It was the best of times, it was the worst of times to be a transfer station. The fact is, Seattleites generate about 800,000 tons of municipal solid waste each year. And all that waste has to go somewhere – first stop, a transfer station.
Seattle Public Utilities owns and operates two recycling and disposal transfer stations in the city. The North Transfer Station primarily serves the northern portion of the city; built in the mid-1960s, the station is past its useful life and needs larger, modernized digs. SPU plans to demolish the existing structure and design and build a new one at the existing location.
EnviroIssues joined the team to provide community involvement strategy, planning, and implementation. We built an outreach and communication strategy that accounted for the successes and lessons learned from earlier efforts; facilitated a stakeholder group focused on conceptual design for the new facility; planned and facilitated two public meetings and a walking tour; and developed all of the public information materials used throughout the process. We also developed a unique, analytical, decision-making tool to assist stakeholders in the selection of a preferred conceptual design.
Our robust community outreach approach included a survey we conducted both at the North Transfer Station and outreach booths at the Fremont Sunday Street Market. We conducted the survey on iPads and made it available in six languages, gathering station users’ input on the design and community amenities they’d like to see for the North Transfer Station project.
We also worked in conjunction with the stakeholder group and SPU to draft and finalize a stakeholder recommendation report and compendium, summarizing three years of good work for all involved! Now we’re working with SPU and the community through design and construction to make sure the conceptual design comes to life.