Monroe's city council has named improving life in Monroe, keeping it safe, improving its business environment and parks and keeping its government effective and accountable its top priorities for the next six years.
• Enhance quality of life through responsible development of land and stewardship of the environment
In order to keep Monroe environmentally responsible, council named 16 objectives.
Among them is a commitment to making all future buildings environmentally responsible, including following guidelines on green building called LEED, or Leadership, Energy, Environment and Design.
"It's doing green buildings," said city engineer Brad Feilberg. "It's very expensive, so we moved away from certification for just using guidelines." Some of those guidelines include using reclaimed rainwater in buildings, using energy efficient building materials and using recycled building materials when possible.
Other goals include planting more trees, perhaps passing an ordinance limiting packaging such as plastic grocery bags, supporting congress' creation of a long-debated wilderness area near Gold Bar to be called "Wild Sky," reducing city waste to zero by 2025, and developing environmentally sound zoning, land use and building codes.
Achieving environmental sustainability is such a big task that councilman Tony Balk suggested creating a new sustainability commission just to address that task, which the council agreed to explore at a later meeting.
Another of Balk's concerns, that Monroe residents have no place to safely dispose of toxic household waste such as batteries and paint, will soon be addressed.
A toxic waste disposal is scheduled to appear in Monroe in 2009.
• Maintain a safe and welcoming community
Council laughed over the possibility of asking a septic truck company to move its truck, which is located conspicuously at the edge of town near welcome signs. The truck may soon move if the D.O.T. decides to use the parcel upon which it rests for a traffic improvement project, Walser noted. But council members also expressed commitment to improving Monroe's welcome to visitors and new residents.
Among stated goals are improving signs that direct visitors from place to place, exploring ways to keep different cultures connected in the larger community and putting up educational plaques about Monroe's history. And councilman John Stima inquired about the possibility of sending a "welcome" packet to new residents.
Although the Monroe Chamber of Commerce currently provides welcome packets to new residents, the city could send that packet to people who pay for new water hookups, council members suggested.
Public safety measures envisioned for the next six years include increased disaster preparedness and continuing strong code enforcement.
• Enhance and Increase Economic Development
Although the national economy is slowing, city council hopes to avoid the national downturn in Monroe by pursuing several strategies to increase economic development. Part of that includes continuing existing projects such as developing the North Kelsey shopping center, a project that is currently on hold following the withdrawal of the developer that had planned to build that center on land near Fred Meyer.
The plan also sets out a time line for the development of the North Kelsey area.
According to Jim Southworth, the plan is to sell the parcel to an appropriate developer in 2009, to sell another city-owned parcel on North Kelsey now occupied by Lakeside Gravel in 2010, to see the first parcel developed that year, and the Lakeside parcel in 2011.
New projects include identifying new commercial and industrial lands, identifying new revenue sources, potentially using parks to raise money such as making money from fishing activities on Lake Tye, and developing a marketing plan. The thorny problem of how to achieve a parking lot downtown.
"We have to have some parking to help downtown compete with North Kelsey or we're going to have a ghost town downtown," said council member David Kennedy.
Council member Mitch Ruth called for robust language in the goals statement, declaring the council's intent to not just study the problem, but to acquire a lot.
" I'd just like to see a real strong action word to say we're going to do something other than keep talking," he said. The council agreed to strengthen the language and declare intent to locate parking.
• Develop New and Maintain Existing City Facilities, Infrastructure and Programs
Monroe plans to create new parks and trails, and to improve traffic problems.
Among those projects are the completion of the Centennial Trail, a trail that extends through much of south Snohomish County but that is not yet complete.
The city council hopes to see the completion of a piece through town, connecting the Fryelands to Lewis Street Park.
Also, the city intends to make it a top priority to continue to urge county, state and national legislatures to fund safety and capacity improvement on U.S. 2 and SR 522.
"The city of Monroe has the most to gain from this," said mayor Donnetta Walser.
And Balk hoped to see some sidewalks funded by sources other than taxes or bonds.
In the city's transportation plan are about $11 million worth of non-motorized projects such as sidewalks, but it's hard to fund those, Balk noted. "I don't think we'll be able to finance those through bonds," he said. "I don't think there's the will."
Some ideas could be strengthening requirements for developers to put sidewalks in place when building or subdividing, or to get the prison to fund sidewalks while doing major expansions.
This summer, too, the council will draw up a list of top priority transportation projects, in order to get a list to the county auditor by Aug. 12 for the November ballot.
• Provide Effective and Accountable Municipal Government
City council agreed that making government actions open and accessible for city residents is important. In order to keep city government open, council plans in the next six years to put audio or video recordings of city council meetings on line and to keep residents informed of city actions. Also the council plans to up date the ethics ordinance, to identify ways to continue funding the YMCA and look at taxation methods.
Staff will now draw up a more specific action plan to accomplish the goals, including budget requirements, to be complete April 15. Council will discuss a sustainability commission May 27 and transportation on May 13.
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