Response from Councilmember Pedersen’s office on 8-30-21 to 8-29-21 email

Thanks for your patience and encouragement.  Here is an update on recent efforts from this end.

  • I visited Northlake again as recently as Friday, Aug 27 and Councilmember Pedersen is very familiar with the problems there and raised his concerns to Deputy Mayor David Moseley (oversees SPD, SDOT, and SPU) on August 27. Councilmember Pedersen also asked SDOT to consider making physical changes to the space owned by SDOT so that it does not invite illegal parking or dumping. While there I reported the burned out grey VW bug – hopefully is has been removed as I received a “closed-out” note from my FIND IT, FIX IT app.
  • The 72-hour rule is NOT being enforced again yet, unfortunately, BUT the Durkan Administration wants to commence removing junk cars as soon as the City Attorney finishes interpreting the recent decision by the Washington State Supreme Court decision on the “Long” case regarding the homestead act.  I and CM Pedersen have read the entire decision by the court and it does appear that there should be flexibility in removing derelict RVs if they are not occupied by the owners and/or there is some other illegal activity and the government does not charge the person excessive  fines – but every City department is waiting on the official interpretation by Pete Holmes.
  • It is highly likely the Durkan Administration will propose larger investments in both the Clean Cities Initiative AND the Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) program to remove sewage from RVs.
  • We still believe it’s important for Police Chief Adrian Diaz to tour the area so that when the parking enforcement rules become more clear, SPD parking enforcement will be ready to take some action and to suggest any physical changes to the area (crime prevention through environmental design).

Thank you so much for your patience, Mark and community!

Kind regards, Malik