This month, a dinosaur and a wise man takes a well-deserved rest. I use dinosaur affectionately because Robert Scully is from that generation of public servant that still understands and represents what service means to the community.

Robert has been working with the Rainier Beach residents since the inception of the Neighborhood Plan Update more than 8 years ago, when his office was still called the Department of Planning and Development. Initially alongside Nora Liu,now at Race Forward, he patiently took in the Neighborhood Advisory Committee’s feedback, as well as moderated many open houses and other community gatherings over the years, to craft the document that RBAC has taken stewardship of today.

Post plan update, Robert continued on to put together the Urban Design and Development Framework, that birthed the vision for the Food Innovation District. Except that this rezone for the area around the light rail station never took place and is most likely catching dust on shelf at City Hall since the Neighborhood Plan was inexplicably delayed 4 and a half years. Yet, it founded the base of our counter proposal to the original MHA changes, and the current maps would unlikely support a Seattle Mixed zoning without it.

I use the word wise, because Robert has acted tirelessly on behalf of the Rainier Beach Neighborhood. I like to say that he’s been our biggest cheerleader at the City. And for those of you who know Jenny Frankl, that’s the kind of caliber I’m talking about!And since we’re talking about the Coordinator of ABSPY at Seattle Neighborhood Group, Robert also joined the ranks of A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth Intervention Team.

More recently, his role at the City offered a transition to the Office of Planning and Community Development Equitable Development Initiative Team, under the leadership of Ubax Gardheere, a former Puget Sound Sage S-CORE program director. You could say that we had all our eggs in the same basket.

Robert’s good temperament and huge patience meant that he survived this critical and sometimes ungrateful job to deal with both rowdy community organizers and unresponsive leadership, stayed on this journey and graciously and selflessly supported them for the better of the community. We owe him a great debt and I want to make sure that he gets recognized and knows how much we appreciate him as a professional and as a person.

I got a recognition y’all! Recognize Robert Scully, City of Seattle Senior Planner like no other. Thanks Robert. We’ll miss you… but we know where to find you.

 

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