"Our neighborhood, which includes residents of Shoreline, Lake Forest Park and Mountlake Terrace, is obviously very relieved after more than a year and a half of hard work, angst and waiting. With the black cloud gone we hope that residents, the School District and the City will come together in earnest to ensure that all or most of this public land stays in public hands as park space. It may take some time to rebuild trust between the city and the neighborhood, but I am hopeful knowing that steps toward doing so are already being taken. For those residents who want to get involved, we hope they'll join the Friends of Aldercrest in working toward a positive, community driven future for the site, and also support the broader neighborhood vitalization efforts of our partners in the Ballinger Neighborhood Association."
Shoreline's Ballinger Neighborhood had been one of the six sites that were being reviewed as potential locations for a Regional Jail.
Shoreline has also made and announcement confirming that this long nightmare is over for the Ballinger neighborhood.
Posted Date:5/13/2010 9:30 AM
Shoreline’s Ballinger neighborhood – as well as the rest of the City – can let out a
sigh of relief as the NEC jail siting process comes to an end. Today King County
Executive Dow Constantine announced that King County is offering jail beds to
cities through 2020 and plans to form a regional jail planning group. Due to the
county’s proposal in concert with new options for contracting jail beds regionally,
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn has recommended ending the process of siting a new
regional municipal jail.
“King County’s offer for a regional solution and additional beds through 2020
provides our City the confidence to sunset the environmental impact review
process,” said Shoreline Mayor Keith McGlashan. “That is truly good news for
our community, particularly for our residents in the Ballinger neighborhood
now that Shoreline no longer has a site under consideration for a jail.”
Cities in King County originally formed regional groups to address the projected
loss of jail bed space after King County’s bed space projections determined there
would not be available jail beds for cities after 2012. The north and east cities
including Shoreline and Seattle formed the NEC and the southern County cities
formed the South Correctional Entity (SCORE). SCORE is building a jail, now under
construction in Des Moines and expected to open in 2011, which will have jail beds
available for rent to King County cities through 2020.
With the available beds from King County and SCORE, and with the other
municipal jail beds available in the region, the NEC believes there will be enough
capacity to cover all of its misdemeanant jail bed needs through 2020 without
having to build additional capacity.
As a result of these projections, Seattle has recommended and Shoreline and the
rest of the NEC cities concur, stopping the current environmental impact review
process being conducted on the six potential sites for a regional municipal jail for
north and east cities. Stopping the process will remove the Shoreline site, along
with the other sites, from further consideration as a possible location for the
construction of a regional municipal jail.
For more information, contact City Manager’s Office Management Analyst
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