NEWS  NEWS  NEWS GOOD NEWS FOR MAY NEWS

DECISION  FROM  HEARING  EXAMINER

On May 4th the Hearing Examiner for the City of Seattle sent out her decision.  Good NEWS!!
The plant habitat created by the Ingraham Trees and the understory is considered an uncommon habitat that must be protected according to the Seattle City SEPA codes in particular: SMC 25.05.675.N.2.

This means that the Hearing Examiner remanded the decision back to the Department of Planning and Development to consider additional mitigation measures to preserve the Northwest Grove.  The additional mitigation may be in the "form of relocation outside of the grove, or at least reduction of the addition's intrusion into the northwest grove". 

Now is the time to email the School Board, and request that the Northwest Grove be kept intact, and that the addition be relocated outside the Grove.  Remind the School Board that the Hearing Examiner and the City of Seattle's SEPA Codes have declared this an uncommon habitat that must be protected. The ethical, and moral obligation of the School District and School Board is to protect the habitat and follow the SEPA codes.  The best and most reasonable way is to relocate the addition outside of the grove, keeping the grove for educational purposes.  This will allow a win win situation for the students: new learning facilities plus an uncommon, unique habitat to study. 

Write the School Board:
superintendent@seattleschools.org
sherry.carr@seattleschools.org
peter.maier@seattleschools.org
steve.sundquist@seattleschools.org
michael.debell@seattleschools.org
cheryl.chow@seattleschools.org
mary.bass@seattleschols.org
harium.martin-morris@seatttleschools.org

We need our army of email personnel to hit the key boards!
The School Board is waiting!
Thanks. 

Or
Make Checks payable to:
 
Save the Trees-Seattle

and send to:
Steve Zemke
2131 N 132nd ST
Seattle WA  98133

UPDATE   UPDATE  UPDATE
April 8, 2009

Hearing for the INGRAHAM TREES
APRIL 13, 2009
Will be the submittal of final arguments for the City Appeal Hearing.  We will then wait for the Hearing Examiners decision..approximately 2 weeks later...April 27th or so.

The hearing took 3 days.  The amount of information to digest, and apply to the situation at Ingraham is overwhelming.  The Hearing Examiner, Anne Watanabe had piles upon piles of papers and information on her table as we left the hearing room.  She commented that it was a lot of reading material.  We have hope that this material will yield overwhelming substantial evidence that the Ingraham Trees, must stay and the addition be moved to another place on campus. 
According to City Code we need to prove substantially and beyond any doubt that the Ingraham Trees are Environmentally important.  The common sense approach, based on reason is not enough to change the School Districts mind.  And will not be enough to prove to the hearing examiner the importance of the Ingraham Trees. 
Consequently, we brought in numerous professionals, who know the true value of the Ingraham Trees to the wildlife, the ecosystem and the birds in the area.  On the very first day of the hearing our experts, with many educational degrees, and years of experience testified to the Quality, Importance and Need for the Ingraham Trees for our local areas ecosystem, long range and short.  On the Second day we added to our witness list more values, and importance as sited by experts and neighbors.  On the third day we listened to the Department of Plannings, City experts and the School Districts experts/employees.
We now wait for the results.

Department of Planning and Development decision regarding Ingraham:
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/facilities/
SchoolProjects/IngrahamLink.htm 

4 Separate Appeals were filed.  The appeals were immediatly compiled into one hearing and a Pre--hearing conference was set for February.

Results from the Pre-hearing conference and the School Districts motions for partial Dismissal--and commentary...

The Pre-hearing conference, resulted in very little information.  We had a chance to meet our opposition.  We had a chance to meet our Deputy Hearing Examiner, Anne Watanabe. 

The motions for Dismissal by the School District were partially granted, based on issues not being in the jurisdiction of the Hearing Examiner.  Which is interesting, because so far, the School District Hearing Examiner and the City Hearing Examiner do not have very much jurisdiction over Environmental Issues.  Including Impacts and Conditioning for those impacts. 

Our Hearing will proceed despite the non-commital of the Hearing Examiner to determine what we can or cannot talk on before the Hearing.  It is a vague and challenging world for the appellants.  The issues will aparantly center around the May 7th Sepa produced by the School District, and the conditioning for the addition.  http://www.seattleschools.org/area/facilities/
SchoolProjects/IngrahamLink.htm 

The City Hearing Examiner, working with the DPD and the School District, did not really answer the question as to "why are we conditioning a project before we know where the project is going?"
I believe the answer was a side step along the lines of :  This is the way we do it.  As for questions like "What SEPA are we using and why was the District allowed to file, re-file, withdraw and then start over where they had dropped off, -the response was no answer" or ask DPD--who has responded with no answer.

As for the APRIL 1, Hearing, this hearing will be the last one before going to an appeal to King County Superior Court, we are preparing for Battle.  We are lining up witnesses, talking with experts and preparing ourselves to testify to protect our trees and our neighborhoood.  

The advice of our Attorney and others who have been down this road before us, is to not plan on a favorable decision from the City Hearing examiner.  The records from the Examiners office clearly show a bent line for tree destruction, not preservation. 

We are fighting the City Hearing on our own, with only brief consultations with our attorney.  We will be entering items into the record.  Preparing ourselves for the Superior Court case. 

This is not an easy or light decision.  The trees are worth every penny we spend on them.  Even though our economy is in the dumper, our community and activist are doing their best to support this worthy cause. 

If you are able to join in this valant effort we thank you.  If you are not able, that is understandable, please pass this message along, others may be able to assist financially, while you assist as a fund raiser. 

