The North/East Cities (NEC) municipal jail planning group has launched the environmental review portion of the process to identify a site for a new regional misdemeanant jail. The review is part of an ongoing, comprehensive process as the cities plan for a single 640-bed municipal jail facility to replace the jail beds they are losing in King County jails when their contract with the county ends.
The NEC is composed of 23 cities, including Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Seattle and Shoreline.
The public scoping process is the first step in the overall environmental review effort. The public scoping period will run through Jan. 30, 2009.
Normally, the required Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) scoping period is a minimum of 21 days. To encourage public participation in the process, the EIS scoping period for the NEC Regional Municipal Jail will be extended to 43 days and six public meetings will be held.
As part of the scoping process, the NEC group will conduct six EIS scoping meetings in January 2009 focused specifically on gathering comments on the scope of the EIS that will address environmental impacts of potential development of a regional misdemeanant jail. These meetings are in addition to the public forums that already have taken place for each site and are a formal part of the SEPA process.
One of the meetings, in Bellevue, will from 6 p.m. to the close of comments on Jan. 15. It will be held on Level 4, Rooms 404 and 405 of The Meydenbauer Center, 11100 N.E. Sixth St.
At the end of the scoping period, the scope for the EIS will be finalized. The EIS will address any potential significant and adverse environmental impacts of building the new facility including but not limited to:
Site selection, construction and operation of a regional jail facility at each site alternative;
Land use regulatory and/or zoning changes that would be necessary in order to accommodate a regional jail facility at each site; and
Future permits that would be required for construction and development of the jail facility at a selected site.
The potential sites under consideration are:
* Bellevue: 555 116th Ave. N.E.
* King County Jail Annex, southeast corner of the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Jefferson Street, Seattle
* Seattle north: 1600 W. Armory Way
* Seattle south: Highland Park Way Southwest & West Marginal Way Southwest
* Shoreline: 2545 N.E. 200th St.
* Unincorporated King County: 13225 N.E. 126th Pl.
The cities are early in the planning process of studying alternative sites and then identifying a preferred site. Decisions regarding which cities will ultimately be partners in a regional jail and the preferred location for the facility are not expected until 2010.
Written comments regarding the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement may be sent via e-mail at: MunicipalJailSEPA@Seattle.gov. Submittal of written comments regarding the EIS scope may be made to Diane Sugimura, Director of Department of Planning and Development, c/o Andy Ishizaki, NEC Regional Municipal Jail EIS, 700 5th Avenue, Suite 5200, P.O. Box 94689, Seattle, WA 98124-4689, Phone: 206-233-2027.
Written comments must be received by Jan. 30, 2009. For accommodations and translation services at the EIS Scoping meetings, contact The Keller Group at 425-788-8990.
More information is available at http://www.necmunicipaljail.org/
