Council adopts 185th Street Station Subarea Plan
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
City of Shoreline press release
On March 16, the Shoreline City Council adopted three ordinances that change the zoning and development regulations for the 185th Street Light Rail Station Subarea Area. The Council action was the culmination of nearly two years of public process. The Subarea Plan (Ordinance 702) is the long range plan for the area; the Development Code regulations and zoning map (Ordinance 706) establish regulations for what may be built and how it will look; and the Planned Action (Ordinance 707) identifies necessary improvements to accommodate new development and to make the existing neighborhood more walkable. For more information about these ordinances and documents, visit shorelinewa.gov/lightrail. An interactive zoning map is also available here to help identify exactly what each property parcel’s new zoning will be and when it will be effective.
The adopted rezoned area is 15% smaller than the final recommendation of the Planning Commission. The total area rezoned is 293 acres, approximately 4.7% of the acreage within the City of Shoreline. Even with this rezone, the City continues to have 80% of the zoned property in Shoreline designated for detached single family homes.
The Council adopted a three phase approach to zoning changes with Phase 1 occurring immediately; Phase 2 occurring in 2021; and Phase 3 occurring in 2033. Council also adopted new Mixed-Use Residential (MUR) zones allowing a mix of housing types such as detached single family, attached single family, townhomes, row homes, apartments, and live/work dwellings. In some cases, the MUR zones will allow certain retail, service, office, and other types of commercial uses. The most intense MUR zone is MUR 70’, which will allow for building heights of up to six or seven stories in the areas closest to the light rail station. Existing single-family homes will continue to be a part of this mix, including conversion of some to neighborhood-serving businesses like offices and restaurants.
Throughout the planning process, a lot of concern has been expressed about whether the City will use eminent domain to take property as part of the rezone. The City will not take any property for redevelopment as a result of the rezone. Any development that occurs will be the result of private property owners developing their own property, or private developers purchasing property from willing sellers. If property owners want to develop or sell their property, they can. If they do not wish to develop or sell their property, they do not have to. If no one develops or sells their property, then nothing will be built and the station area will basically remain as it is today.
The rezone provides property owners with more choices for their property. Those that wish to remain in their single-family homes, can. Even with the new regulations and zoning, property owners can continue to maintain, remodel, sell, and even expand their homes. Those property owners that wish to take advantage of light rail development in their neighborhood can develop their own property to a higher density or sell to a developer to develop.
Redevelopment around the station area will also increase housing choices currently lacking in Shoreline. Shoreline is primarily a community of single-family detached housing. It also has the second highest percentage of people 65 and older in King County at 15.2%. Seniors living in detached single-family homes have few options if they wish to downsize and remain in Shoreline. There are also few options for people seeking a variety of affordable housing choices in Shoreline, and few options for younger singles or families that desire different housing styles, including rentals. Increased housing diversity will provide more options for seniors, young people, and for those wishing to find more affordable housing close to mass transit.
It is important to stress the fact that even though the zoning designation within the station area has changed, its current use does not have to. Neighborhoods may start to transition, but the choice for homeowners to stay, develop their property with something new, or sell and relocate is entirely up to them.
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17 comments:
When calculating the acreage in Shoreline, are we counting the wooded slopes and parks in the total? Or is this percentage one of potential or actual housing/commercial lots? As a professor noted in class, "statistics can be used to prove anything."..
What a load of crap. They use total acreage for the rezone percentage, but then say 80% of zoned property, If you add all the phases of the 185th and 145th rezone, it is approximately 25% of the zoned property in Seattle.
McGlashan, Hall, Winstead, and Salomon you have failed this city!
There are so many half-truths in the city's PR statement. They use total acreage for the rezone percentage, but then say 80% of zoned property. If you add all the phases of the 185th and 145th rezone, it is approximately 25% of the zone-able property in Shoreline.
McGlashan, Hall, Winstead, and Salomon have failed their city!
Oliver Q., Shoreline, WA
This is a press release by the City of Shoreline, not an independent, unbiased article.
Regarding: “Even with this rezone, the City continues to have 80% of the zoned property in Shoreline designated for detached single family homes.”, please consider that other significant up-zones (e.g. the 145th st subarea) are currently planned or in planning by the city. Once those plans are enacted this figure will drop significantly.
