFRONT SEATTLE CONCEPTS TO BE PRESENTED PLEASE UPDATE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS ON NATIONAL APA SITE Update your e-mail address on the national APA site to ensure that you receive information about future elections. PSS NEWS FEATURED SPONSORS YOUR ADVERTISEMENT COULD BE HERE! Reach over 900 practicing planners four times a year. Please e-mail Jim Colburn for more information. PSS OFFICERS President: John Davies john.davies.seattle@gmail.com President Elect: Michael Booth Mkbooth@tecinc.com Past President: Julia Park julia77park@gmail.com Secretary: Alex Cohen acohen@esassoc.com Treasurer: Jim Colburn jcolburn@cityoftacoma.org Snohomish Co. Rep: Stan Kosick stan.kosick@ci.bothell.wa.us Pierce Co. Rep: Emily Terrell eterrell@pmcworld.com King Co. Rep: Salina Lyons slyons@ci.covington.wa.us UW Representative: Stefanie Young stefanie.r.young@gmail.com Newsletter Editor: Kendra Breiland k.breiland@fehrandpeers.com Brown Bag Coordinator: Stan May stan.may@bhcconsultants.com PSS APA EDITORIAL INFORMATION The PSS APA newsletter is published quarterly electronically. If you would like to receive the newsletter in hard copy format, please contact us at 206-682-7436. The newsletter is also posted on our website at www.washington-apa.org. For story ideas or suggestions please contact Kendra Breiland at k.breiland@fehrandpeers.com. Article Submittal Deadlines are March 15, June 15, September 15, and December 15. Employment ads from governments, non-profits or private consultants, who place business card ads in our newsletters, are encouraged and are at no cost, as long as space permits.