Depending on who you ask, 400-700 people showed up for last night’s Metropolitan King County Council committee meeting to discuss the proposed cuts in King County Metro bus service.

The main issue of the discussion was the $20 car-tab fee for each of the next two years that is being considered. Without it, Metro says it would need to cut service 17 percent by eliminating some routes and reducing trips.

State lawmakers gave county officials the authority this year to charge an extra $20 for car tabs — which would provide $50 million over two years — to help Metro. When combined with reserve funds, it’s enough to largely maintain existing service, Metro says.

The next step for King County’s nine-member council is to either put it to a vote in the next election or a “supermajority” of six members could enact the new fee without going to the voters.

Unfortunately, only four County Council members attended the transportation committee hearing (Bob Ferguson, Larry Gossett, Joe McDermott and Larry Phillips) while five did not. The four who did attend, however, have already come out in favor of the fee.

There will be one more public hearing on July 21 in Burien at the City Council Chambers, followed by a vote from the King County Councilmembers, scheduled for July 25.

As the Seattle Center gears up for a six-month celebration surrounding its 50th Anniversary, the Metropolitan King County Council this week recognized the Center for “its legacy as the home of the 1962 World’s Fair.”

Seattle Center Director Robert Nellams (l) and Seattle Center Foundation Executive Director Tracy Robinson (r) are joined by the members of the King County Council.

Councilmember Larry Phillips, whose district includes Seattle Center, presented the recognition to Seattle Center Director Robert Nellams and Seattle Center Foundation Executive Director Tracy Robinson at the Council’s meeting on Monday, March 7.

“Seattle Center has a special personal connection for most King County residents, as it serves as the region’s gathering place,” said Phillips in a statement. “One of my fondest connections to the center is watching children play in the fountain that my father originally designed. The center’s 50th Anniversary commemoration is an opportunity to reminisce about the rich history of Seattle Center and the World’s Fair, as well as envision the Center’s future.” From the press release:

On April 21, 1962 the gates to Century 21 opened, and when the celebration ended on October 21, 1962, the World’s Fair had attracted 10 million visitors and introduced the Pacific Northwest to the world as the home of creative and practical solutions to our biggest challenges. Today, the 74-acre Seattle Center continues to prosper as our region’s premier urban park and cultural center. The World’s Fair and Seattle Center have brought five decades of economic, cultural, and social benefits to the region. Over 500 million people have visited the Seattle Center since 1962. Currently, Seattle Center annually welcomes 12 million visitors to nearly 500 programs and over 5,000 shows and events, generating $1.15 billion in business activity and $387 million in labor income for King County.

The center’s 50th Anniversary celebration will be focused on imagination, innovation, and involvement. As part of the commemoration, Seattle Center will be actively engaging the community in exploring, debating, and defining a collective vision for the next 50 years in eight key areas, including arts, culture, and design; sustainable futures; global health; science and technology; learning; commerce and the innovation economy; civic action; and history.

Find out more about Seattle Center’s plans for the 50th anniversary celebration, and the next 50 years here. Read more about the Center’s plans for the campus, including the Dale Chihuly glass house, outdoor green space, and KEXP studio in our past coverage here.

The FAA has informed Senator Patty Murray’s staff that there will be no changes in the floor of the airspace located over Magnolia, Queen Anne and Ballard.

Well over one hundred people showed up at a Magnolia Community Club meeting last November to express concern about the proposed change that would have lowered the floor from 3000 feet to 2000 feet above sea level. That would have resulted in larger planes flying lower and with more frequency over Magnolia and parts of Queen Anne and Ballard.

The FAA stated that after considering all the public input it re-evaluated its proposal and determined no significant net gains in safety or efficiency that would justify the various negative impacts resulting from lowering the floor of the Class Bravo airspace.

The Magnolia Community Club collected and forwarded 77 pages of petitions to the FAA  in opposition to the proposal.  King County councilmember Larry Phillips along with Representative Jim McDermott and Senator Patty Murray each wrote to the FAA opposing the change.

