By CLAYTON PARK

Two citizens groups that have been waging a several-year battle, including legal action, to daylight a section of Thornton Creek that currently flows under the Northgate Mall South Parking Lot have come up with a plan they believe would satisfy their aim as well as the City's goal of building a community library and a private developer's plans to build a multifamily affordable housing project.

To get the City and developer, Security Properties, to buy into their plan, the creek activists, Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund and Citizens for a Liveable Northgate, are dangling a new carrot:

If Security Properties agrees to build its project in accordance with the design that TCLDF, CFLN and their landscape architect Peggy Gaynor developed in cooperation with the developer's architects, Mithun Architects and Bumgardner Architects, the creek activists have pledged in a letter dated Sept. 17 that they will not pursue litigation or challenge the developer's efforts to proceed with the project.

TCLDF and CFLN's lawsuits succeeded in preventing the South Lot's current owner, Northgate Mall operator Simon Property Group of Indianapolis, from proceeding with a previous plan to develop a mixed-use project on the site that would have included a multi-screen movie theater complex, retail and housing, but no provision for daylighting Thornton Creek.

When Simon decided to scrap its plans and put the South Lot property up for sale a year ago, housing developer Security Properties stepped in with an offer to buy the site if it could come up with a project that would win over the community and eliminate the threat of ending up in court.

A key difference between Security Properties' approach and Simon's previous efforts has been the housing developer's willingness from the start to discuss the feasibility of daylighting Thornton Creek. The bottom line, however, for the developer is that the project still needs to pencil out from a dollars and cents standpoint - no small task given the relatively small size of the 12.8-acre lot and the amount of space that the daylighted creek and surrounding buffer would require.

When Security Properties drew up a plan that included two acres for an extension of Thornton Creek habitat in addition to two acres of open space in plazas and sidewalks, the creek activists rejected it, saying the amount of space needed for Thornton Creek and the buffer should be closer to four acres.

Security Properties agreed to let TCLDF and CFLN work directly with its two architectural firms, at the developer's expense but not its input, to create a plan that the creek activists could support.

The creek activists' plan was presented at a Sept. 7 meeting with Security Properties that included City officials, the participating architectural firms, and representatives of two other neighborhood groups who have not been involved in litigation activities: the Maple Leaf Community Council and Thornton Creek Alliance.

A copy of the minutes from that meeting obtained by the Jet City Maven shows that the creek activists' proposal would reduce the housing portion of the project by one-third to one-half the 1,000 units that Security Properties' own plan calls for.

At the Sept. 7 meeting, Security Properties vice president John Marasco, expressed concerns about the number of housing units it would lose in the creek activists' plan, as well as the plan's "less efficient layout" that could significantly escalate the cost of building parking space. He made it clear that his company would need financial assistance from the City if it is to accept the latest plan.

"We've always said that we would make every effort to come up with a design concept that included an extension of Thornton Creek," said Marasco, but he added that Security Properties couldn't afford to simply donate the costs of including and building a daylighted creek.

"We are not creek builders," he said. "We'll facilitate it ... we see the corridor as a separate project."

Marasco said his company's estimate of the minimum cost for daylighting the creek would be $15 million.

Seattle Deputy Mayor Tom Byers said flat out that the "City is not in a position to say we really like your proposal and write a check," noting that tax revenues have declined significantly.

The creek activists have proposed that the City look into funding the project via tax increment financing - the issuing of a general obligation bond to finance public improvements and to repay such bonds with tax allocation revenues.

That idea was shot down by Dena Cline of the City's Strategic Planning Office who said the bill passed by the state Legislature regarding tax increment financing prevents the City from implementing that funding method unless it can get a "total buy-in from the county." "We have been told the County Executive office says no (to the plan)," she said.

Byers said "I suggest the two primary partners (the creek activists and Security Properties) get back together and take on this challenge. Seems like the elements are coming together. ... From the Mayor's perspective, you've come an exceedingly long way."

Tom Curran of Security Properties agreed. "We have a problem. We still do not have a standstill."

At the Sept. 20 meeting of the North District Council (a group of representatives from the various community councils throughout Northeast Seattle, east of I-5 and north of approximately NE 90th), TCLDF president Janet Way expressed optimism that the creek activists' plan will get accepted. "We think it's time for the City to step up to the plate (and fund the project)," she said. "It's been hard getting to this point, but (from here on out), it's not rocket science."

Mike Thompson of the Maple Leaf Community Council sounded a word of caution, however, noting that the creek activists don't necessarily speak for the community at large. The MLCC, for example, is "still determining how we feel about it," he said.

TCLDF, CFLN along with the Sierra Club and Livable Communities Coalition will hold a public event billed as a "Northgate Urban Renaissance" on Monday, Oct. 1, to "celebrate solutions for Thornton Creek at Northgate." (