Planning Downtown Seattle, Neighborhoods And Urban Center


Planning Downtown Seattle, Neighborhoods And Urban Center
Roger K. Wagoner AIA, AICP	© & Author Info

Abstract

A volunteer organization comprised of representatives of the five downtown Seattle urban village neighborhoods is preparing a wide-ranging revision of the current downtown plan. This process acknowledges the burgeoning growth of residential, cultural, and retail uses which have transformed downtown into a "24-hour" community of neighbors and the major employment center of the region as well as a destination place for tourists from around the world. Each of the urban villages has produced a plan for its area, and these plans are united within the downtown plan to create a flexible framework for public investment, private projects, and citizen-based initiatives such as "green streets".

Introduction

The Downtown Urban Center Planning Group (DUCPG) is responsible for updating the City of Seattle's 1985 Downtown Land Use and Transportation Plan ('85 Plan). While the '85 Plan has been updated periodically since it was first adopted, it no longer provides the full policy context necessary to be consistent with the 1994 Seattle Comprehensive Plan. In addition, significant changes to the downtown have occurred in recent years, altering the role of the area within the City and region. The context for planning has been influenced by the following:

In conformance with the Puget Sound Region's Vision 2020 Plan, the comprehensive plan established the downtown urban center and further established five urban center villages within the urban center (Denny Triangle, Denny Regrade, Commercial Core, Pioneer Square, and International District). The neighborhood planning process has invested the downtown neighborhoods with the mission of creating community visions, addressing geographically-specific problems and opportunities, and producing plans for local improvements.
Recent downtown development activity has significantly changed the direction of the urban center's role in the region. Downtown Seattle has become a major tourist and convention attraction, strong retail shopping magnet, center of cultural and entertainment activities, and a home to evolving high technology businesses. The past 10 years have seen a near shut-down of new office development, increasing interest in downtown living and related development of intensive residential projects, construction of major cultural facilities, revitalization of the retail core and the central waterfront, and massive investment in the south downtown area dominated by two new professional sports venues.
On the heels of these activities, the downtown is now entering a new cycle of office and mixed-use development. Upcoming projects include approximately five million square feet of new office space and over 2,000 new residential dwelling units.
Major transportation changes are coming to the downtown. While the '85 plan anticipated light rail service in the transit tunnel which currently is used by buses, the associated surface transit implications of the light rail conversion were not addressed in any quantitative way. A recent public initiative promoting improvements and expansion of the 1962 World's Fair monorail has further implications for downtown circulation. In addition, interests of the residential neighborhoods focused on pedestrian streets and green streets have surfaced as a major influence on decisions regarding use of our valuable rights-of-way. There is also a growing interest in providing more equitable treatment of bicycling within the downtown. Effective management of short- and long-term parking assets in the downtown needs to be coordinated with circulation systems linking major terminals, destinations, and access points.
Demographic and economic characteristics of the downtown resident population continue to shift, and this could result in an unhealthy combination of the very rich and the very poor. The '85 Plan was rightly aimed at maintaining low-income housing opportunities for disadvantaged residents. At the same time, we now acknowledge the need to produce housing for low-moderate and moderate-income households in order to maintain a balanced community. With respect to this, the downtown plan recommends strong emphasis on housing programs aimed at producing new units to fill the gap serving households in the 50-80% median income range. Human, recreational, educational, and retail services associated with strong residential neighborhoods of all economic levels are also important to realizing the community's vision of downtown.
Overall, the 20-year growth targets for the downtown urban center (1994-2014) are 14,700 new households and 62,700 new jobs from a base of 7,400 households and 165,000 jobs. The downtown neighborhoods have enthusiastically embraced the notion of increasing downtown housing capacity and are working together to support equitable distribution of new units at all household income levels.
The urban environment of the downtown is a precious resource for employees, residents, and visitors. Preservation and enhancement of significant buildings, views, and landmarks need to be coupled with higher design quality of the streetscape environment and of private development. More open space and civic gathering places are critical to providing breathing room, recreational opportunities, and celebratory places that produce a humane city and promote neighborhood identity.
The draft plan recommends that a market analysis be prepared to investigate issues associated with overall downtown growth capacity for the future.

