Is it worth buying into Seattle’s Downtown Density vision if the mayor and city council aren’t ready to protect your investment?

Imagine this scenario, you buy into Seattle’s new sustainable downtown vision and decide to help do your part. So you decide to move out of your house and into a new condo downtown that is closer to your office and all the places you like to go after work and on the weekends. You also trade away one of your cars so you can take transit where you need to go, you use less energy to heat your new place, and you find yourself buying less stuff (’cuz there’s less room to store it). All of these are great things that the city should applaud.

But then, what happens if the city then allows another hi-rise to be built just 18 feet away from your new unit? This distance is so close that you don’t just lose your view, but you lose your sunlight and your privacy! At this point, you’re going to feel that the city has sold you out. And as word of this bad planning gets out, fewer people are going to buy into the city’s downtown vision.

Unfortunately this very thing is happening at the Cosmopolitan Condos downtown. The Cosmo Seattle blog has done a great job of detailing why this situation happened, and the steps they’re taking to publicize it.

One issue here is that the new owners buying into this building were not notified about the city’s plans to rezone a neighboring building from 14 to 40 stories. Another problem is that the city actually is allowing this neighboring building to be built only 18 feet from the Cosmo. 18 foot setbacks work for much smaller buildings (like say 4-story buildings), but not for residential high-rises like this one. (And one side note, this tiny setback also means the city has just created another scary downtown alley between two buildings instead of a nice, much wider pedestrian thoroughfare.)

Anyway, unless the city gets serious about protecting the privacy and light of all the new people it is encouraging to move downtown, you need to be very careful what you buy!

Here’s where the new buildings next to the Cosmo are planned. (photo from Cosmo Seattle blog)