Poll: Shoreline City Council Adopts 2012-2014 Goals, Discusses Term Sustainability

The Shoreline City Council unanimously approved the 2012-2014 Council Goals agreed upon at March 2-3 Council Retreat, Monday, April 23. 

"These are great goals we are going to move them forward," Mayor Keith McGlashan said. 

The four goals are as follows:

1. Strengthen Shoreline's Economic Base

2. Improve Shoreline's utility, transportation, and environmental infrastructure

3. Prepare for two Shoreline light rail stations to open in 2023

4. Enhance openess and opportunities for community engagement

The Council also discussed the buzz word sustainability, which seems to have started out as meaning environmental sustainability but now includes everything from tranportation to the economy.

It was determined at the retreat that the Council would like their 2012-2014 goals to support the achievement of Vision 2029 and being a sustainable city in all respects:

• Sustainable neighborhoods – ensuring they are safe and attractive; sustainable environment – preserving environmental assets and enhancing the built environment so that it protects natural resources; and sustainable services – supporting quality services, facilities and infrastructure.

In response to request from Richmond Beach resident Tom Jamieson to clarify what sustainability means in regard to economic development, Councilmember Will Hall said, "sustainability and economic development, they support each other."

Hall elaborated saying that when he was on the Planning Commission, framework goals being developed eventually started to use the word sustainability to apply to transportation, neighorhoods and community services.

"Shoreline is committed to being a sustainable community in all respects," he said.

Remaining a sustainable city and sustaining city services means getting revenues, as well, as inflation rises.

Since most do not want to raise taxes, the alternative, "is to get more people and businesses through economic development," Hall said.

The reason the city want economic development is not for economic development’s sake but for good things that result—healthy homeowners and healthy businesess means the city can pay for services for its citizens.

Councilmember Chris Eggen, a founder of Sustainable Shoreline, said that group initially used the term sustainability to refer to environmental sustainability, but that now includes economic sustainability.

"Sustainability is so broad, it's hard to know specifically what it means," he said. "It might be replaced, in the meantime it’s what we have."