Rezoning the Madison Miller Area

The City has recently studied our rapidly redeveloping neighborhood, and has enacted very significant changes in the types of buildings allowed in our neighborhood

• Most of the multi-family (L-3) zoned property between Madison and John has been upzoned to L-4: this will allow more dense housing and a 37' height limit, up from the present 30'. The initial proposal (to rezone a thin strip to L4) provided a nice buffer between the 65' and 30' buildings, but this new version upzones too much of the neighborhood.
  
  
• The rear portion of Dean Falls property will be upzoned from L-3 (multi-family housing, 30' limit) to Neighborhood Commercial zoning with a 65' height limit. We have argued for years that a rezone to Neighborhood Commercial with a 40' limit would allow redevelopment of his whole property without putting a 65' building immediately across the street from 30' buildings.
  
  
  
• At the City Council's Neighborhoods, Sustainability and Community Development Committee meeting, the two members present (Councilmembers Conlin and Licata) voted to send the rezoning proposals to the City Council for a final vote. They agreed on all issues except for the extent of the L-4 upzoning north of Madison: Councilmember Conlin favored the present plan, Councilmember Licata voted for the more limited upzone previously proposed (and favored by most of the neighborhood).
  
  
• Here's the E-mail Andrew sent to the Councilmembers. and here are the letters Andrew previously wrote to them (and the supporting documents he included).
  
  
• On December 3rd, the City Council met, defeated Councilmember Licata's amendment (3 votes to 5 votes) then unanimously passed the legislation as written. (i.e. non of our concerns were addressed!).
  
  
• Here's a brief summary of the zoning changes that were enacted and here are ALL THE DETAILS.
  
• Dean Falls' reaction (by E-mail):
  
  Amigo,
  I want to thank you for facilitating the vote. I know that I would not have invested the energy to revive the legislative process. Now, I will immediately apply for the alley vacation to accomplish unification of site. With your support and the fact that alley has been approved previously for vacation -- process may be expedited. Notwithstanding the obvious need to rid the community of this plague habitat.
  I offer you full access in future design and development of a project that we can be proud of.
  Congratulations,
  D
  
• Finally, here is Councilmember Conlin's view of how the rezoning process went, It might be a bit different to your perception....

How it all evolved:

1. We begin with a September 26th 2000 meeting to discuss plans to rezone  Dean Falls' property on E. Madison Street: Here are several reports on the meeting
    
   
   
2. Following that meeting , DCLU recommended zoning changes and held a meeting this July, at which many people offered comments.
   
   
3. DCLU refined their proposals, published a report and scheduled the October 11th meeting for your comments. Their website summarizes the proposed changes and contains links to their report and other documents. This map contains a brief summary of the proposed rezoning.
   
4. The most obvious change from the proposals we discussed in July: they now propose to upzone the rear portion of Dean Falls' property to a 65' height limit. During neighborhood planning we supported upzoning that piece to 40' but not to 65'.
   
   
5. The other change that will affect us the most is the proposed upzone, from L-3 (30' height limit) to L-4 (38' limit, more dense) of the multifamily-zoned area between Madison and Thomas.
   
   
6. City Council held a public hearing on October 11th, at Miller Community Center: various people presented their points of view.
   
   
7. Details of the proposed zoning changes (and all the documents) are here. See this map for a quick summary. Even more details on this website. You may also submit written testimony,
   Councilmember Richard Conlin, Phone:(206) 684-8805, Fax: (206) 684-8587, or Email: Richard.Conlin@ci.seattle.wa.us or by mail to:Councilmember Richard Conlin, Seattle City Council , 600 Fourth Avenue ­ 11th Floor, Seattle, WA, 98104.
   
   
8. Here's a the letter Andrew submitted to Councilmember Conlin's committee (with Appendix1, Appendix 2, Appendix 3) and the cover letter he enclosed when sending the letter to City Councilmembers. Here's a very comprehensive, thoughtful letter by neighbor Ashley Wilson.
   
   
9. City Council votes on the proposal, and (if approved) if becomes law.

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Report from the July 16th Madison-Miller Zoning Meeting

On Monday July 16 at 6:30 PM, Councilmember Conlin chaired a public meeting, in the Fellowship Hall of Mt. Zion Baptist Church.

We learnt about, and discussed, recommendations to change many of the zoning rules in the Madison-Miller neighborhood.

DCLU has posted all the information on their website: meeting announcement, summary of the recommendations, rationale for for the recommendations. Alternatively, you may pick up copies of their report at the Capitol Hill Neighborhood Service Center (501 - 19th Ave E.) or the Central Area Neighborhood Service Center or you can E-mail Jory Phillips and ask him to mail you one.

The meeting was very well attended (about 75 people) and extremely well run: many DCLU personnel and a team of facilitators for the small group discussions.

We started with an introduction by Councilmember Conlin and then heard from Jory Phillips of DCLU, who explained the proposed zoning changes, and how he had arrived at them. After he had fielded questions, John Shaw, a DCLU traffic planner, described the methodology for traffic studies that will be used to predict future traffic in the Madison area.

We then broke into smaller groups to discuss the various rezones proposed in the DCLU report.

Zoning proposals discussed (in brief):

1. Downzone the NC3-85 (neighborhood-commercial, 85-foot height limit) parcels along Madison to 65 feet to provide an even height limit along Madison.
   
2. Rezone L-3 (Lowrise Residential, 30' limit) adjacent to Madison (between Denny and 23rd) to L4 (Lowrise Residential, 37' height limit) to provide a buffer between the NC and L3 zones.
   
3. An area along 19th Ave between Denny and 19th was rezoned in our neighborhood plan to NC2/R-40: this allows neighborhood commercial building (40' limit) or single purpose residential structures after City approval. It is proposed that our neighborhood plan be amended to allow such single purpose residential structures outright.
   
4. Rezone L-3 property south of Denny and east of 19th Ave E to NC2/R-40. This will both buffer the L3 properties to the north from the NC3 zone, and will allow development of the Madison area as a commercial "core" rather than an a commercial "strip".
   
5. Rezone the only commercial zoned site in the area (the "Fratelli's" site, zoned C-1) to NC3-65, in keeping with the rest of the area.
   
6. Upzone an L2 residential zone, south of Madison, east of 19th, to L3, to allow more housing options.
   
7. Rezone a single-family housing zone, between Olive and Pine, to RSL/TC (Residential small lot/ tandem cottages) to allow increased housing density and and a variety of housing types (e.g. the Pine Street Cottages) close to the commercial core.

There was vigorous discussion of two of the proposals:

1) The proposed downzone from 85' to 65' along Madison. DeCharlene Williams, owner of some properties in than zone, vigorously defended the present zoning. (Note that there is an active application to build an 85' building in the NC3-85' zone). Jory Phillips explained the rationale for the rezone. Former City Councilmember Jim Street described the history of the 85' zone:

• He was elected to City Council in 1983, became chair of Land Use in 1984.
• In 1985 the present NC zoning category was adopted (previously 80% of C-type zones had a 60' limit).
• DCLU recommended 65' for Madison, and for all of the City except First Hill, Northgate and West Seattle Junction (85')
• He (acting alone) proposed the 85' height limit on Madison, as a stimulus for growth. He knew it was out of scale with the rest of the neighborhood.
• Later there was a Citywide downsizing of the L3 zone from 37' to 30', creating an even greater height disparity between L3 and NC3 (L4 was later created as a way to restore the 37' limit).
• The 85' zone, whose purpose was to stimulate growth, was adopted by City Council.
• The 85' zone in West Seattle never was developed. Suspicion is that it was "over-zoned": the 85' potential made owners wait longer so that they might finally realize the full economic potential, rather than stimulating immediate growth, as was hoped.
• He admitted:" I was wrong".

A neighbor subsequently circulated a letter supporting the downzone to 65'.

2) There was extensive discussion of Dean Falls plan to rezone some of his property from L3 to NC3-65. This property is within the proposed rezone from L-3 to NC2-R40 (# 4, above). There was no discussion of the rest of the area. Mr. Falls reiterated his arguments about the need for the rezone to NC3-65. Mr. Falls requested that DCLU study the impacts of his requested rezone to NC3-65. I (Andrew Taylor) noted that the "Old Planned Parenthood" site, presently under development, contained both NC3-65 and NC2-40 zoning. There was agreement that the proposal contained 65' and 40' portions but dispute as to the zoning. Maps available at the meeting didn't help: the Design Review report on the project notes that a small portion is indeed NC2-40. The Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center Project is an example of a large development in our area with substantial portions of NC3-65 and NC2-40 zoning (not mentioned at meeting).