Also, note that even if 80% of zoned property is zoned single-family-detached, one that 20% reaches full build-out, since housing densities are higher in the up-zoned areas (that is the whole point), the percentage of the city’s population living in single-family detached dwellings will be far below 80%. That is to say, the nature of the city will be fundamentally changed.
I consider myself to be liberal, environmentally conscious, progressive and young (at heart, at least). I live some distance outside of the rezoned area. Nevertheless, the city has handled the process for this rezone so poorly that I now feel like a grumpy old "get off my lawn!" curmudgeon. The city has gone horribly off the tracks on this one.
Oh, gee! Do not worry little citizens! The great and powerful City of Shoreline will look after your interests! (Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.) just go back to sleep little citizens. Do not worry about all the scammers and developer vipers who are knocking on your neighbors doors! They are benevolent developers who will simply buy up your neighbors property, and turn your neighborhood into a wonderland of walk Ability! Pay no attention to the rental houses that will deteriorate before your eyes! You see, the City simply needs more revenue, and your existing homes are functionally obsolete! So we know what is best! We need some 7 story apartments with penthouses to help us pay for our big plans. And see, we need big bucks from the Federal Government so we can pay for all this infrastructure, so we can help Sound Transit and Futurewise with their social engineering! No worries!
Just keep paying attention to all the fun activities we will offer you! Just continue to play online games and send your kids to our fun parks programs and we will entertain you while we take apart your neighborhood for " the greater good!"
Just continue to vote for those Councilmembers who know best! Go back to sleep little citizens, Shoreline knows what is best for you!
Just off the top of my head, there are a few facts that press release distorts or ignores:
The MUR-70 zones will NOT result in buildings that are "six or seven stories" tall. Six-story buildings are likely, but not seven. Instead, with developer agreements it's possible to see twelve-story buildings in those areas.
The MUR-70 zone in Phase I alone is significantly larger than the proposed combined MUR-85/MUP (in the Shoreline Center and North City Elementary School) zone in the "Most Growth" alternative presented in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Just because the final size is less than the largest gargantuan map ever drawn doesn't make it legitimately "smaller" than anything.
The Phase I MUR-70 zone alone could nearly double the total number of housing units in the entire city, all crammed into 85 acres.
Contrary to city staff's constant drumbeat, there was almost NO concern about the city exercising eminent domain to acquire people's houses. The overwhelming majority of the citizens who expressed any view on this matter knew exactly where and by whom (i.e. Sound Transit) eminent domain would be exercised. This claim by city staff is a bald-faced lie.
But it's even worse: In fact, there is a high probability that the city will use eminent domain to acquire strips of property along 185th St. in order to widen the street to accommodate the extra traffic resulting from the construction of the light rail station. So the city almost certainly WILL exercise eminent domain.
Contrary to the press release's claim, the amount of housing choices "currently lacking in Shoreline" will NOT increase. Already, 28% of Shoreline's housing units are apartments, including complexes both large and small. There is nothing new here.
Regarding the total amount of land area in the rezone district, the city has "conveniently" neglected to include the roads and right-of-way in its calculations. The total land area included in the rezone is closer to 7% of the city, and when the 145th St. rezone occurs that total (between the two light rail stations) could double. The press release is falsely trying to minimize the full impact in true Orwellian fashion.
The affordable housing part of this mess is minimal at best, and will NOT provide new, affordable options for seniors who have paid off their mortgages and are able to remain in their homes on fixed incomes only because they don't have to make mortgage payments. For them, any rent at all in some new "affordable" apartment will NOT be affordable.
I could go on and on. The four-vote majority in the City Council has foisted a disastrous mess on the city, and city staff is in the unenviable position of trying to defend it. The fact that they have to distort, ignore and lie in order to fashion a defense demonstrates the horrible nature of the Council's action.
How has this zoning change reduced the expected number of cars parking in the Sound Transit garage which will reduce Shoreline's carbon footprint?
Now that we have approved definitions of the levels of MUR and the zoning has been approved, what was the measurement level of TOD by the time the station opens that will be considered successful?
