Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 8, Issue 1, January 2004

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.

Compromise clears way

for Northgate redevelopment

By JAMES BUSH

Mayor Greg Nickels managed to keep his Northgate redevelopment dreams on a fast track by resorting to an uncharacteristic tactic: compromise.

Less than a month after five of the City Council's nine members rebuffed Nickels' Northgate proposals by presenting an alternative plan, the two sides were suddenly side-by-side at a press conference at City Hall on Dec. 8 announcing a compromise plan for the redevelopment of Northgate Mall and the surrounding business district.

Later than day, the council unanimously approved a development agreement between the City and Simon Property Group, the Indianapolis-based owners of Northgate Mall, which should allow construction to begin shortly on 230,000 square feet of new retail space at the shopping center.

"This has been a great year," said Nickels, citing his economic agenda to spur new development in Northgate, the University District, and South Lake Union. "We are moving forward with an agenda to create great new jobs."

Council member Richard Conlin, a leader in drafting the compromise plan, called it a victory for Northgate-area activists, which include residents from the several neighborhoods that ring the mall: Maple Leaf, Victory Heights, Haller Lake, Licton Springs and Pinehurst.

"Your voices were heard, many of your key issues were addressed, and your persistence and vision have contributed immeasurably [to this agreement]," he said.

Speeches aside, the mayor notched several victories. He convinced the council to eliminate the General Development Plan (GDP) requirement for property owners who want to develop large parcels in the Northgate area. He also got council approval for a Northgate Coordinated Transportation Investment Plan which will gauge transportation needs in the area and recommend projects to address them (while also eliminating the need to compile expensive transportation plans for individual projects). Best of all, Nickels got the entire legislative package approved immediately.

But the council majority wrested a few concessions. The mall owner agreed to develop storefronts along the outer edges of its parking lot on Fifth Avenue Northeast, long a desire of surrounding communities.

The council also resurrected the proposal to daylight a portion of Thornton Creek that is currently submerged in a pipe beneath the mall's south parking lot, known as the South Lot.

Under the agreement, the City gets a one-year option to purchase 2.7 acres of the South Lot, which could be arranged as a stream corridor across the adjoining 5.9 acre parcel to be developed by Lorig & Associates LLC and Stellar International Holdings.

The press conference and council votes were preceded by a pair of weekend meetings in which Conlin and Council President Peter Steinbrueck outlined their compromise proposal to community leaders.

And the community leaders bought off on it. Sort of.

Barbara Maxwell, a Maple Leaf activist who worked on the original round of Northgate area planning by area residents and business owners in the early 1990s, said she appreciates Steinbrueck and Conlin's efforts, but added that the community's major objection to the development agreement was that it was negotiated in private between the mayor and Simon Properties.

"This was also negotiated in private," Maxwell said. "It's just that the council had a seat at the table this time."

Janet Way of the Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund, a citizens group that has pushed for daylighting of the creek on the South Lot site, says many neighbors were concerned that a final copy of the development agreement between the City and Simon wasn't available for review at the Conlin and Steinbrueck meetings.

"I think people were wanting to be pleased," Way said. "But they were feeling a bit confused and concerned that this had come down in such a rushed manner."

At the same time,Way noted, neighbors "wanted to show the mayor that they supported the council working for community goals."

Victory Heights activist Steve Clagett probably spoke for many residents of the area when he told council members before the final vote that "We're all watching this with a hope and a prayer."

A major impetus for wanting to make the deal work was keeping Lorig in the mix, said several neighborhood leaders. The Seattle developer has met with creek advocates and indicated that a compromise plan including a daylighted creek could be possible. "We're hopeful that Lorig is possibly going to have some good intentions for a real creative solution there that will include the creek," said Way. "He seems interested in using it as part of his design."

Lorig spelled out its needs in a Dec. 5 letter to Steinbrueck, in which the company cited four "necessary and critical" tasks that needed to be accomplished before it becomes involved in the transformation of the South Lot. The first two, City acquisition of the 2.7 acre parcel and the removal of the GDP requirement, were addressed by the council votes. A third, the signing of a development agreement between Lorig and the City by April 1, 2004, is quite possible.

The last Lorig requirement that the City go ahead with plans to extend its 10-year residential tax abatement program to the Northgate area seems well on its way.

Shortly after the Northgate vote, the council's Housing Committee announced a rare late-December public hearing on extending the tax abatement to several neighborhoods, including Northgate.

In return, Lorig said it is willing to sign an agreement to building up to 150,000 square feet of retail and commercial space and 300 mixed-income residential units on the South Lot. The developer will also participate in a study of daylighting and other natural drainage techniques on the property.

As part of the council resolution, a stakeholders group including representatives from 20 identified players (including Simon, King County, mall businesses and eight community groups) will be set up to review the City's (and Simon's) planning efforts and to hold a series of quarterly community forums to provide ongoing public review of the Northgate redevelopment process.

Whether the removal of the GDP requirement will jump-start neighborhood redevelopment outside the mall property is yet to be seen. Seattle developer John Mullally, whose company owns the Northgate Apartments just north of the mall, warned the City a dozen years ago that his company wouldn't consider redeveloping under the restrictive Northgate rules. "This is 12 years coming, I can't believe it," Mullally said before the final council vote. "Now we have predictability, so I can realistically look at [redevelopment]."

Licton Springs activist Jan Brucker of Citizens for a Liveable Northgate said the most important events in the Northgate redevelopment process are yet to come.

"It's important to think of this as pieces to a puzzle all coming together," Brucker said. "We think [the council/mayor compromise] is an excellent first step, but it's just a first step."