The news that the Sound Transit board had signed off on a development agreement with the City of Seattle for the properties around Capitol Hill Station got somewhat buried by the headline that light rail to Broadway might arrive ahead of schedule. Thursday night, you can celebrate the development milestone with cupcakes — and hear the latest on Capitol Hill crime from SPD at the October meeting of the Capitol Hill Community Council:
The Champion hopes you will join us at the next Capitol Hill Community Council meeting Thursday October 17th at 6:30pm for a “Living Room Conversation” with Seattle Police Department about safety on the hill. We will have a special Champion update with cupcakes to celebrate the final approval of the Development Agreement which will implement community benefits at the Broadway Station TOD:
CHCC Meeting (and cupcakes)
Cal Anderson Park Shelter House
6:30pm October 17th 2013
Stay tuned-in for updates and opportunities for public input as we transition into the developer selection process.
City Council’s Richard Conlin, however, will not be on Thursday night’s agenda despite an invitation from the community group for him to appear and update the grassroots body on the latest efforts to update and upgrade the rules for microhousing developments in Seattle. Here is Conlin’s reply declining the invite but providing updates about what is next for the microhousing issue at City Hall:
Thank you for the message. As you may imagine, my schedule is pretty jammed right now with budget, and we will not take up the legislation until after Thanksgiving. However, I am pleased to report to you that DPD has issued the DNS on the legislation, which it describes as:
“The Department of Planning and Development (DPD) is proposing to amend the Land Use Code to establish a definition for micro-housing, apply design review thresholds to micro-housing and congregate residences, and modify certain development standards including:
§ require common spaces in micro-housing and congregate residences;
§ clarify prohibition of micro-housing in single family zones;
§ provide for vehicle and bicycle parking for micro-housing and congregate residences; and
§ modify income eligibility requirements for incentive programs related to micro-housing, congregate residences, and very small studio apartments.”
I will be happy to meet with the Council in November or December when we are ready to consider this legislation. I expect to move it as expeditiously as possible.
CHS reported on the push to revise Seattle’s microhousing guidelines earlier this summer.
The community council has posted more information on the update process here.
You can learn more at capitolhillcommunitycouncil.org.
It sounds like Mr. Conlin is (finally) getting on-board with tightening the regulations for microhousing. I’m not sure what has changed his mind, because in the meeting at the Shelter House last spring he seemed very uninterested in this issue. But, of course, it’s an election year….
I hope all of the DPD’s proposals come to pass….especially the requirements for design review and parking. This is way overdue and unfortunately too many of the god-awful apodments have already been built. I would hope that DPD is not currently approving permits for more of these until the new regulations are in place.
Video and stills from the 17 Oct evening meeting are here:
http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2013/10/kingcast-video-and-stills-from-october.html