It’s Time for Seattle to ‘Walk The Talk’ with Progressive Values
In August the City Council and Mayor passed a Green New Deal calling for “sustainable economic development.”
It proclaimed a future where “the social and ecological well-being of all people is prioritized over the profit of private corporations.”
But what happens when progressive values collide with Seattle reality? All of the talk goes down the drain, big developers win, and citizens lose, because of the City’s insatiable appetite for money.
The tower proposals we object to were not designed to work. They were designed to produce maximum return for their owner with a big financial incentive for City approval.
Consider the 500’ Chromer towers proposed on Second Ave. between Pike and Pine with 523 luxury condos, a large percentage studios with market values over $500,000.
Surrounded by bus and bike lanes, the towers include private parking for 270 cars generating 1,140 daily trips in a one-lane alley. Chromer’s sheer wall of windows and balconies press against its lot lines just 12’-21’ feet away from two adjacent historic and landmark residential buildings living room and bedroom windows.
After a year pleading for design mitigation and tower setbacks, neighboring residential and commercial buildings hired transportation and sustainable design analysts to present site-specific research at Chromer’s final Design Review meeting November 20th.
They found:
Transportation Impacts
Despite generating 1,100 daily car trips, only one car at a time can enter or exit the parking garage driveway and its design prevents cars from seeing approaching vehicles.
The project’s separate alley drive up for Uber and Lyft rides is also limited to one passenger vehicle at a time. Its design can’t accommodate cars entering from the north requiring them to move past the driveway and backing in.
The loading space for service and moving trucks won’t hold a 15’ U-Haul with its ramp deployed. When occupied, it blocks alley access to garbage and the service elevator.
Light and Privacy impacts
Chromer’s height and bulk will block daylight to 74% of Fischer Studio Building (FSB) units with almost half those homes losing 98% of their existing daylight.
Some units in 2nd & Pine Apartments will be left in 100% biological darkness without light adequate to maintain circadian rhythms.
Both buildings’ residents will be forced to use electric light for daily living the majority of the year’s daylight hours.
LEED-based view shed studies performed for 13 of the FSB and 2nd & Pine apartments facing Chromer showed 92% of their bathroom doors and bedrooms would be easily observed from Chromer units.
All FSB and 2nd & Pine apartments surveyed would be viewed clearly by multiple Chromer units, with 40% of homes viewed by 10 to 18 Chromer units.
Of course, lower floor Chromer units would also be subject to similar conditions. Those floors are occupied by smaller units and space dedicated to “Back of the House,” a term often associated with hotels. It suggests instead of residences these units may be suitable equity investments for vacation rentals or Airbnbs where severe loss of light and invasion of privacy would not be a deterrent.
But for Chromer neighbors grappling with real health and privacy impacts the future looks bleak. Each building’s intimate rooms positioned close enough to feel like living with strangers. Homeowners forced to use black out curtains for privacy and electric light at all times of day. There will be no heat from the sun and cooling from open windows. Forget about maintaining plants.
Social and ecological well-being requires a new City business model
Despite professional analysis and a year of neighbors’ pleading, Chromer passed Design Review unanimously and is heading for its Master Use Permit.
As we said earlier, these towers weren’t designed to work. They were designed to produce maximum return for their owner with a big financial incentive for City approval. The result is dysfunctional design that will outlive the City’s short-term profits and cause enduring impacts to its transportation grid.
And what of social costs? Peter Steinbruck, former City Council Chair and lead author of the City’s Design Guidelines, told the Design Review Board that Chromer’s Mama and Baby towers will “cannibalize” their neighbors.
The rest of the block is home to historic and landmark buildings without internal loading and waste facilities. They rely on the alley. Chromer’s lack of functioning infrastructure, its domination of alley use and removal of the only close public lot for service trucks and vans will severely limit neighbors’ ability to maintain their homes and businesses.
What’s in it for the City? In the trickle down economics of Seattle’s Grand Bargain, luxury tower fees will eventually provide seed money for affordable housing after winding through the City’s administrative process. But that housing won’t be built downtown, cementing gentrification into the core while the City talks of social equity.
The problem goes beyond Chromer
With every luxury tower that springs up unmitigated by Design Guidelines and codes, land values climb with it, encouraging displacement. Landlords and developers remove tenants and keep storefronts, and even whole buildings, vacant for years rather than be locked in a lease with a lower rate of return. By approving whatever zoning allows without mitigation, Seattle is literally giving away the store.
Seattle’s not the first to host an international real estate party. When the party’s over most investors move on to the next opportunity. The City’s short-term profits won’t make up for long-term damage to livability and sustainability.
Resolutions are important but the key to preserving Seattle’s social and ecological well-being starts with applying its land use design guidelines and codes:
1. Put SEPA review before Design Review.
2. Move away from a Review Board of volunteer design professionals approving the work of their peers and potential clients.
3. Enlarge the group of decision makers to include independent experts in transportation and sustainable design.
4. Include existing resident stakeholders in the dialogue.
Seattle’s Green New Deal comes at the tipping point for downtown. For existing homes and businesses, social and ecological well-being hangs in the balance.
Our elected leaders need to back their words with action.
