Category — Goodwill Development

Of course it was approved, however, now it’s the opponents’ time to appeal the decision if they choose.

The thing about the Dearborn Street Coalition’s position on this project is that they’re not against developing this site (and I’ve been to one of their meetings - and heard them clearly explain their position on this), what they want is a development that benefits the neighborhood by being transit focused, built to environmentally friendly standards and doesn’t gentrify the place.

As others have mentioned, the current plan is way too car-centric for a city who repeatedly expresses the desire to reduce its dependency on the car. The Dearborn Street Coalition is looking to make sure that local businesses benefit from providing the developer with our public asset, the right to upzone. And, the Coalition has also asked that businesses they view as predatory to lower-income folks (shout out here to check-cashing outfits) be restricted from this development.  

The group has also asked that the property be built to LEED standards, of course, this doesn’t matter as much to those who would rather be able to shop for socks at Target on their way home from work.

(We should still do better. Image from Central District News.)

It’s been 18 long months since the Dearborn Street Coalition formed to help make sure that the proposed Goodwill development in Little Saigon and they’re still going strong. The coalition has just put out a couple of announcements asking support from the Seattle community to help them out with their efforts to,

We seek a balanced mix of retail, not a big box, formula retail project with over 90% of its retail square footage dedicated to shops over 5,000 square feet. We seek a project that doesn’t require over 25,000 automobile trips per day to already congested arterials. We would like to see more housing in the project, in particular a commitment to affordable family housing which is so desperately needed in the downtown core. Above all, we seek a signed agreement with the developer that ensures a more appropriate project that provides real benefit to the community.

It doesn’t take much to help, here are three things they suggest,

1. *Donate* to our campaign. To date, we have operated through volunteers. But we must pay our experts in land use and economics to help our grassroots campaign against a well-funded developer. Your financial contribution is essential for achieving success. Any amount - small or large - will add up to make a difference! Contribute right now by clicking here: http://dearbornstreetcoalition.org/v2/get-involved/

Here are three more easy actions:

2. Sign our online *petition* today: Even though you may have signed a paper petition, sign our online petition – and encourage others to do the same. Click here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/DearbornStreetCoalition

3. Visit our *website*: http://www.dearbornstreetcoalition.org Keep informed about the project and our efforts.

And Sand Point/Laurelhurst readers, you should pay really close attention to this project since the company developing this site (TRF Pacific) also has plans to redevelop Building 11 in Magnuson Park. Who knows, if you help out Dearborn Street today you might find yourself with some new friends who are able to help you out later.

I was down at the South Lake Union Discovery Center today checking out all the displays about the upcoming South Lake Union redevelopment and had a thought, “what if the city spent as much time thinking about neighborhood development in other neighborhoods throughout Seattle as it is doing in South Lake Union?”

I have a feeling that if the city did spend time carefully looking at developing neighborhoods as a whole instead of piecemeal, I don’t think you’d see bad development like we’re seeing in:

• The Denny Triangle neighborhood, where the city is permitting a high-rise to be built just 16 feet away from a neighboring residential high-rise?!? This kind of close-in high-rise development has not been successful in any major city and is terrible urban planning. 
• The Pinehurst neighborhood (North Seattle) where Kohary Construction has pretty much ticked off the neighborhood by using a loophole to avoid the DPD’s Design Review Process and using this lack of review to build dull, characterless townhomes that push most of their development’s traffic issues into the surrounding neighborhood.
• Wedgwood (again in North Seattle) where Murray Franklyn wants to build a huge mixed commercial/residential property that is only 8 feet away from single family homes and is going to really screw up traffic on 35th Ave NE.
• Summit and Belmont on Capitol Hill where Murray Franklyn is planning to put in a less than dynamic mixed use building leased out to even duller tenants.
• Dearborn Street just south of downtown where there are plans to build a major shopping complex, which the neighborhood feels will have a devestating Walmart effect on their neighborhood businesses.

Anyway, this is just a list of problem developments I’ve learned about while working on this blog, and I’m sure there are many more out there. Perhaps what we need is the DPD to put together a ‘South Lake Union Discovery Center’ that covers the entire city and lets us think about development holistically. Or perhaps what we need is a mayor or city council to realize that this is the major issue facing Seattle neighborhoods.

Last night I attended a Dearborn St. Coalition for a Livable Neighborhood meeting and was really surprised at how quickly this massive redevelopment project is making its way through the DPD’s Design Review Process.

The process is basically moving along as quickly as if the project was a 4-story condo building instead of a proposed 600,000 sq ft retail and 450 residential unit shopping complex. However, what really struck me about the Dearborn Street Group is how well-organized they are, the energy they are bringing towards making neighborhood-friendly changes to this proposed project, and how effectively they are building up their popular/political/financial capital throughout the city. They are providing tons of real neighborhood feedback to the DPD, and regardless of the Design Review Board’s recommendation, will keep pushing all the way to the city council. My prediction is that the developer, TRF Pacific, will need to accommodate their requests in writing, or will lose this battle.

Now, compare this to the Children’s Hospital redevelopment project in Laurelhurst where they plan to double their space and add 250 new beds. For this project, Children’s was able to get the city council to pass a resolution authorizing a Citizen’s Advisory Committee to basically organize a group of neighbors to gather neighborhood concerns and to make a recommendation. However, what is really surprising is that Children’s Hospital can make the call on who sits on this board. In fact, here’s what it says in city resolution 31002.

WHEREAS, the Department of Neighborhoods has worked with Children's
Hospital and Regional Medical Center to develop a list of twelve
potential members to serve on the Citizens Advisory Committee;

At first I thought that the Dearborn group wasn’t getting treated as well as Laurelhurst because they weren’t assigned a CAC for their project, however talking to someone from the Children’s Action Coalition (the other CAC) it doesn’t seem that the Children’s/city- appointed CAC is as activist oriented as the neighborhood group.

The problem for Laurelhurst is that the official voices of their neighborhood are being represented by representatives they didn’t even choose. So, this actually leads me to believe that the Laurelhurst folks are in a disadvantaged situation because regardless of what they do, there will be two different sets of Laurelhurst neighborhood recommendations. One from the Citizen Advisory Commitee’s view of the project, and one from the grassroots neighborhood group.

It should be very interesting to see how both of these processes play out.

Flyover view of the proposed Dearborn St. project

Proposed Children’s Hospital Redevelopment Project

Perhaps the most significant residential land use issue in Seattle right now is with the Goodwill Development Project in Little Saigon. It’s a very complicated issue because there are so many interested parties, but it is clear that the neighborhood is very concerned about this development being out-of-sync with their current neighborhood.

It’s a significant project that basically involves the current Goodwill giving up their current land in exchange for a rebuilt Goodwill building. In exchange for this work, the developer wants to build a large retail center with over 600,000 of retail and residential development.

You can read more here.