Community Stewards Organizing Session

A group of 20 citizens met December 10th at East Side Fire & Rescue to begin organizing their neighbors to create a compact, livable, and affordable community. Cascade Land Conservancy staff presented sessions on the importance of focusing growth in cities and of good design in new development, and on how to effectively organize and campaign at the local level. Participants discussed how to grow sustainably and how to bring related priorities like affordable / mixed-income housing and transportation into land use discussions. Members shared their past experiences advocating for mixed-use retail developments and project design improvement in Issaquah.

Citizens identified local issues that are aligned with the Cascade Agenda vision, and selected point people to coordinate researching the issues, developing strategy plans and launching their campaigns. CLC staff will provide ongoing organizing training and policy expertise, and support issues that match Cascade Agenda principles. The group will decide which issues are actionable and then plan and launch issue-based campaigns in 2010. Contact us if you are interested in any of these issues, and we’ll put you in touch with the point people.

Please contact Skye Schell at (206) 905-6891 or skyes@cascadeland.org for more information or to get involved with our group.

Presentations from organizing session

• Community Stewards; Organizing & campaigning (PDF, 1mb)
  
• Cascade Agenda vision of growth in cities (PDF, 4mb)
  

Upcoming city issues to get involved in:

More information at the City of Issaquah Planning Department website.

• Public hearing: first quarter of 2010

Central Issaquah Plan

• Currently in Task Force – you can attend meeting and speak in public comment period at end (Read more...)

• Reporting out to council likely Fall 2010

Park Pointe preservation through TDR

• Potential Task Force creation in Jan 2010

Issues preliminarily identified by Community Stewards group

We’ll be posting more detail as we progress in our issue definition and selection.

• 200 bus expansion: How to fund the expansion of the 200 bus to Highlands, Talus, and south?

• Newport Way enhancement plan: How to include bike lanes and sidewalks in the proposed enhancements? (See city website...)
  
• Restoration / stream enhancement: How to link restoration with new development, like Bel-Red is doing? Focus on city parks, East Issaquah creek, North Fork
• Mixed-income housing: Links with TDR and affordable housing. Related: make new growth done right: pedestrian friendly, in-fill
• Track proposed developments: How can we best keep citizens aware of proposed development in the city? How do we increase transparency & community knowledge?
• Urban centers – jobs & retail: How can we make urban villages work – how do we get jobs and retail along with the residential?

Taking Action in Issaquah

Cascade Land Conservancy launched the Community Stewards program in Issaquah with a "Taking Action in Issaquah" workshop on Nov. 11th, 2009. Fifteen citizens came for a series of presentations (below) and discussions focused on how to become empowered to make positive change for smart planning in the city.

Presentations from Taking Action in Issaquah

• Introduction (PDF, 2.5MB)
  
• Citizen's guide to the planning process (PDF, 3.8MB)
  
• Communications strategy (PDF, 1.3MB)