All Checks should be made out to Save The Trees--Seattle
Mail them to Steve Zemke, 2131 North 132nd Street, Seattle WA  98133.  If you want to help in other ways, or have a question please contact:  Steve by phone at:  206-306-0811,
OR Shelly by email  savethetrees@live.com

Thanks for your ideas, help, good wishes, emails, and great words of encouragement, and your donations.
 
Shelly

Last night (November 18th) at Ingraham High School, the DPD held a public meeting on the Ingraham construction project.  As you know Save the Trees – Seattle and others in the community are opposed to the Seattle School District cutting down 68 trees on the west side of the High School when other locations exist on the campus where the addition can be built without cutting down any large trees. 

Many neighbors and others turned out to support the trees and to urge that the project be moved. There was also a very large contingent of vocal students and parents and teachers frustrated by their long standing grievance of classes being held in rundown mold infested portables for too many years. The Principal at Ingraham stated that he made a concerted effort to turn out students and parents and teachers to support the project. With his encouragement the students basically staged a pep rally for the project.  This was not unexpected considering what they have had to put up with in a substandard learning environment.  The meeting comments basically turned out to be a rehash of both sides positions with little new emerging. 

Those of us opposed to needlessly cutting down the trees on a campus that at 28 acres is the largest in the Seattle School District, sympathized with the frustration of the students and parents and teachers that for many years have been forced to take classes in substandard portables that are in terrible shape and have mold.  Teachers and students complained of getting sick.  Some of the portables house special needs students but do not have running water or bathrooms.  

 The Seattle School District has let the situation get out of control and is now trying to make the neighbors the villains for their negligence. The Seattle School District’s  approach has been to deny they have any responsibility for delaying the project and blame neighbors who love trees more than students as what is preventing the project from going forward 

But Save the Trees – Seattle and the neighbors support the long overdue upgrading of the classrooms.  We are not, however, the villains just because we also don’t want to needlessly destroy a unique urban forest when viable alternatives exist on the campus for building elsewhere.  One location we suggested was the North lawn area which Ingraham actually picked as the site if a future addition was to be built after the current project.  It is rather ironic that the Ingraham Master Plan produced as part of this project can propose building on this North lawn location in the future but it is somehow not possible to build there now and spare the grove of trees.  They are serious enough about retaining the North lawn area for a future addition that in the current proposal it is the only area on campus where they do not propose planting trees.  

Two wrongs do not make a right.  Not upgrading or maintaining the school in a responsible way for students and teachers in the past and proposing to cut down 68 Douglas fir, Western red cedar and Pacific madrone trees to now do the upgrade is only compounding the past mistakes by avoiding responsible stewardship of both our schools and our natural urban habitat. 

The Principal testified that he went around to different student groups to recruit them to come to the public meeting to support the project as is.  It is very hard for any students to take on the Principal publicly and say they opposed cutting down the trees.  I have spoken with both students and teachers who opposed cutting down the trees.  At least one teacher was told to stop any efforts to get students to oppose cutting down the trees because that was political and not education.  The teacher felt threatened and that her  job was at stake.  

 The Principal is the authority figure at the school.  Student recommendations for college frequently come from the Principal. Is it any wonder that teachers and students who oppose cutting down the trees might feel intimidated or threatened if they spoke out.  I remember when I contacted Martin Floe about our arborist looking at the trees he personally told me to not talk to the students.  I guess he was afraid of them hearing anything contrary to his position. So much for an open dialogue at Ingraham.  

 What Floe has forgotten is that he is acting in a capacity of public trustee for the school.  He has tried to make us NIMBY’s which means he doesn’t even understand the term.  We are not opposed to renovating the school and in fact believe it is long overdue.  I am aware of no one in our group or neighbors and other tree advocates that are opposed to the renovation.  We voted for the BEX bond issue.  Our tax dollars are paying for the project and we have the right to express our views as much as anyone else. 

Unfortunately the process set up by Martin Floe excluded the community and neighbors from the initial selection of the site and design of the project.  Meetings of the School Design Team were held in secret with a few parents and teachers personally selected by Martin Floe.  The public’s only chance to comment on the proposed project was earlier this year after the building site had been chosen and the design done.  And we were then told we could not comment on the site anymore since that decision was already made. 

At last night’s meeting as I publicly stated, I do not think anyone there opposed the decaying portables being torn down and replaced with modern classrooms.  Unfortunately it was obvious that the only option given to students and others to get new classrooms is to build in the tree grove.  And blame the neighbors, rather than the School District for its inadequate review and closed review process, for preventing them from getting new classrooms. 

The issue at this point is a legal one, whether or not the project is in compliance with city and state SEPA laws.  We are pursuing the legal process afforded the public to review the project.

The meeting was part of the public process for approval of land use permits for building in the City of Seattle and is proceeding on the normal timetable, except for the delay caused by the School District withdrawing their permit application in August in an attempt to just cut the trees down.  The King County Superior Court issued an injunction to stop the trees from being cut down without any review by the City of Seattle..  The City of Seattle is expected to make a decision in the next few weeks. The City does have the authority under the city’s SEPA laws  to move the project to save the trees. We will let you know when that happens.

 



We have accomplished an injunction with the help/and because of our attorney, Keith Scully, of Gendler and Mann.  Which means we have legal fees.  IF YOU ARE ABLE TO HELP, WE GREATLY APPRECIATE IT.  NO Donation is to small.

Send Checks Payable to: