Seattle Press on Line - Northgate Developers Want Schell's Plan To Work For Them

Northgate Developers Want Schell's Plan To Work For Them

By Allie Holly-Gottlieb

Sep 22, 1998 -- The developers of the Court at Northgate seek to use Mayor Schell's Housing Agenda for support in easing current zoning regulations on their property.

The owners, Kauri Investments, took preliminary steps toward transforming their existing 130-unit multi-family residential property into 240 units by proposing design and zoning waivers.

The property is located near the Northgate Mall at 11300 3rd Ave. NE. It is situated in the middle of a block at least six acres wide, that the neighborhood development plan calls a "superblock." The block is designated by the plan to become the graceful transition between the suburbanesque single-family residences to the north and Northgate's commercial, urban center.

In 1993, the Northgate community formulated a comprehensive plan for expansion. The Northgate Area Comprehensive Plan included downzoning the Court at Northgate site from its original midrise height allowance of 60 feet to its current lowrise allowance of 37 feet. Now, Kauri developers want to add onto their building, an expansion beyond current allowable height.

Neighborhood activist Vince Slupski, who sits on both the Maple Leaf Community Council Land Use Committee and the Citizen's Advisory Board for the Northgate expansion, disapproves of Kauri's requests for zoning waivers. Slupski claims "there's a huge capacity for housing units on existing sites that are zoned for it."

Slupski was approached by Kauri Senior Project Manager Scott Nodland to act as a neighborhood advocate for the Court at Northgate project. Slupski refused because he saw little benefit to the community. His criteria for endorsing a development proposal is that it "needs to serve social goals."

The Mayor's 1998 Housing Agenda calls for rethinking zoning regulations and applauds efforts to "look creatively at zoning improvements." The Mayor's Recommended Land Use Code Amendments include the goal of "additional design and development flexibility with the possibility that housing will be less expensive... and that housing will be more affordable than might otherwise be possible."

The Kauri proposal to expand serves the county's growth management goals, the city's density goals, and the neighborhood's affordable housing goals, argues Nodland. Kauri Chairman Jim Potter, adds that renters would benefit because the additional units would bring in more money and prevent rent increases.

Community Education Coordinator for the Seattle Tenant's Union, Scott Winn, disagrees. "The bigger the apartment building is, the more chance that the owners are out to make as much money as they can," points out Winn.

Potter contends that zoning restrictions must be expanded to allow for appropriate construction, because the "zoning code does not envision the existing world. You have to let go of some of your rules to build something." Kauri developers suggest that following the land use code, with all of its zoning and design standards, stalls and perhaps prevents construction.

Slupski supports the code. He identifies departure from zoning guidelines as the problem with Northgate development.

"We are wasting this scarce resource of land that is zoned properly for mixed-uses, including apartments," accuses Slupski, and he assures, "we don't need to upzone."

Ethan Melone of the City's Strategic Planning Office says a developer must consider how profitable a project will be, and Kauri "determined that if they built the project within the design standards, they wouldn't make money."

Kauri would like to participate in a contract rezone, or a departure from current land use code, claims Project Manager Nodland. Melone confirmed that Kauri has not yet applied for a Master Use Permit Application.

For projects like Kauri's, that depart from design standards as well as zoning regulations, the Department of Construction and Land Use (DCLU) solicits guidance from its Design Review Board, composed of Seattle citizens. Before the City Council hears a rezone request, the developer has to hold pre-design meetings with the Review Board, according to DCLU Land Use Planning and Development Analyst John Shaw. The project can proceed with its application once the Review Board determines that it meets design standards. If DCLU recommends the project, the City Council would then consider zoning requests.

Kauri held a pre-design meeting with the Review Board on June 2, 1997. "Scott [Nodland] received what he perceived as a negative response" to the project from the Review Board, according to DCLU Urban Design Planner and Project Manager for the Kauri proposal, Vince Lyons. Nodland has not returned with a modified plan for a second pre-design meeting, and now that a year has passed, time has run out for his completion of that next step.

Kauri's development proposal won honorable mention at the Design Demonstration Projects, and was on display at the Seafirst Gallery in downtown Seattle from August 25 to September 23. The Project Awards Jury, made up of City officials, architects and community business members, commended Kauri's "notion of creating open space adjacent to higher-density housing located on major transit lines, to support and reward those who choose a non-auto pedestrian lifestyle." Potter and Nodland point out that this award does not mean the project will be built.

Slupski requested that the Kauri project be eliminated from award consideration in a letter to Mayor Schell and Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck, administrators of the Design Demonstration Project. Slupski wrote, "the renovation and partial demolition of the existing units will actually decrease the supply of affordable housing." The Demonstration Project is geared toward celebrating creative development proposals, not necessarily buildable ones.

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Terry Kocher	Jun 02, 2004	northgate,seattle,wa	plumber
DearMs: To maintain the Quality Of Life Upzoning should be mandated everywhere. We'll see what we see. History will speak for itself.