Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 11, November 2003

Copyright 2003 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article below in your research. Be sure to cite the Seattle Sun as your source.

Council deflects Nickels' call

for immediate action on Northgate

By JAMES BUSH

Wait until December.

That's when the Seattle City Council intends to make its final decision on Mayor Greg Nickels' proposal to revitalize Northgate Shopping Center and the surrounding business district by relaxing land use regulations.

Council members say completing work on the City budget is their first priority and the mayor can wait until a series of key meetings planned for Nov. 17 and the first three Mondays in December.

Nickels wants quicker action. He turned his Sept. 29 Budget Address, an annual mayoral speech generally not considered a barn-burner, into a rant over the slow pace of council action. "Unlock Northgate." Nickels told the council. "Unlock the possibilities. Unlock opportunity. When jobs are at stake, our duty is clear. No new jobs are created until you act."

The council may have been unconvinced, but the mayor's cause received a pair of immediate boosts. Two days after the speech, the mayor announced that Seattle-based developers Lorig Associates LLC and local investment company Stellar International had reached agreement with Northgate Mall's owner, Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, to purchase 5.9 acres in the shopping center's south parking lot but only if the City Council accepts Nickels' proposed land use code changes.

Then, on Oct. 7, the last major procedural roadblock to a council vote on Northgate was removed when the City's Hearing Examiner rejected challenges to a determination that the mayor's proposal would not cause a serious impact on the environment.

Attorney Jan Brucker, a Licton Springs neighborhood resident who represented appellants Citizens for a Liveable Northgate, says most of the real environmental issues, such as the city's proposal to build a drainage pond on part of the south lot, were removed from discussion after some early motions.

"It's not that the mayor can claim a victory," Brucker says, "it's that it was an empty proceeding."

The pond notwithstanding, the major environmental issue lurks further under the surface. That's where a pipe carries Thornton Creek under Northgate's south parking lot. Neighborhood and environmental groups have called for the creek to be daylighted as part of any development on the site. The mayor, once a daylighting supporter, now says the proposal is prohibitively expensive.

If the mayor's proposed land use changes (most notably removing the General Development Plan (GDP) requirement for large developments in the Northgate area) are accepted by the council, Thornton Creek is likely to stay buried forever. King County already has dibs on the remaining portion of the south lot for a transit-oriented development project.

What do City Council members think? They aren't saying. Council members aren't supposed to discuss quasi-judicial decisions such as the Northgate vote. In fact, when the crowd at the Oct. 2 North/Northwest District candidates forum refused to stop asking Northgate questions, Council President Peter Steinbrueck led an exodus of incumbents to an adjoining room until the subject was dropped. Council member Richard Conlin, a major critic of the mayor's Northgate policies, is reported to be working on alternatives to the mayor's proposal.

Conlin has compiled a one-page document entitled "Northgate Myths," which points out that Simon Property Group actually went through the GDP process two years ago and has the legal authority to start its redevelopment process, council vote or no council vote.

But Nickels' wants the GDP requirement lifted and says it would lead to new jobs, housing, and tax revenues. Lorig spokesperson Laura Bachman says her company would like to build a mix of housing and commercial uses on the south lot, but won't draft a definite proposal or even sign a purchase agreement until after the vote. Lorig's past projects include conversion of the old Lake City Elementary School into the Lake City Professional Center and the former Interlake Elementary School in Wallingford into a retail/condo complex called Wallingford Center.

"There really isn't much point in proceeding," Bachman says, "until we know which way the City Council is going to go."