Broadway District Plan Approved; Height Change Next

SEATTLE-The City Council here this week unanimously passed a resolution to explore strategies for revitalizing the Broadway Business District located immediately east of the Downtown retail core on Capitol Hill. The resolution was sparked by Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck, chair of the Urban Development Committee, who wanted to see the city do more than just raise the district’s height restriction, a change that will be before the council next week.”Broadway needs more attention from the city—there’s no question of that,” said Steinbrueck last week when the Urban Development Committee forwarded the resolution to the full council, which approved it earlier this week. “But the Council does not believe raising building heights is enough. That’s why we’re requiring additional elements to actively encourage revitalization and preserve the neighborhood in a number of ways.”The resolution lays out what should be done to revitalize the district. It calls for using specific design guidelines that encourages upper level setbacks, façade treatments, and usable upper-level open space; the development of an inventory of the neighborhood’s historic resources, and; the consideration of streetscape improvements. It also calls for encouraging greater use of the city’s Property Tax Exemption for Multifamily Housing Program to create more affordable housing; the development of a marketing strategy, and; the development of a plan to improve public safety problems and human service needs. On the legislative side, the council already has lowered the parking requirement in the district, and next it likely will raise the height restrictions. The recommendation is to raise the height limits for properties along the east side of the Broadway from 40′ to 65′ and from 35′ to 40′ for properties facing 10th Ave East. To the west, between Broadway and Harvard Avenue East, height limits would increase from 40′ to 65′. One big potential condition on the height increase is that anyone who utilizes it to increase the height of their buildings must use the extra height for housing.Also on the council’s agenda next week is a fix for commercial property owners in the district whose properties have a split zone, such as commercial zoning on the front half and residential zoning on the back half. As proposed, the change would rezone to Neighborhood Commercial 3/Residential the east portions of commercial property along Broadway that also faces 10th Ave E. as well as the west portions of commercial property along Broadway that also face Harvard Avenue E.Still up in the air, and therefore not on the council’s agenda at this time, is a proposed change to the current tenant open space requirements for residential development. The requirement would be changed to 10% of the residential floor area from 20%. As previously, the requirement could be filld with tenant amenities such as decks, balconies and exercise rooms. Steinbrueck tells GlobeSt.com the change is on hold because some think the open space requirement is related to public open space as opposed to open space for tenants, which is the actual focus of the legislation.