A jail in Shoreline? Public forum to be held on Thursday Dec. 11

A public meeting this Thursday (Dec. 11, 2008 from 6-9pm) at Shoreline Community College will provide more information, answer questions and hear comments about the proposed Shoreline jail site.

From the City's website:

King County has announced that after 2012 there will no longer be space to house Shoreline’s or any other local cities’ inmates in the County’s facilities. This is due to the County’s projected increase in the felony population.

Consequently, all cities that contract with the county must replace those jail beds. Rather than plan for dozens of small, inefficient jails, Shoreline joined other cities in North and East King County (NEC) to address the problem, with the five largest cities (Principal Cities) leading the group. The Principal Cities include Shoreline, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond and Seattle. The feasibility study by a consultant showed that building and operating one large jail was more cost-effective than two small jails. For Shoreline, the difference in cost would potentially be over $1million per year.

The Principal Cities then identified potential sites including at least one within their borders that could accommodate a large jail facility, and chose six to move forward in an environmental review process.

One of the six sites is in Shoreline at 2545 NE 200th Street.

Link to Regional Jail Planning page at City of Shoreline website

Link to earlier post with more news links

Map above is from Google Maps

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