Wedgwood Community Council Land Use Committee.

One of the painful lessons learned during this past year is that Wedgwood doesn't register on the city's radar. We largely are just an area somewhere northeast of Roosevelt where every once in awhile the citizens rally around a cause (whether it's the Red Apple or this condo project). And the reason we are largely invisible is that we really haven't defined for ourselves and the city exactly how we want to 'fit in' with the city's growth plans.

Anyway, during our 'condo fight' I learned quite a bit about the importance of deciding what our neighborhood wants, documenting these needs with the city, and then actively defending these decisions when they're challenged. Other neighborhoods such as Wallingford, Laurelhurst, Maple Leaf, Roosevelt, etc.. are all active in defining what they want, and then (with varying degrees of success) defending those positions.

And don't think development isn't coming here because the ball is rolling in Wedgwood. Things will change over the next 10 years in our neighborhood and the first stages of this development is already happening. So the question is, are we ready for it? And right now the answer is 'no'.

Here are some examples of likely things that could happen that we haven't planned for:

The Hunter Tree farm lot will not stay a tree farm forever, do we want a park or some other service there? Like a Farmer's Market? If we don't define this now and lobby the city to support what we want, this property will go condo.

Safeway at 75th and 35th. This is a very big piece of property that is anchored by a dumpy Safeway. What goes in here will be a very significant development.

The Rite-Aid at 35th and 85th is also a under-utilized space with a low-performing business. Why not build apartments/condos ontop of a smaller Rite-Aid.

And what about the space across the street from the condo building on 86th? It's city property and they know they need to do something with it.

Anyway, if you'd like to be part of coming up with suggestions and recommendations for properties like these ahead of time so that we can influence the kind of development that takes place, I encourage you to join the Wedgwood Land Use Committee that I'm heading. You can request more info by checking out our official Wedgwood Land Use web site at http://wedgwoodlanduse.spaces.live.com/.