Summary

King County needs residents of the Skyway/West Hill, North Highline/White Center, East Renton Plateau, Fairwood, and East Federal Way areas to serve on a new committee that will help the county spend money for capital improvements in their communities. To learn more or apply, visit https://kingcounty.gov/urbanchoices.

Story

Local Services’ new Participatory Budgeting approach will give unincorporated area residents more control over how money is spent in their neighborhoods. Members of the Community Investment Committee will help King County decide how to spend:

• $10 million on capital projects in these urban unincorporated areas. The funds can be used for anything that needs to be built or replaced, like buildings, sidewalks, bike lanes, landscaping, signs, and play structures.

• $1.3 million for services or programs in Skyway/West Hill and North Highline/White Center. This funding can be used for almost anything, like after-school programs, job training, building maintenance, food, art supplies, and investments in play structures or sidewalks.

The committee will design and carry out a budgeting process that will be centered on racial equity. The process will build on community strengths and address specific priorities that these communities have identified.

The committee will also help design the larger Participatory Budgeting process to make sure that communities have control over how this money is spent and that funded projects will address real community challenges and have the most benefit.

“This is a chance for residents in the urban unincorporated areas to have a direct say in the improvements that their local government makes to the places where they live and work,” Community Investment Committee Coordinator Gloria Briggs said. “The members of this committee will literally say to King County, ‘This is how you should spend money in these areas,’ and that will carry weight in the final decision.”

To learn more or apply to serve on the committee, visit https://kingcounty.gov/urbanchoices.

(Documents are available in English, Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Somali and Vietnamese)

LINKS

• Urban Unincorporated Community Investment Committee