Lock Vista renters trying to fight condo conversion.

There was a really good article in the Seattle PI today about the efforts of a group of renters at the Lock Vista apartments in Ballard to prevent their affordable apartments (it seems they are paying roughly $750 a month) from turning into condos.

What was interesting for me to find out was that ‘the state retains the power to impose temporary moratoriums on conversions or limit their numbers’. This is a very interesting law because it allows industry groups such as developers, real estate agents to block this authority being handed over to cities by simpy focusing their lobbying efforts towards the state. It really begs the question of how interested the cities are in gaining this power back from the state.

Unfortunately this is just another example of how Seattle really doesn’t have a clear strategy for affordable housing. However, it may also be fair to say that even if it did there are quite a number of legislative roadblocks like this that would need to be resolved first.