The DUCPG has been working within this context to unite common downtown interests and create a framework that will result in a wholesale update to the '85 Plan. The new Downtown Urban Center plan collects and presents the plans of the five urban center village neighborhoods within the umbrella of policies for land use, housing, transportation, human services, economic development, and capital facilities that combine to produce the urban center to which we all aspire. The DUCPG recognizes that this will be an on-going process which must deal with a fluid evolution of information and discussion that will continue as many separate initiatives such as Sound Transit, the monorail, and surrounding communities' plans move towards implementation.

Thus, the goals and policies recommended by the DUCPG are both pragmatic and visionary in nature. Pragmatic recommendations bring together downtown-wide program and project needs that have emerged from the collective work of the five neighborhoods, the recent Downtown Circulation Study, and the DUCPG Land Use, Transportation, Housing, and Human Services Committees. These address more imminent projects and program needs that the downtown community feels should be addressed by the City in the near future. The more visionary recommendations were also formulated within the process and from intensive work with City departments engaged in on-going downtown planning and implementation. These are equally important, but will require more broad discussion and analysis.

Organization

This Plan is a revision of the 1985 Downtown Land Use and Transportation Plan. The revisions include elimination of goals and policies which have either been achieved or outdated; insertion of new goals and policies developed by the DUCPG and the downtown urban village neighborhoods; and reorganization into chapters containing:

Introduction
Goals
Neighborhood Policies
Land Use and Urban Design Policies
Open Space Policies
Economic Development Policies
Housing and Human Services Policies
Transportation Policies
Implementation Work Program
Appendices

It should be recognized that the Downtown Plan is a compilation of the five downtown urban village neighborhood plans which contain significantly greater levels of detail with respect to implementation actions and priorities.

Process

Seattle's neighborhood planning program has been the subject of several APA conference sessions and articles in recent years. In adopting the comprehensive plan, the City Council instituted the program to enable neighborhoods to determine how they would accommodate the urban village strategy of focusing new growth into areas zoned and designed for higher density mixed use development. Thirty-seven neighborhoods have been participating in the program since it was initiated. Unlike previous city efforts, this program does not charge professional city staff planners with preparing the plans. Instead, the neighborhoods were provided grant funding and encouraged to organized themselves as independent producers of their own plans. The process included an initial organization and visioning phase in which the scope of the actual planning phase was defined based on the particular focus appropriate to each neighborhood. Some neighborhoods emphasize open space, others affordable housing, others community business and economic development, and others transportation. Each plan is required to address the components of the comprehensive plan as mandated by the Washington State Growth Management Act.

In support of the planning, the City produced a GIS mapping and database tool called the "Data Viewer" on CD-Rom using ArcView which contains neighborhood- and urban center-specific information. Neighborhood planners use this tool to access demographic, system capacity, land use, environmental constraints, aerial photographs and other information, print maps, and generate reports in support of their plans.

Following the preparation of a draft plan and an "adoption and approval matrix" which summarizes major recommended actions, the executive departments compile a package for City Council deliberation and ultimate action. Neighborhood goals and policies are adopted by ordinance as amendments to the comprehensive plan. The actual neighborhood plans are acknowledged by resolution and used to guide city capital improvements programming, land use decisions, and to direct the on-going stewardship enterprises of the neighborhoods. Each of the City Councilmembers is assigned to be steward for several neighborhoods, providing a linkage between the community planning groups and city government.

The DUCPG process began in June of 1995 with a series of informal discussions about downtown-wide and individual neighborhood issues. In November, 1995, a "kick-off" attracted 130 people and led to the formation of the DUCPG committee which formalized the working group of neighborhood representatives charged with the downtown plan. During 1996, the DUCPG worked with the neighborhoods to coordinate the phase one work of generating vision statements and defining the scope of work for the planning. The overall vision statement adopted by the DUCPG is:

"The downtown Urban Center is a mosaic of residential and mixed use districts, regional cultural facilities, civic and retail cores. Within a preeminent urban center is the foundation for a vital Downtown. Respecting the unique identities of the five individual neighborhoods is as important as recognizing the powerful forces which drive a larger regional vision for Downtown. With this foundation in place, there is great potential to refine the art of living and working Downtown."

Each of the neighborhoods also adopted vision statements and work programs for the phase two planning.

The DUCPG organized itself into committees addressing land use and urban design, housing, transportation, and human services chaired by DUCPG members. Representatives from the neighborhoods were invited to participate in the committee work and to ensure that there was communication between the DUCPG committees and the related committee work at the neighborhood level. The DUCPG met monthly during 1996-98 to hear committee reports and direct the production of the downtown plan. Special events including workshops on "downtown futures", pedestrian and bicycle transportation, parking, human services and zoning were conducted. As alternatives emerged, the DUCPG held meetings and workshops to present them to the community.

A wrap-up validation mailer was distributed to 28,000 addresses within the downtown. It contained a response sheet and an invitation to a November, 1998 event where the draft plan was presented and discussed. In conjunction with the draft plan, the approval and adoption matrix was prepared, reviewed by the DUCPG and neighborhoods and presented to the city executive departments for review and comment. The matrix contains "key strategies" that are presented as actions ranging from zoning changes to further work necessary to create a downtown urban design framework plan and a human services plan. A summary of these key strategies is included later in this paper.

In January, 1999, the entire package, including the Mayor's recommendations, will be transmitted to the City Council which will hold committee discussions and hearings and ultimately adopt the plan in May or June. Individual councilmembers have attended DUCPG workshops throughout the process. When the plan arrives at the Council, they will also do a walking tour of the area which will be conducted by the DUCPG. Recently, the Mayor's cabinet participated in a similar tour to learn more about the plan priorities. Each of the downtown neighborhoods has gone through this same process with the DUCPG providing support during the Council review and public hearings. The DUCPG chairs are also briefing individual Council members on the plan.

Resources

The City provided over $500,000 for both phases of the planning. This included a $148,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration which was used to fund a downtown circulation study that was folded into the downtown plan transportation element. Most of the funding went to a consultant team which prepared analyses, developed alternatives, and helped the committees package their ideas. Consultants were assigned to each of the standing DUCPG committees. A plan coordinator consultant worked with the DUCPG to compile the pieces, coordinate with the committees and neighborhoods, produce events, and facilitate meetings. A communications consultant was also retained to assist the DUCPG in formulating strategies for outreach to elected officials, key stakeholders, the media, and the public. A major downtown property owner provided space for the Downtown Resource Center which the DUCPG used for meetings, enabled drop-in public access to work-in-progress, and contained work space for a part-time staff person who assisted in research, logistical support, and communication. This person also conducted a comprehensive survey of all downtown human service providers and developed a data base of the survey results to be used in the preparation of a human services plan for the community.

In addition to the above resources, a large amount of city staff time was invested including the Project Manager from the Neighborhood Planning Office and senior planners and analysts from the Strategic Planning Office, and the Departments of Housing and Human Services, Transportation, and Construction and Land Use. These professionals worked closely with the committees providing information, analysis, and guidance to ensure that the recommendations worked with the complex interrelationships of comprehensive plan goals and policies, the regulatory framework, and the provisions of on-going related programs such as the planning for the new regional light rail service, special housing funding programs, and design review procedures and guidelines for downtown development. Since many of the DUCPG recommendations will be implemented through further planning refinements by these city professionals, it was crucial to develop a collegial partnership between the volunteers and the staff so that the resulting plan has common ownership.

The Geography

Downtown Seattle is a crescent-shaped area bounded by Elliott Bay (of Puget Sound) on the west, Interstate 5 on the east, Seattle Center and the South Lake Union area on the north, and the Duwamish manufacturing/industrial center on the south. The 945 acre area generally slopes down from east to west. Some slopes are quite steep. The street grid bends twice to follow the waterfront, resulting is interesting north-south arterial corridors and triangular intersections at the seams. Views to the west feature the Bay and distant Olympic Mountains. The urban center contains approximately five million square of retail space (2,000 establishments) 28 million square feet of office space, 8,000 dwelling units, and 9,000 hotel rooms. Recently completed or pending public and institutional projects include a symphony hall, art museum, main library, convention center expansion, federal courthouse, city justice center, and city hall. Private development includes office buildings, apartments and condominiums, hotels, and retail centers.

The downtown urban village neighborhoods include:

Denny Regrade (Belltown) - a "hot" area of residential growth featuring high-end highrise condominium towers, apartments, galleries, cafes, and offices. Some of this neighborhood's issues include protection of older low-rise affordable housing, provision of open space to support the residents, and access to the waterfront.

Denny Triangle - a relatively underdeveloped area containing surface parking lots poised for substantial new office and residential projects as well as the new federal courthouse and a new police precinct station. Issues include leveraging development capacity to stimulate a mixed-use community, provision of attractive pedestrian streets, and infrastructure capacity. The City and King County are considering the application of an innovative program to transfer development rights from rural areas into the Triangle.

Commercial Core - the traditional retail center of the region. Also includes the historic Pike Place Market, the civic center and most of the major cultural venues. Issues include wise use of the limited remaining development capacity, protection of historic and small-scale buildings, and increased residential development.

Pioneer Square - the original downtown of Seattle and a busy arts and entertainment center. Now a historic district with limits on development imposed to protect the character and scale of the early buildings. Also the northern edge of the new sports complex containing the Seattle Mariners' Ballpark and Seattle Seahawks' Stadium (replacing the Kingdome). The rehabilitated historic King Street Station is to be used as the City's Amtrak terminal and service other transportation functions. Issues include sensitive infill development to create new housing, including artist's lofts, protection of area retailers from stadium congestion, and improved social service delivery to reduce impacts of the homeless population.

Chinatown/International District - Seattle's historic gateway for asian immigrants. A lively neighborhood of restaurants, shops and service businesses supporting a low-income elderly population as well as a regional cultural and entertainment destination. Issues include protection of the existing housing and increasing the residential population, stadium impacts, and maintenance of the rich multi-ethnic character.

The following figure indicates the distribution of the neighborhoods within the urban center.

Figure 1

Plan Highlights

The '85 Plan is a slim (75 page) document containing "framework policies" and functional policies and "implementation guidelines" for land use, transportation, housing and human services, urban form, incentive system, economic development, land use districts, and implementation. The plan also contains maps illustrating the policy context of land use, major transportation facilities, special districts, open space, etc. No major updating apart from minor edits has occurred since the initial adoption 13 years ago. As a result, the urban village neighborhood focus of the comprehensive plan needed to be incorporated as did the results of the other visions and analyses produced by the DUCPG. The '85 Plan also emphasized land use regulatory provisions which have since been incorporated into the Seattle Land Use (zoning) Code.

The '85 Plan contains very strong and durable innovations such as transfer of development rights, bonuses attributable to public benefit features, view corridor protection, and housing preservation. The challenge was to hold on to these while honoring the new neighborhood plans and fostering a broader policy overview. Since some of the '85 Plan's recommendations have been achieved or become obsolete, it was necessary to purge these.

The revised plan contains the individual neighborhoods' goals and policies. The overall downtown framework policies have been revised and stated as goals as follows:

Comprehensive Plan

The Seattle Comprehensive Plan establishes goals for the Downtown Urban Center which provide the foundation for the Downtown Plan and the urban village neighborhood plans. Key Comprehensive Plan goals include:

G20 Identify and reinforce concentrations of employment and housing in locations that would support and have direct access to the regional high capacity transit system.

G33 Achieve the following 20 year growth targets in Seattle's urban centers (Downtown: 14,700 households and 62,700 jobs).

G64 Establish in downtown areas the broadest mix of activities and greatest intensity of development in the region.

G74 Goals for the provision of open space and related facilities are as follows: (one acre of open space for every 1,000 households in each urban village plus one acre of open space for every 10,000 jobs in each urban village.

Overall Downtown Goals

The following Framework Goals are intended to further define the direction for downtown growth and development.

GOAL A: PRE-EMINENT REGIONAL CENTER

It shall be City policy to endeavor to maintain downtown Seattle as the most important of the region's urban centers—a compactly developed area supporting a diversity of uses meeting the employment, residential, shopping, culture, service and entertainment needs of the broadest range of the region's population.

GOAL B: GROWTH

Downtown growth shall be allowed and encouraged as provided in the Comprehensive Plan.

GOAL C: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Economic development activities consistent with the Downtown Plan shall be promoted to attract and retain businesses and to expand employment and training opportunities for Seattle area residents.

GOAL D: URBAN FORM

Public and private development shall make a positive contribution to the downtown physical environment by: 1) enhancing the relationship of downtown to its spectacular setting of water, hills and mountains; 2) preserving important public views; 3) ensuring light and air at street level and in public parks; 4) establishing a high quality pedestrian oriented street environment; 5) reinforcing the vitality and special character of downtown's many parts; 6) creating new downtown parks and open spaces at strategic locations; and 7) preserving downtown's important historic buildings to provide a tangible link to the past in accordance with the Downtown Urban Design Framework. Land use incentives allowing greater development in return for actions which are determined to be of public benefit and contribute to the mitigation of growth impacts shall be provided through a system of floor area bonuses and transfer of development rights.

GOAL E: CULTURE AND ENTERTAINMENT

Downtown shall be reinforced as a center of cultural and entertainment activities to foster the arts in the City, attract people to the area, create livable neighborhoods, and make downtown an enjoyable place to be shared by all. Facilities for artists to live and work in the downtown shall be encouraged.

GOAL F: NEIGHBORHOODS

The varied character of the neighborhoods which make up downtown shall be recognized and enhanced. Actions shall be taken to preserve those characteristics determined desirable, counter trends that are determined undesirable and implement the adopted neighborhood plans. Development in each downtown neighborhood shall be guided by a comprehensive set of policies which recognizes the functional identity, relationship to surrounding activity, existing scale and character of development, desired changes in character, transportation capacity, and historical precedents established by the neighborhood plan.

GOAL G: OFFICE AND COMMERCIAL CONCENTRATION

The needs of a wide range of office and commercial activities shall be met by concentrating the densest office activity in a compactly developed core area bound by the government center, I-5, the retail core and the lower intensity areas along First Avenue. Concentrated mixed use areas shall bound the office core on the south, providing a transition to Pioneer Square and the International District, and to the north (east of the retail core), providing an area for office expansion. New concentrations of office use shall occur as defined in the neighborhood plans.

GOAL H: RETAIL CONCENTRATION

The concentrated shopping function of the retail core shall be reinforced; the general form and scale of the area shall be preserved; and the area shall be protected from high density uses that conflict with the primary retail function. Other concentrations of retail activity shall be encouraged where they already exist or where such uses are desirable to encourage an active pedestrian environment or focal point of neighborhood activity.

GOAL I: SHORELINE

The City shall actively work to revitalize the Harborfront in order to strengthen maritime activities and enhance opportunities for public access. All reasonable efforts shall be made to encourage water dependent uses which are compatible with a high pedestrian use waterfront, to meet the needs of waterborne commerce and provide an active, working waterfront character. Public access on the piers shall be encouraged to the extent that such access can be designed to accommodate existing and proposed water dependent uses. The historical and cultural significance of development in the Harborfront shall be preserved and enhanced. In upland Harborfront areas, a diversity of uses and buildings of small scale shall be preferred. A combination of public and private improvements shall be undertaken to unite the Harborfront with downtown and encourage public access and enjoyment of the shoreline. Use of the Harborfront as a corridor for through vehicular movement shall be discouraged. Access for vehicles including trucks to serve water dependent uses on the piers shall be retained.

GOAL J: TRANSPORTATION

Transportation improvements shall be planned and built to complement and reinforce desired land use patterns; growth in peak hour travel shall be accommodated primarily by transit; transit and pedestrian travel shall be encouraged as the primary means of internal circulation; and vehicular traffic passing through downtown on surface streets with a destination elsewhere shall be discouraged. The importance of the automobile as a means of access to downtown for non-work trips shall be recognized.

GOAL K: HOUSING

Housing opportunities in downtown Seattle shall be significantly expanded for people of all income levels with the objectives of: 1) accommodating a 2014 population of 44,000 residents 2) maintaining the existing number of occupied low income units; and 3) developing a significant supply of affordable housing opportunities in balance with the market resulting from the growth in downtown employment. Housing shall be allowed in all areas of downtown except over water. Neighborhoods which are predominantly residential in character shall be fostered in areas defined by neighborhood plans. Public resources and incentives for private development shall be concentrated in these target areas. The City shall establish priority programs for supporting the development of new housing serving households with incomes up to 80% of median.

GOAL L: HUMAN SERVICES

Adequate health and human services shall be provided to meet the needs of downtown residents and workers.

GOAL M: PUBLIC SAFETY

The importance of a safe and friendly pedestrian environment; a mix of people from all income ranges and social groups; a twenty-four-hour city; and the avoidance of concentrations of social services in any one neighborhood shall be acknowledged through City investment in facilities and services.

These terse goals provide the foundation for the functional policies, regulations, and other tools used by the City to accommodate downtown growth. The tools are also key strategies, or action items which direct city resource allocation in areas of capital investment, land use management, program planning, and administration. Since there are so many variables affecting downtown implementation, it is crucial to maintain a solid base of technical and community familiarity with the vision and principles so that future decisions are appropriately framed.

Key Land Use Strategies

The following highlights some of the key strategies of the plan.

Create a housing incentive package in the Commercial Core focused on creating new units serving households earning 50-80% of median income. Make housing "invisible" from Floor Area Ratio (FAR) calculations as part of the initial plan adoption. Conduct additional analysis of the following recommendations as an urgent priority in 1999:

Creating a "super" bonus that increases the maximum FAR for commercial and mixed use projects;
Allows bonusable housing to be constructed on- or off-site;
Requires projects to provide public benefit features that contribute to increasing the quality of life for residents

Conduct a comprehensive analysis of the bonus/Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) system that establishes bonus values relative to geographic location and neighborhood plan goals. Consider adding bonuses for the development of low- and low-moderate income housing. Reevaluate the existing bonus system. Simplify and balance the menu of bonusable public benefit features to reflect neighborhood plan goals. Eliminate cinemas, performing arts theaters, and museums from the menu of bonusable public benefit features as part of the Plan adoption. Fund a DUCPG program through DCLU and DHHS in 1999 to develop a comprehensive analysis of the bonus/TDR/tiering system to assess relative values on a project- and geographic basis in keeping with neighborhood plan goals including:

Prioritizing public benefit features that support housing, such as human services and child care services.
Creating additional public benefit features that support housing, such as the provision of low- and low-moderate-income housing and grocery stores..

Consider eliminating sculptured building tops, shopping atriums, shopping corridors, and public atriums from the menu of bonusable public benefit features, provided that these issues are addressed through design review, updated downtown design guidelines, and neighborhood plan recommendations.
Enable surplus development capacity from City-owned property within the Downtown Urban Center to be available for sale as TDRs. Allow proceeds from sales to be earmarked to finance designated Green Street projects.
Allow sites retained or developed as open space to sell open space TDRs from current and future open space to other downtown projects. TDRs would not be available for transfer from open space developed as part of a project's public benefit features. Open spaces sending TDRs must conform to location and development criteria established in the revised Downtown Plan urban design and open space elements and in the downtown neighborhood plans.
Create a Landmark Building Inefficiency TDR that compensates for the inherent functional inefficiencies of historic buildings, thereby encouraging their preservation and increasing the TDR supply.
Increase maximum FAR by three and building height by 30% for projects providing:

Historic conservation or preservation bonuses or TDRs that comprise 50% of the FAR allowed above the new base.
Bonuses or TDRs that provide housing affordable to households with eligibility established to support projects within which 25% of the units are affordable to households at or below 80% of median income and at least 75% of the units are affordable to households at or below 100% of median comprising at least 30% of the FAR allowed above the new base.
Bonuses comprising 20% of the FAR allowed above the base to come from at least three of the following:
Off-site green street or open space contribution (1.5 FAR)
Human services or day care facilities (up to 1 FAR.)
Short-term parking below grade (1.0 FAR)
Transit station access, if applicable
Revise downtown design review procedures and design guidelines to reflect the Downtown Urban Center's recommendations.

Key Housing Strategies

The following is closely linked with the preceding land use strategy. The objective is to assure that Downtown Seattle creates and maintains incentives, policies, practices and and an environment that will attract new residential development, building a diverse housing mix serving over 27,000 individuals and families by 2014. A special focus is low to moderate housing for downtown workers 50-80% of median income levels - a group that is underserved today. Strategies that support preservation of the existing level of low income housing, including Section 8 units and other buildings at risk are also essential. Finally, downtown livability should be enhanced through strategies that assure an attractive, secure and clean 24 hour mixed use neighborhood environment that will attract new and retain existing residents.

Revise current bonus and TDR provisions to make them available for low-moderate income housing development (50-80% of median); In the future, study the application of this recommendation to housing for moderate income households up to 100% of median income.
Increase subsidies for new low and low-moderate income housing development downtown or preservation of such housing at risk through new levy initiatives and any budget surpluses.
Create a low-interest loan program for the renovation of non-subsidized housing currently serving low- and low-moderate income households downtown. Program should enable creative means to allow variances from seismic and other codes where full compliance in historic structures cannot be achieved.
Extend the tax-abatement program throughout the downtown with special emphasis on projects where at least one-third of the units serve households below 80% of median and with the retention of affordable units for a "reasonable" period.
Develop a funding plan to preserve affordable units in expiring Section 8 buildings downtown, including advocacy with the state and federal governments, increased public/private partnerships, and creative use of city program funding.
Create a Downtown Housing Ombudsperson position within the Office of Housing and Project Management to 1) champion and expedite downtown projects through city processes including authority to administratively waive certain requirements, 2) identify and promote pro-housing strategies, and development-friendly strategies, 3) market downtown opportunities to prospective investors, and 4) coordinate the efforts of city departments to improve the delivery of permits, design review, code, rule and procedural simplification (consolidation of multiple review and permitting for City Light and other utilities, alley vacations, street use permits, and demolition), and 5) develop monitoring and program adjustment measures.
Create new opportunities for home ownership including community land trusts and limited equity employer assistance programs.
Include a housing component in all light rail station area development plans addressing housing needs and impacts to ensure that appropriate advantage is taken of the opportunities for high-density transportation-efficient housing in and around the station areas.

Key Urban Design Strategies

The following recognizes the importance of the look and feel of downtown relative to its continued vitality as a business, shopping, residential, and tourism center. The neighborhood plan's top priority, which is the centerpiece of this key strategy, is to develop a comprehensive urban design master plan for downtown. The urban design master plan should enhance the unique qualities of each of the downtown neighborhoods while providing a unifying framework for the design of the downtown's public open spaces and street right-of-ways.

Create a unified downtown urban design plan that reflects the Downtown Urban Center's goals:

Create a highly visual, unifying framework that strengthens connections between neighborhoods and reinforces a sense of place.
Reinforce the unique character of each downtown neighborhood.
Highlight the downtown's spectacular natural setting, especially views and connection to the waterfront.
Reinforce a hierarchical network of connections and activity nodes.
Design a coordinated system of public amenities, graphics, and street design standards.
Work with SPO to establish work program, budget and public outreach process for a comprehensive policy plan for directing downtown public improvements to streets, parks, pedestrian facilities. Coordinate work with Sound Move and other stakeholders involved in transit-related improvements. Incorporate findings, conclusions and recommendations from recent related initiatives such the South Downtown Plan, waterfront (WSF and POS) plans, Pine Street Plan, Municipal Center Master Plan, etc.) Create strong advisory committee including neighborhood representatives, design professions, Allied Arts, etc.

Rework the existing, multiple street designation systems (including Green Streets, Class I/II Pedestrian Streets, Key Pedestrian Streets, P-1/P2 overlays, etc.) to devise a single system for defining urban design qualities and engineering standards for pedestrian-oriented streets, as envisioned by the neighborhood plans.
Devise a funding mechanism for implementing the design, construction, and maintenance of pedestrian-oriented streets. The funding mechanism may include:

Bonds
Neighborhood planning implementation funds
Contributions from private developers
Making Green Streets a bonus item

Key Transportation Strategies

The following includes capital investment and operational recommendations for optimizing the use of downtown streets for pedestrian, bicycle, auto, truck, and transit uses appropriate to land uses, major activity centers, intermodal terminals, and linkages with the surrounding areas. These recommendations include pertinent strategies developed by the Downtown Circulation Study as well as strategies produced by the Downtown Urban Center Planning Group including recommendations for the management of parking resources in the downtown.

