Petition to the Mercer Island City Council:  We residents of Mercer Island respectfully request that our City Council take action at its January Planning Session to approve the funding to immediately hire qualified staff to develop a work plan and public process to change the City code in order to protect the character of neighborhoods; and, further, make changes in Title 19 of the code and other sections and policies by the summer of 2016, as needed, to fulfill the direction of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan to protect neighborhoods.

Background:  Many Islanders are feeling a sense of loss of the character of their neighborhood.  What is lost is the good feeling of living in an eclectic mix of modestly sized homes set amongst large native evergreen trees.  The new look is densely-packed, very large, new houses.   A few surviving trees hang on.  Many complain of the aesthetic affront of new houses that seem to overwhelm their placement, that shout out their presence to the passersby.  Allowable setbacks further exacerbate the domination of the landscape.

Importance and Urgency:  Loss of character of neighborhoods is an important problem and addressing it is an emergency.  It's important because satisfaction with one's neighborhood drives the choice of where to live.  Residents who no longer feel at home in their neighborhood may decide to leave the Island, resulting in a loss of human relationships and history that create community.  It's an emergency because change is proceeding at a breakneck pace.  We are losing so much, so fast.

Related concerns:

• Scarce appropriate housing for Islanders who wish to downsize
• Loss of natural infiltration of precipitation and increase in runoff that may cause erosion, localized flooding, and slope instability
• Loss of wildlife habitat
• Less shade and more heat trapping hardscape in a time of climate warming
• Fewer trees to absorb climate-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Causes: 

• The current real estate market
• Title 19 of the Mercer Island City Code which specifies lot coverage, height, square footage of the structure, and setbacks.

http://www.mercergov.org/Page.asp?NavID=368

Conflict with Mercer Island Comprehensive Land Use Plan:

The Land Use Plan guides the development of City code and policies.  However, Title 19 allows development that is not consistent with the Land Use Plan.  The following is quoted from the Plan:

Housing Element, III. Neighborhood Quality   1.1 Ensure that zoning and city code provisions protect residential areas from incompatible uses and promote bulk and scale consistent with the existing neighborhood character.  1.2 Promote single family residential development that is sensitive to the quality, design, scale and character of existing neighborhoods.” Title 19 allows new construction that is not in “scale consistent with the exiting neighborhood character”.  It is not “sensitive to the quality, design, scale and character of existing neighborhoods”. http://www.mercergov.org/Page.asp?NavID=1579