Connectivity to Downtown and Traffic Improvements

Private interests of parties who are outside the city’s limits have caused spending to be diverted to expensive, non-essential projects, while other concerns such as traffic backup on local roads and the lack of a public works facility have been ignored. To achieve a village atmosphere in the downtown area we need to ensure that there is safe pedestrian and bicycle access from all parts of the City. I will ensure that fire and police can deliver citizen services in a timely fashion by moving efficiently through traffic and intersections.

I want to balance spending so that traffic, infrastructure, and bike lanes are included in the 6-year Transportation Improvement Plan and the 20-year Capital Improvement Plan.

Preserving the Rural Character of our Neighborhoods

Woodinville is in danger of losing one of the primary reasons many of us moved here — its open spaces. Developers have put pressure on the City staff to up zone the R-1 area, overbuild, ignore low-impact development standards, and have even sued the city.

I am not against development or building new homes. But, I am interested in preserving salmon streams, wildlife corridors, and buffer zones in the process of planning for future growth.

I joined CNW and began contributing both time and finances to their efforts to protect our neighborhoods against over-development. So far, we have been successful in our legal effort, working alongside the city as a non-profit group.

I am aware of the passion of the citizens and their desire to protect and preserve our natural resources as they relate to the rural character of the City of Woodinville.

Supporting Our Business Community

As a small business owner for 30 years, I uniquely understand and share the concerns of our business community. We should promote the revitalization of our aging commercial and industrial areas into a business campus environment that will attract new technology-based companies. We can grow our business base without the need to increase housing density.

Better City Planning

Why did Woodinville Government push to bring in the largest garbage recycling plant west of the Mississippi, with low income jobs and a constant stream of garbage trucks into our city, instead of a Microsoft or Google campus? I want to change the decision-making process of the city council so that better planning decisions are made.

Long-term planning should provide the infrastructure and services our citizens have asked for, such as connectivity throughout the city for bicycle and pedestrian travel, and traffic improvements. The key long-term issue is to maintain the woodland character of Woodinville, despite the many development pressures facing the city.

Controlled Growth

Growth will come whether we want it or not. Let's guide it to protect the lifestyle and environment that makes Woodinville what it is. Let's encourage responsible, low impact businesses and industries that fit our image, for example wine themed businesses, banking, and agribusiness. Our population growth should be limited and concentrated in the downtown area. We can grow our business base by revitalizing our existing industrial and commercial areas without the need to increase density.

Fiscal Responsibility

The city has to live within its means. We need to focus on essential infrastructure projects instead of appealing, but non-essential, projects.

Large parts of our current city budget have been diverted to special interest projects that do not benefit all taxpayers. Road projects have been put on hold as less important projects have been the priority of several members of our current city council, jeopardizing our public safety and the city of Woodinville’s capital budget.

I’d like to work proactively with the City of Redmond, Snohomish County, and King County in order to ensure that our efforts and priorities are well understood in order to achieve maximum synergy together. After all, many of our Woodinville residents work in Redmond, Bellevue, or Kirkland and use roads that are governed by multiple agencies twice a day in the course of going to and returning from work.