By Mellow DeTray

At the Normandy Park City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, residents heard updates on significant local developments, including changes to King County Metro bus routes designed to improve connectivity with new light rail stations.

The council also discussed an action plan based on the recent Citizen Satisfaction Survey results, addressing key community concerns such as sidewalk conditions and public communication.

This meeting highlighted the city’s efforts to respond to resident feedback and improve essential services and infrastructure.

South Link Connections Update

The council heard a presentation from King County Metro and Sound Transit on updates to South Link Connections. Some local bus routes will be affected, improving connectivity to the new light rail stations. Changes include more frequent buses and increased weekend service. In order to balance spending, several peak-only bus routes in the greater region were cut entirely– most of them already having been frozen since 2020.

King County Metro has continually sought feedback throughout this process, in order to effectively serve the most riders. There is a short survey here, available through August 31st. Questions or comments about services and rider safety can also be emailed at this link.

Two buses serve Normandy Park. Route 156 runs from Highline College through Des Moines to SeaTac and then Southcenter. The entire route takes about 40 minutes. This bus now has service every 15 minutes on weekdays, and every 30 minutes on weekends. Route 166 connects Kent/Des Moines Light Rail Station to the Burien Transit Center. It runs every 30 minutes in general, increasing to every 15 minutes during peak times.

Citizen Satisfaction Survey Results Action Plan

City Manager Amy Arrington said the Citizen Satisfaction Survey responses have been analyzed, and she brought to council an action plan to show the public that their voices have been heard. She said there were a lot of comments about the condition of sidewalks (or lack thereof), as well as weeds and foliage encroaching on the sidewalks and causing visibility issues. She said the city will make it a priority to proactively look for these issues and work on correcting them. In the past it has been a slow process involving code enforcement but they are hoping to speed along the improvements.

Communication has been another issue, with most city residents not knowing about the weekly newsletter that is sent out to subscribers. City Manager Arrington did say that after bringing it up at a recent town hall, they increased subscriptions to 961. In addition, they’ve made it easier to sign up for the free newsletter, so everyone can stay informed. You can sign up for city news and updates at this link.

Councilmember Mike Bischoff mentioned that the Planning Department receives more complaints from the community than any other city service. He said the department needs to take action to update the permitting process and make it more user-friendly. Councilmember Jack Lamanna said the city should send out a “post-mortem” email directly to everyone who goes through the permit process, in order to get current feedback on how the department is functioning. City Manager Arrington said that permitting is at a disadvantage because they have the unpopular job of making people do things they don’t want to do, and then pay a fee for it. They will look for ways to get feedback on, and improve the experience of, the permitting process.