Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 5, May 2003

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Letters to the Editor, May 2003

Thanks to City for support

This is an open letter of 'Thanks' to the City of Seattle, Department of Neighborhoods and the Small Sparks Project for its support of a community event held recently at our church. The grant from the City made it possible for us to hold a Kimchi Festival on April 26 to promote community development, understanding and awareness of Korean culture. With our Korean ESL students enrolled at the church and interested community we had a great time. A special thanks goes out to Thomas Wittemore and Ed Pottharst for their encouragement and support.

TERRY VOGEL, community outreach director, Maple Leaf Lutheran Church

Neighborhood is loser in Mayor's Northgate plan

Thank you for covering Northgate issues in your newspaper concerning Mayor Greg Nickels' initiatives for Northgate. As someone who lives, works, shops and walks in the Northgate area, I would like to lend a different perspective.

First, let me say that I am a fan of increased density and transit-oriented development in the Northgate core. Let's see more University Village-style shops and restaurants at the Mall. Tear down the old theater and medical office building; bring in a bookstore. Build lots of multi-family housing too, ideally above some of the new retail.

However, the mayor has cut a Faustian bargain with Northgate Mall's owner, Simon Property Group, in doing away with the General Development Plan regulations. The neighborhood comes out the loser.

Hmm, the Mall gets to do what it wants in exchange for unloading a part of the litigation-encumbered South Lot, while sidestepping new regulations to manage stormwater runoff on their own property. Gee, they also get to make an attractive "yellow brick road" (5th Avenue entrance improvements) right into their mall for the demographically desirable clients of the new library and community center. It also doesn't hurt that Simon makes a little cash from selling the land to the city for those two facilities.

The County likes the idea of no more GDP: it gets to build an eight-acre transit box on their part of the South Lot without having to clear the overall site plan with the community. Under their preferred option, they get to send their stormwater runoff to a new City-owned detention pond.

What does the neighborhood get? A sump near Fifth Avenue NE filled with polluted stormwater, which will probably have a fence around it. We also get streetscape improvements, which were largely suggested to improve traffic flow and turning radiuses for Metro's buses. We get more retail on the west side of the Mall, facing the freeway. Oh, we also get projects that were already proposed and progressing prior to the mayor's administration, such as the library, community center and P-Patch.

A better idea? Revise the GDP, as proposed by City Councilmember Richard Conlin, instead of throwing it out. Let Simon submit a new one for just the Mall property, which is where they want to expand. A streamlined GDP will help the County build a better transit-oriented project that will meet the community's needs, not just those who drive through it on their way to the bus or future train. How about asking Simon to build their retail at street level on 5th Avenue, preferably with hundreds of housing units above? That would be a true benefit to the neighborhood! Better still, listen to the voices of the community members, whose preferences for the area have been documented at countless City-sponsored meetings over the last few years.

New business will be good for Northgate. Let's ensure it doesn't obliterate our chance to become the kind of attractive, pedestrian-friendly urban center where people will want to live.

BUNNY HIRSCHMANN,

Maple Leaf