The ordinance created a ballot measure to be voted on in the next general election about whether the city should lift the limit on property taxes that could be levied to collect funds to support Seattle Parks and Green Spaces program, to allow for acquisition of land for neighborhood parks, playfields, community gardens, and other types of green spaces, the development of these types of spaces, and the development of environmental projects (including forest and stream restoration, community gardens and shoreline access). According to the Growing Food Connections database, the levy lift was approved.
This policy may correspond to diet-related strategies identified by the County Health Rankings’ What Works for Health tool, including:
For research on the potential effectiveness, please review the category links above.
We understand that this information is not comprehensive. It also does not include other important forms of evidence such as community members’ lived experiences and practice-based evidence.
The Oversight Committee for the Opportunity Fund will assess whether projects identified by neighborhood and community groups meet the criteria of addressing underserved communities (Sec. 3.A.3.b).
Critera include--whether proposed projects address immediate health or safety problems --section 3.A.3(d)
"solving major challenges including climate change, the health of our waterways, or growth management" Section 3.A.3.e.
Findings include the city of Seattle's numerous efforts around creating green infrastructure and urban sustainability efforts, restoring and maintaining healthy urban forests, supporting public access improvements to shoreline street ends, expanding the community gardening program, strengthening Seattle's food system, sustainability and security, and creating the Parks and Green Spaces Levy Citizens' Advisory Committee (pages 1 and 2 of the ordinance).
The ordinance proposes that the City levy regular property taxes for up to six years in excess of the limitation on levies for the purposes of acquiring, developing, or restoring, existing or new parks, recreation facilities, cultural facilities, green spaces, playfields, trails, community gardens, and shoreline areas (page 1 of the ordinance).
Section 1
The ordinance includes the duties and responsibilities of the Oversight Committee in relation to reviewing expenditure, advising upon expenditures and future allocations, and providing recommendations on the implementation of particular projects and any reallocations (Section 5). "The finance director is authorized to create other funds, subfunds, or accounts as may be needed to implement the purposes of this ordinance" (Section 4); proposal process and permitted use of funds (Sec 3).
Uncodified ordinance No. 122749, Council bill no. 116274, recommending that a tax levy proposal be put for vote by referendum. Relevant pages that were coded were p. 5-14 of the linked PDF.