The current building project in our neighborhood on Amanda Ave will have an affect on all of us.  The quiet neighborhood that we have come to love and enjoy is being threatened.  

We will all feel the impact of the increased traffic and potential safety issues due to the unspecified businesses that could be allowed to go into a commercial building in that location. There will be an increase in the noise levels in the neighborhood with business operations being so close. There is a high likelihood of increased crime in the area due to commercial businesses in close proximity to our homes.  Businesses can offer an unattended and easy target for thieves when closed.  Not one of us moved out to Gold Bar to look at or live next to a commercial development, if we had wanted that we'd have moved somewhere like the SoDo district in Seattle.  We are having our neighborhood jeopardized and no one asked to hear our voice.

I suggest three potential solutions:

1.  An immediate stop to the current project and city council vote to rezone all of that property from general commercial to residential zoning.

2. The city purchase the property from the builder and build a community park there instead.

3. If the city insists on allowing a commercial development on that land, I suggest an 8 foot high fence surrounding the entire property, trees planted to obscure sight of the business and dampen noise, force access from Hwy 2 instead of through our neighborhood.