Update on the Catholic Church/School Development (Meeting summary)
We had a very productive and informative community meeting on Thursday, Feb 2nd. The meeting was attended by concerned members of the community (including several parish members) and representatives from the Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish.
Most of the meeting was spent going over the details of the proposed development and the top concerns from my earlier message. There was also time given for people to express their own concerns and to hear from the parish. Traffic and the impact on the water quality of our local streams and lakes dominated the discussion. In addition to worries about the sheer volume of traffic, many community members expressed concerns about accidents given the recent problems on Woodinville-Duvall Rd (examples: Oct. 13th accident, Oct. 18th accident).
Overall, the dialog was positive, and everyone expressed interest in continuing discussions between the Parish and the community in the hope of addressing the issues as partners instead of adversaries. That said, community members also supported moving ahead with the appeal to “keep the door open” – this was partially due to the very short deadline as the appeal must be filed by Feb. 10th.
Action items:
- Write to Sherie Sabour at DDES (sherie.sabour@metrokc.gov) with your concerns about the development before the Feb. 10th deadline (email or a letter). Make sure you ask to be a “party of record” so you receive further updates on the project. Feel free to use information on the website as part of your letter.
- Talk to your neighbors – feel free to give them my contact information.
- Send me any ideas you have for the appeal via email.
- Volunteer to help with the appeal (researching, writing, etc)
- Keep in touch – we will need community support at the appeals hearing
Thanks again to everyone that came to the meeting – I look forward to future discussions between the community and the church.
