***** News Release  *****

September 6, 2016

After long and careful consideration, we [Downtown Residents Alliance] have decided to drop our appeal of the MHA/HALA Determination of Non-Significance (DNS). While we believe that the Mayor’s failure to address downtown livability in his proposed legislation is purely political and will harm the City, we are even more concerned about the less fortunate in our community.

If it weren’t for our strong support of the homeless and affordable housing, we would fight this ludicrous DNS all the way to Superior Court if necessary. The Director’s SEPA analysis of adverse impacts lacked serious rigor and contained significant errors and omissions.

The so-called “Grand Bargain” between the Mayor and the development community is fatally flawed by design. It is not a viable long-term solution to the housing problem, and very well may “kill the goose that’s being counted on to lay the golden egg” to fund affordable housing.

Clearly our efforts have been successful in getting the Mayor to abandon his push for even fatter new residential construction in parts of downtown under HALA, and opt for taller instead. Now we will turn our attention to convincing City Council of the wisdom of adopting the same principle for downtown residential development standards…allowing equivalent square footage in additional height in certain zones to solve alley congestion and tower spacing issues.

By amending expected legislation to put the “L” in HALA, the City can have it all…livability protection for downtown residents, no reduction in development capacity for builders, and generate the necessary funding for affordable housing.

For more information, contact:

Nicole Walters

Downtown Residents Alliance

nywalters@me.com