According to a media release from the Magnolia Community Club today: Community leaders are extremely pleased, not only with the FAA’s substantive decision, but also with its demonstrated willingness to work with affected communities and respond to their concerns. The successful resolution of this issue is due to the hard work over a long period of time by many volunteers within the community who gave up their free time to attend meetings, collect signatures and contact both the FAA and our elected officials. All involved must be thanked for their efforts and professionalism. There is little doubt that the value of our community input was enhanced by the professional manner by which those involved responded to and interacted with the FAA and our elected officials.

In the past two months the FRIENDS of Gilman Urban Gardens have converted a regular old median into a community-run cooperative garden, garnering attention from urban gardening author Darrin Nordahl and King County Councilmember Larry Phillips, who both dropped by the garden this week.

Nordahl, Councilmember Phillips, and Gilman Urban Gardens founder Charlie Hoselton help plant a tree. (Photo courtesy of Charlie Hoselton).

Tomorrow Saturday, May 8, the garden will entertain another special guest, Seattle Tilth‘s Natural Soil Building Program Manager Laura Matter. Laura will be at the garden from 10 a.m. to noon to chat with gardeners and community members about the project, soil building, plant watering, pest and weed control and anything else related to the art of gardening, according to Hoselton.

The Gilman Urban Gardens is currently working to install a sprinkler and watering system, and is planning on applying for a Neighborhood Matching Fund grant in the coming year.

The Metropolitan King County Council today named District 4 representative Larry Phillips as the Chair of the Council’s Environment and Transportation Committee.

Councilmember Phillips committee will be tasked with forming a Regional Transit Task Force to develop a vision for sustaining and growing Metro bus service, and adopting a Shorelines Master Plan to protect important shoreline habitat.

“Our region faces great environmental and transportation challenges—from cleaning up Puget Sound and addressing the climate crisis to preserving and enhancing transit service—so we have significant and vital work to do in 2010,” said Phillips. “I look forward to working with residents, stakeholders, and my colleagues to advance our work on protecting the environment and improving our transportation system.”

Councilmember Phillips represents Ballard, Queen Anne, Magnolia, Belltown, South Lake Union, Interbay, the Denny Triangle, Crown Hill, Phinney Ridge, Greenwood, the western region of Fremont, Broadview, First Hill and Capitol Hill at the King County Council.

In what has been an ongoing issue for Queen Anne, Magnolia and Ballard, King County Councilmember Larry Phillips is asking Mayor Mike McGinn to convert the current bus-only lanes on 15th Ave W to HOV lanes. Our sister site, MagnoliaVoice, reports that Phillips wrote a letter to McGinn asking him to support the Magnolia Community Club (MCC) in their effort to switch the lanes, citing under-utilization of the lanes by buses and heavy traffic in the area. Phillips says there are carpools full of students who attend Ballard High School who could use the lanes. Read the entire article here.

It is not a surprise, but today King County Councilmember Larry Phillips announced that he was running for King County Executive this year.  Pledging a “fresh start” for King County, Phillips has not aggressively pointed out differences between himself and fellow Democrat and incumbent King County Executive Ron Sims.  Only on rare occasions will someone in the same party challenge an incumbent, so it will be interesting to see how the race develops.  The Seattle PI states that one point of differentiation between the two lies in transportation, a hot button for the Queen Anne, Magnolia, and Ballard residents.

Phillips has been a steady and staunch advocate of Sound Transit and its light rail program, while Sims publicly reversed his long-held advocacy of light rail before the 2007 vote on a rail-and-highway tax package. That package was defeated, but a transit-only measure was approved by voters in Novermber 2008.

Larry is a resident of Magnolia, attended Queen Anne High School and the University of Washington. He also earned a Juris Doctor degree from Willamette University College of Law in 1976, graduating with honors and finishing in the top ten percent of his class.