Revise definitions of transportation infrastructure to recognize capacity and safety requirements for all modes. Develop capacity needs and environmental quality criteria to specify hierarchical designations for vehicular, pedestrian, transit, and bicycle modes. Develop a work program based on the results of the Downtown Circulation Study, incorporating strategies from the Transportation Strategic Plan and other pertinent analyses.
Prepare detailed origin-destination study by mode including travel demand estimates with emphasis on alternative projects such as high-capacity hill-climbs and circulator systems. Develop detailed mode studies for major "gateway" transit stations.
Prepare pedestrian arterial corridor plans based on new traffic counts, future estimates and link improvement plans to mitigation strategies for private projects.
Redefine transit priority street requirements and capital needs working with Sound Transit and King County/Metro to accommodate future surface street transit utilization. Transit priority street network should support and enhance residential neighborhoods. Consider short-term solutions that fit within a long-term capital investment strategy including other modes such as the monorail and "intermediate" transit
Complete and implement a downtown transit and way-finding signage system in conjunction with improvement plans for transit shelters and neighborhood plans (coordinate with the South Downtown way-finding program). Create downtown advisory committee within the outreach program of the urban design framework plan to enable effective stakeholder participation
Prepare feasibility analysis of downtown circulator options. Identify trip demands for user-types; evaluate relative costs and benefits of service and equipment options; coordinate with short- and long-term service planning of King County/Metro and Sound Transit; operate demonstration/pilot project(s) for evaluation

Key Pedestrian Strategies

Designate new Green Streets identified in the neighborhood plans. Work with city departments to clarify definition/distinction of "green streets" from "key pedestrian streets". Integrate designated green street design, implementation and maintenance policy basis into Open Space Plan element.

Define themes and design standards for all downtown green streets based on neighborhood plans to be used in the development design review process and related City improvement programs.
Designate Key Pedestrian High Volume Streets and Key Pedestrian Arterials, providing suitable standards for sidewalk improvements, lighting, landscaping, and other facilities in conjunction with the urban design framework plan. Undertake pedestrian traffic counts, future traffic estimates, flow studies and safety evaluations on all designated Pedestrian Arterial streets every two years. Prepare mitigation plans and funding schedule for corridors, intersections and street crossings. Review impacts of traffic signals on pedestrian flow and level of service.

Key Bicycle Strategies

Designate priority bikeway streets, with priority treatment for high-volume use. Provide North-South Bicycle Arterial corridors (bike lanes) into and through downtown at three elevations. Define short-term interim designations and nominal improvements that can be later incorporated into a long-term more permanent improvement program for bicycle streets as outlined below.
Provide East-West Bicycle Arterial corridors (bike lanes) into and through the downtown. Ensure that corridors connect with crossings of I-5 and to key Gateway entry points. Ensure that some corridors access hill climb assist facilities.

Key Parking Management Strategies.

Extend meter times on corridors with significant night-time activity (restaurants, bars, theaters, etc.) by three or four hours.
Revise development code to accommodate neighborhood plan recommendations for principal use parking structures in support of residential development and for the eventual elimination of surface parking lots. Assist neighborhoods in implementation of parking facilities aimed at creating incentives for new residential development and short-term neighborhood retail uses including pilot projects in Pioneer Square and the Denny Regrade.
Assess the feasibility of using revenues from on-street parking meters to support neighborhood improvement projects.

Closing Thoughts

At the time of this writing, the draft Seattle Downtown Plan is just being readied for submittal to the City Council. It is therefore premature to speculate on the total outcome. However, the Executive department responses to the plan have been mostly supportive and the Council has typically honored the neighborhoods' recommendations in other cases. Since many of the recommendations involve further analysis and coordination with other on-going planning, it is very likely that those recommendations will be adopted. This will initiate preparation of the downtown urban design framework, human services element, transportation capital planning, light-rail station area development, and the economic analysis of the bonus and transfer of development rights system.

The key to success of implementation will depend upon the capacity of the community to maintain a solid organization that can represent the broad downtown constituency in these important follow-on efforts. City staff support will be crucial to this. The 1999 reorganization of the Department of Neighborhoods will create a new division responsible for neighborhood plan implementation. The DUCPG is concerned that the downtown may not receive the resources necessary to advocate for its position relative to all of the other neighborhoods that will be vying for attention.

There is a great deal of optimism that this has been a fruitful effort which has produced a useful product. It has created a forum for broad community education and dialogue about downtown and about downtown's complex roles. It has also created a new cadre of energetic citizen activists who have high expectations for continued improvements to the downtown quality of life.