Month: March 2021

Dear Beloved Renton Community,

After more than 27 years of serving you on Renton City Council, I’ve decided not to seek an eighth term in this coming election season.  A shifting situation in my extended family has caused me to reassess where I want to focus my time and energy in the next few years.  Additionally, I was going to run another term to help the city recover from the pandemic, and now I’m increasingly confident that we can get the COVID-19 crisis behind us, resolve our financial challenges, and restart our businesses before the end of this term.

I am enthusiastically endorsing long-time Renton Chamber of Commerce Board Member James Alberson for my vacant position.  James has served as President of the Chamber Board for six years, and is a business owner and business development consultant who is very active in our Renton community.  I endorsed him during his run for City Council position 3 in 2019 and he came within 2 percent of winning the seat.  A few months later I nominated him as a finalist for the vacant Council 2 position and during his Council interview he demonstrated excellent preparation and readiness for a council position.  He will be an outstanding council member.  Please join me in supporting James.

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This coming Monday March 22, a seemingly small “street vacation” item on our Council Consent agenda will usher in construction of another 275 units of affordable housing for households making between 60-80% of area median income.  It’s another typical week for those of us in Renton working hard to build affordable housing.

The latest project in the Renton Housing Authority’s pipeline, Sunset Oaks Apartments, will provide homes to 60 low income families when completed later this year.

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To increase our affordable housing options, we have recently completed and approved a ground-breaking new ordinance to encourage backyard cottages.  These cottages, technically known as Accessory Dwelling Units, can be enjoyed by your family or rented out to an individual or family in need of housing.  Our new ordinance gives you a choice of beautiful, pre-approved designs and waives the building permit fees.  We’ve also dropped several other impact fees and slashed hook-up charges.   The City will soon put links on its website that show you how you can begin planning a backyard cottage.  Until the links are up, you can get started by phoning Community and Economic Development at 425-430-7200 and letting them know you would like to get started on an ADU.  As you’ll see in the presentation below, the city can get you approved in just a couple weeks.