The person above was right when stating "zone-able area". There are large areas of this city that cannot be zoned for housing, or have their zoning changed at all. This includes parks, roads, cemeteries, Innis Arden, the golf club, schools, etc...
When taking these into account, with the 145th and 185th rezoning plans the city council is rezoning around 25% of the city.
The city council is playing loose with both facts and math.
The City has stated the following on numerous occassion regarding the possibility of eminent domain:
"It is possible that the City will need to use its eminent domain authority for infrastructure improvements in the subareas."
Let's scratch the word 'possible' and be honest and let people know that this will happen and where and so people are fully aware.
"the City will not be using its eminent domain authority to purchase property around light rail stations for redevelopment."
Look beneath the undercurrents on this statement. They may not use eminent domain for the CITY to purchase your property, but has it been stated that the City will not use eminent domain to force you to sell to a developer?
Probably everyone in attendance at recent Shoreline City Council meetings agrees that concentrating density of development in order to prevent environmentally damaging urban sprawl is a desirable outcome of land-use planning.
However, in addition to agreeing that we must take care of the natural environment - to which Janet Way has committed most of her adult life - we also care about all the people who will be adversely affected by the Council’s premature decision to approve by the narrowest vote possible - 4-3 - an extremely unpopular, unneeded, under-researched, over-sized rezone plan.
What is doubly distressing is that, under this plan, Shoreline residents are denied a citizen’s right to contest the issuance of permits that will cause them harm if issued as requested. It is not what we voted for when we agreed to form a city in which we would have more direct control over city governance.
It puzzles me that not even one of the four who voted for the plan would even consider the suggestion - offered by former King County Council Member, Brian Derdowski, a well-known land-use expert and environmentalist - to substitute a less rigid rezoning plan (an overlay) than the one they voted for.
This change would have gone far to alleviate the current anger and distress so needlessly provoked by the callous non-concern for peoples’ lives the 4-3 vote represented. And it would have restored all residents’ rights to contest and if necessary appeal building permits that might otherwise affect them adversely.
Sad to say, intransigence prevailed, and now we shall have only more of the same to contend with, possibly for years to come, unless we can undo this gross injustice that was sneakily thrust upon us and replace it with civic engagement and trust.
I have to quibble with the poor use of English in this press release.
In the 5th paragraph:
"Those that wish to remain in their single-family homes,can."
"Those property owners that wish to take advantage of light rail..."
It should be "Those WHO wish to remain..." and "Those property owners WHO wish to take advantage..."
In the following paragraph:
"There are also few options for people seeking a variety of affordable housing choices in Shoreline, and few options for younger singles or families that desire different housing styles,including rentals."
Again, it should be "younger singles or families WHO desire..."
Dear Press Release Writer: We are people, not things.
Things move quickly.....A mere 3 days after the 185th Station Zoning is passed: http://www.shorelinepo.com/uploads/4/7/3/8/47380853/shoreline_post_office_om_jll_email.pdf
The last word from the City propagandist: "the choice for homeowners to stay, develop their property with something new, or sell and relocate is entirely up to them."
And potential buyers and banks will be happy to invest in non-conforming uses in this rezone ? Who wrote this, Pollyanna on Pot?
Hiyooo!
Just a few comments on selected quotes from the City of Shoreline press release
(1)"The Council action was the culmination of nearly two years of public process."
Yes, the most secretive 'public ' process ever - most Shoreline residents never were told about the rezone plan until those few who knew spread the word.
(2) "The rezone provides property owners with more choices for their property. "
Yes indeed, choices they did not seek, do not want, and strongly oppose.
(3) "Seniors living in detached single-family homes have few options if they wish to downsize and remain in Shoreline."
Most Seniors want to remain in their homes if they possibly can. This is the most affordable housing for them because their mortgages are mostly paid off.
(4) "the choice for homeowners to stay, develop their property with something new, or sell and relocate is entirely up to them.
The status of single-family homes under this plan is "non-conforming". Pardon-my-skepticism said it all: "And potential buyers and banks will be happy to invest in non-conforming uses in this rezone ? Who wrote this, Pollyanna on Pot?"
The City propaganda, as all propaganda, is nothing more than the lipstick on the pig.
Shame on the Frigid Four.
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