1. In a surprisingly crowded Wing Luke Museum auditorium last night, dozens of developers, housing advocates, and residents of the South Downtown and International District neighborhoods lined up to criticize portions of the city’s Department of Planning and Development proposal—which, as PubliCola’s Dan Bertolet wrote yesterday, would allow developers to build taller buildings in the neighborhoods south of downtown if they agree to provide incentives like affordable housing and open space.
In general, the concerns broke down into two categories. First, several residents and small business owners told city council members (seated at table up front) that reducing parking requirements and allowing taller buildings would hurt small businesses and increase apartment rents in the neighborhoods south of downtown. “One-hundred fifty feet—that’s really going to increase the price of real estate, and I really think it’s going to drive out some small business owners,” said Julie Pham, managing editor of Northwest Vietnamese News.
Second, a number of folks from the business community argued (along the lines of the point Bertolet made in his editorial) that the “incentives” the city is proposing as part of its incentive zoning proposal aren’t enough to prompt developers to build taller residential buildings in an untested part of town, and in a tough economic climate.
“Developers are not choosing this neighborhood to do new housing,” said Downtown Seattle Association president Kate Joncas, who, like many in the downtown development community, argued that the city should simply increase the “base” zoning height in the area rather than attaching height increases to incentives like low-income housing. “I don’t think there’s a confidence that there would be future development above the base height under this proposal.”
Others, like Pioneer Square developer Marty Goodman, noted that the rents the city’s proposal assumes developers will get for high-rise developments south of downtown are significantly higher than rents in places like downtown Seattle. “They’e assumed that in the south downtown neighborhood now, you can get $3 per square foot per month for an apartment unit,” Goodman said, whereas “currently, the rents are somewhere in the neighborhood of half that. Even if you look at projects in other areas of town, rents are in the neighborhood of $2 a foot.”
And Goodman pointed out another problem raised by the DSA in a letter to the city council yesterday: As long as potential apartment rents remain low, it will make more sense for property owners who own surface parking lots to keep them as parking lots rather than developing them. “The highest and best use for land in South Downtown is still surface parking, and that’s why you see so many surface parking lots,” Goodman said.
Commenters also raised concerns about the committee’s proposed changes to the city’s multi-family code, which they said would excessively constrain developers’ design options. The changes, which the council expects to adopt within the next two weeks, are a response to the rash of ugly townhouses that sprouted around Seattle in the late 2000s.
2. While waiting for the bus at Third and Union last night, PubliCola witnessed Seattle Police Department gang-unit officers confiscate a large silver handgun from a young man they’d apparently just yanked from a Metro bus and pin him to the front of a marked SPD car. (We arrived too late to catch the bus number). The man, who was wearing a black stocking cap and baggy jeans, yelled repeatedly, “I didn’t do anything wrong!” and “My arm hurts!” (the cops had pinned his arm behind his back), to which one of the officers responded, “You’re a convicted felon and you don’t have a license to have a gun.”
With last week’s startling SPD footage in mind, Fizz took out our cell phone and filmed the arrest. The officers evidently had the infamous video on their minds too: About 30 seconds in to the second video, the sergeant in charge looks at our camera and defiantly says, “Hi, Mom!”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ6l-0KaxaA[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfVynA0bumk[/youtube]
3. Speaking of police accountability. Be sure to read yesterday’s Afternoon Jolt. Seattle City Council member Nick Licata done good.
4. Sound Transit apparently ran double trains last night (as opposed to their usual nighttime one-car trains) in response to the bus-crippling snowstorm. And it’s a good thing they did: The train Fizz rode was filled to standing-room-only with happy passengers.
Smooth sailing. Thanks to Seattle Transit Blog for the tip on the video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dmYduyLkjM[/youtube]
