Last week’s Seattle City Council compromise on South Lake Union zoning — which will create more affordable housing and higher fees for towers rising beyond 16 stories — was a welcome move. The tide had been running the other way.
On March 19, The Seattle Times featured a guest editorial on the topic written by Chris Rivera, president of the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association, and Kate Joncas, longtime president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association. The pair questioned the possibility of higher development fees in South Lake Union and what impacts they might have on “South Lake Union’s growing life-sciences and global health sector.”
The writers marshaled their statistics, especially regarding the neighborhood’s employment base and its major players, which include the University of Washington School of Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle Biomedical Research Center and Norvo Nordisk.
“We cannot afford to stymie an economic engine that is driving our city,” Rivera and Joncas argued. They raised the possibility of lost jobs, lost tax revenues and public benefits.
All of this made a certain kind of sense, deserved to be heard and was all-too-predictable. Sweetheart deals for South Lake Union development were not in the city’s best interests.
The original plan, pitched by Mayor Mike McGinn and Vulcan Real Estate, called for a $15.15-per-square-foot fee to build above 24 stories. The City Council arrived at $21.68-per-square-foot fee for construction above 16 stories and almost double the amount of affordable-housing building within developer’s housing projects.
The South Lake Union economic engine will continue to run. And residents of Queen Anne’s east slope can worry a little less about losing their views.
The bio-medical work done in South Lake Union is admirable — the impetus is to save lives. But that work should also make provisions for the lives of those who live here. The City Council came up with a suitable compromise and showed some backbone in the process.
As City Councilmember Jean Godden said at last week’s meeting: “It all goes back to why so many people come to Seattle: They come because we are a city of inclusive neighbors — not just a copy of someplace else.”
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