Curious to see what the City is proposing for our neighbors to the East?
University District Urban Design Draft Zoning Proposal Open House
When: Tuesday, May 31, 2016, 6 – 8pm
Location: Neptune Theater (1303 NE 45th Street)
The University District is one of the first neighborhoods planned for upzoning since the City has been working on a plan for the University District for the last four years. The areas that are proposed for significant height increases are within the area roughly from NE 50th Street to the Ship Canal and from I-5 to 15th Avenue NE at the University of Washington‘s main campus (the University of Washington has its own separate institutional overlay plan for its west campus). The majority of this area is currently zoned 45-65 feet tall with a few exceptions. There are three high rises: the first two were built in the early 1970’s (the University Tower at 325 feet, and University Plaza Condominiums at 225 feet). The 75-year old former Meany Hotel, now called the Hotel Deca, tops out at 16 stories.
The University District is Wallingford’s next door neighbor. Now cross over I-5 and the City is proposing zoning for towers up to 320 feet in the core of the University District. Another virtual Downtown. Pretty much erasing the University District as we know it to make room for another hub tied to the University of Washington. A recent meeting hosted by several University District neighborhood groups discussed significant issues related to the proposed upzones with an overflow crowd of over 220 concerned citizens. Public comments were taken from a diverse audience that included renters, homeowners, homeless, LGBT, business owners, artists, and concerned citizens from neighborhoods around the city. The vast majority of those who spoke opposed the upzones. People expressed worries about losing trees, protection for homeless shelters, the arts, and losing the overall character of the University District.
This is one of the first neighborhoods the City proposes to upzone and it will set a precedent. If you would like to know more about the City’s plan, please attend the City’s open house meeting on the 31st and let City officials know how you feel.
OPCD will take public comment on the draft zoning proposal until June 24, 2016. To make public comment please email: [email protected]
Also consider contacting the City Council: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
To contact the Mayor: http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/get-involved/contact-the-mayor
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We’ll feel this too, here in Wallingford. Another South Lake Union scale buildup just across I5 will put heavy development pressure on Wallingford. Rumor has it UW is part of the push for this and wants to build to that scale on its adjoining west campus property.
Fall in line!
This is no rumor. Look at their and the city’s proposals for the next two years.
In an area that is already almost exclusively multi-family zone, and with light rail providing super fast connections to Capitol Hill, Downtown, and further south, increasing heights and density so that more people who work at and attend UW can live closer, and providing increased housing for people working downtown…. this all sounds like a rather low-impact win to me. This could help reduce the pressure on single family zoning.
It’s a huge win! Thank you! Will you house the displaced low income residents in your front or back yard?
Paul doesn’t need to concern himself with where newcomers and low income people will live. He doesn’t live in the proposed upzone. Finding a place for them to live is only a burden for us exclusionary SF homeowner NIMBY’s who live in the upzone. Of, course, that won’t stop some people who live outside of proposed upzones from telling us what they think is best for the neighborhood.
Besides, in Paul’s Econ 101 world, it’s simply an issue of supply and demand. Just shove more density down the throats of neighborhoods that don’t want it, and the increased supply will magically lower the price of housing. Funny, it hasn’t quite worked out that way, has it.
LOL, hayduke! Increased density is precisely about where newcomers will live.
While we might wish Seattle were Brigadoon, it is actually in the real world, and is a thriving, growing, *city*.
Affordability is a major problem, and a sure-fire way to increase the problem is by constraining housing units while the population increases.
Though I suppose if we pack more people into those UDistrict flophouses, the cost of rent-per-person would decrease.
Maybe that’s the solution? Bring back the teeming tenements!
Are you saying that not keeping the same zoning won’t displace anyone? Most people living in the U District rent, and the average rent has skyrocketed in recent years due to high demand and not enough supply. I’m not sure why you think no one’s getting displaced right now, or why those displacement numbers would be greater if we built more housing.
I appreciate wanting things, including neighborhoods, to stay the same forever, but that’s already not going to happen no matter what you do. Thousands upon thousands of people are moving here, and we don’t have room for them. The choices are between restricting housing growth, forcing rising home prices, which has already changed who gets to live here. The other choice is to make space for all these new people, which does change buildings and thus some neighborhood character, yes, but I think it’s the better option for most people.
Oh I’m all for change that doesn’t make a bad thing worse. Those new apartments will ALL cost more than the current (admittedly rundown) units. I would support the city building its own multi-unit, affordable structures with rent control – with perhaps a requirement that people in them work within a certain distance so they support the local labor force. I don’t know – but I do know these new places are not the ticket to affordability right now.
LOL You’re all whistling into the wind Your elected officials will do what they want and what they want is to upzone your a**es into the stratosphere. Suck it up and vote “Incumbent” next time! You know you will!
If there was one area that could use some gentrification… but seriously, I hope they start to tackle crime in the area if they want to turn it into a tech hub. People openly smoke pot on the Ave. Obvious drug deals are going down. Bikes getting stolen and dumped.
Great article, Susanna and I appreciate all the email addresses.
A lot of the planned development in the U District seems to be geared towards office space. Commercial developments will be required to pay the linkage fees to the city towards affordable housing, but of course will not include any affordable housing onsite. And of course there is a lot of affordable student rentals that will be torn down. And the market rate apartments going up will likely not be affordable for the students.
Trust me when I say most of the “affordable student apartments” you talk about are definitely not affordable anymore, due to such excessive demand outstripping supply. Nearly half my students I taught last quarter commuted in from surrounding areas, while the ones on campus where nearly uniformly in a Greek Organization, which have their own internal mailing list and own houses which keep their rents down.
Personally I’m in favor of concentrating high density in areas that already have high density such as south Capital Hill, First Hill, SLU, U District, and of course downtown, especially if they are near light rail stations. People who buy and rent in such neighborhoods tend to want that environment. Nowhere in central Seattle is cheap anymore so it is not a matter of income distribution. In exchange, take the pressure off green neighborhoods which keep Seattle from becoming just yet another unpleasant big American city. Lots of cities have multiple urban cores such as LA has downtown, Century City, Westwood, Hollywood, etc., all with much denser zoning than most of the city.
Great. Even more construction to worry about in the Seattle area… It’s also hard imagining the U-District as being a new Downtown. I guess we’ll see how this pans out.
The U-District is an ideal place for increased density and up-zoning. It is getting a Link Station within a few years and is a hub of transit routes, so it can handle the increased population. Additionally, allowing buildings to go vertical increases the money from linkage fees which is fed into affordable housing development. Thus, the higher you go, the bigger the linkage fee/square foot of developed land you get, and the more affordable housing you can generate.
There are a number of places in Seattle that already have Link stations. I haven’t checked, 300 feet wouldn’t really be the norm in such places, would it?