City Council is scheduled to vote on CB119398 this coming Monday, January 14, at 2 PM. Exempting downtown towers from transportation mitigations required for smaller developments outside the city core is the biggest adverse impact and mystery in CB119398. While we understand and applaud the goal of bringing alternative transportation options to the SOV into greater usage, Transportation Performance [i.e. travel time] should be our primary measure of success or failure, not just a fuzzy feel good SOV reduction standard.

CB119398 will give downtown high-rises a free pass from the SEPA process, an automatic Determination of Non-Significance. We need to tighten controls, not throw wide the gates.

This bill [CB119398] may be adequate for the rest of the city but it fails to address downtown gridlock and irresponsibly denies the impact of planned tower density.

Downtown traffic will descend into historic gridlock. It’s time to state your concern: proposed LOS standards will lead to more congestion and less safety and quality of life in Seattle.