An accurate (and mildly depressing) account of what design review board meetings are like.

I saw a great post called We are the Public on At large in Ballard with Peggy Sturdivant, a Seattle PI blog. Peggy covered a NW design review board meeting in Ballard back in November to learn about the “plans for the 31 condominium units at 5803 NW 24th”. Having been to a few of these reviews myself in the NE area, Peggy’s coverage of the events was right on (with the exception that we had far more people in attendance at our reviews).

What I can’t agree with her more is that these Design Review Board meetings are really just about clarifying the minute details on projects that are pretty much going to be approved. That’s because the real decisions are made well before these meetings. These decisions are made when the zoning requirements are made into laws. And unfortunately Seattle has a terrible set of zoning regulations on the books with tons of loop-holes that ironically work against the city’s goals of ’sustainability’, ‘respect for adjacent sites’ and ‘directing development towards public transportation’.

Anyway, this is what Peggy seemed to discover at the Design Review meeting where all the city was doing was clarifying nit-picky details to the architect and the owner where their plans could better meet existing requirements laid out by existing zoning. And I think this is also why Peggy ends her post with,

“I didn’t have to stay for the end. The design will be approved give or take a few modifications. A setback may move, the landscaping may shift, minute specifics will change slightly – the modulation, a slope bonus, who knows? The building will still be six stories with 31 units and at least 38 parking stalls, although they’re aiming for 39.”

So, the lesson here is that change isn’t going to happen in Design Review, change needs to happen with Seattle’s zoning.