In the primary race for Lynnwood City Council Pos. 7, Jim Smith’s the political veteran, with 20 years continual service on the council.
His opponents in the Aug. 21 primary are veterans within their own constituencies.
Maria Ambalada, a Planning Commission member, is a 46-year resident of Lynnwood who campaigned on behalf of Don Gough in his 2005 mayoral race.
A Filipino immigrant, Ambalada has deep connections with the city’s growing immigrant population and has endeared herself to many whose voices can sometimes lurk in the background: youth, the poor, the elderly and those who lack English proficiency.
“I loved being involved in the community,” she said, during a recent interview with the Enterprise’s editorial board.
The Rev. Christopher Boyer, pastor at Good Shepherd Baptist Church, has a background in management and strategic planning, which he’s taught at the university level.
“My career has been built around making communities a better place,” he said.
Though the three agree in general on many of the policy issues facing the city, they disagree on the details.
For example, on the question of how soon and how quickly the city should grow via annexation, Smith and Boyer agreed that the city has to act in its best interest to ensure that future development along its borders complies with city regulations.
Smith called annexation a “two-edged sword” because developments are springing up around the city’s fringes that do not meet city design guidelines, yet there’s a danger that in a rush to add more land to the city’s tax base, the city could go overboard and stretch itself too thin.
“I am concerned about taking on tens of thousands of new residents,” he said. “As soon as we take them on, it’s that much work added to every single department in Lynnwood.”
Boyer said it’s wise to proceed with caution, “but let’s not be so careful … that we miss the opportunities.”
He noted that the state Legislature in 2006 gave cities new financial incentives to help ease the potential burden associated with annexation.
Because of those incentives, which last through 2009, “it’s to our interest to take a good, hard look at some of those annexations now.”
Ambalada said she gave city officials information from the county assessor’s office because of her concerns about how quickly sections along 164th Street Southwest that lie beyond city limits are growing.
“It is unsafe,” she said of some new developments.
Regarding City Center, the city’s plan to create an urban village setting that both gives it a central identity and spurs economic vitality, candidates were unified in their enthusiasm.
Ambalada said the next step is for businesses and financial institutions to step up to the plate.
She said the city needs to talk to other communities where similar projects either have taken shape or are on the drawing board in order to compare notes, “so we can see that we have common problems.”
Smith said it’s time for a catalyst to step forward and get the City Center ball rolling.
“Somebody has got to go first,” he said. “With the support of the administration, we need to cause someone to be first to go in there … with public-private partnerships.”
Boyer called the City Center plan “one of the things I think is truly exciting” about the future. “We have an opportunity to do something with City Center that is going to be the face of Lynnwood for the next 50 years.”
He said City Center should be a beacon for attracting what some sociologists have termed the “creative class” — a segment of well educated and generally affluent people who seek exposure to the arts, culture and urban amenities.
“Sociological research is showing that there’s a particular kind of person that is an economic engine for successful cities,” Boyer said. “We want to look at this City Center as a place that’s going to attract the creative class.”
The future of the city’s recreation center elicited broad support for action to improve the 30-year-old site. Smith was the most specific on how to pay for it.
He said the city should make use of its pool of real estate excise tax revenue, money collected from the sale of real estate, along with councilmanic bonds or other sources to pay for a remodeled community center that might include a new senior center.
He called asking voters to approve the sale of bonds to pay for it “a last-case scenario.”
Boyer said his experience in the nonprofit sector means he knows that “funds are limited,” but acknowledged that he hasn’t studied the issue of how to pay for a new community center.
“What we can’t do is set our budgets by saying here’s how much we want to spend, now let’s find some money.”
Ambalada said she’d like to see an expanded senior center and noted that some senior centers — such as the one in Everett — have created gift shops and other self-support mechanisms that engage seniors, whom she called “the machine of a community.”
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