Getting Involved: Northgate plan angers residents

Monday, May 26, 2003

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF

Today, we look at proposals to change development rules in the Northgate area.

THE ISSUE

Mayor Greg Nickels has proposed making it easier for developers in the Northgate Mall commercial area to build larger projects with higher densities.

Under Nickels' plan, land-use regulations laid out in a neighborhood plan would be eased, allowing a major redevelopment at the mall that would include 10 new buildings and 144,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.

On 3 acres donated by Simon Property Group, the mall's owner, the city would build a stormwater retention pond.

King County would find it easier to develop 8 acres it owns south of the mall for a high-density, transit-oriented development. It would include 450 apartment units, a movie theater, a health club and bus and light rail links.

Landscaping improvements would be made along Fifth Avenue Northeast.

THE PROBLEMS

Nickels said the changes are needed because the current land-use rules have stifled any development in the area.

But neighborhood activists are angry that they weren't consulted and that the neighborhood plan they crafted would be changed, ending some review currently required by a "growth development plan" for major projects. City Councilman Richard Conlin said the plan is focused on freeway-oriented business instead of pedestrian-friendly development.

And environmentalists have said that the plan is an attempt to undermine Initiative 80, which would require developers to bring buried creeks to the surface as part of large-scale development. The initiative is on the fall ballot. Thornton Creek runs through a pipe under the mall's south parking lot.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Marianne Bichsel, spokeswoman for Nickels: "While the rest of the city saw a lot of investment during the boom of the 1990s, Northgate was passed by. There has been no investment in the Northgate area in 10 years, and it's because of this regulation -- the general development plan."

Jan Brucker of Citizens for a Liveable Northgate: "The mayor's proposal is totally unnecessary. The (growth development plan) requirement is not only appropriate but necessary for an area such as Northgate, which has so much undeveloped land."

THE MEETINGS

The City Council will hold a public forum on the Northgate proposals tomorrow, 6-9 p.m., Olympic View Elementary School, 504 N.E. 95th St. The council will also hold a committee of the whole meeting on the issue tomorrow at 10:15 a.m. in council chambers, 11th floor of the Municipal Building, 600 Fourth Ave.