Mayor open to repealing limit on building heights

By J. Martin McOmber and Bob Young
Seattle Times staff reporters

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Should Seattle become more like Vancouver, B.C.?

That's the question Mayor Greg Nickels wants to ask Seattleites, as the city considers allowing taller buildings and more dense development downtown.

Although Nickels is not advocating any concrete proposals yet, late last week the city released a study of the effects of essentially eliminating height restrictions that voters imposed in 1989's CAP Initiative.

The initiative limited the height of downtown buildings to 36 stories and forced developers to go through a stringent design-review process.

In a briefing for reporters yesterday, the mayor questioned whether those restrictions are outdated and have curbed downtown development.

"Clearly something is preventing or discouraging development from occurring," Nickels said.

What those obstacles might be and how to best overcome them is the crux of a conversation Nickels said he wants to have with citizens.

Nickels said he is not enamored of any of the four options detailed in the study, which is a draft environmental-impact statement on proposed downtown zoning changes. The study covers only the Denny Triangle and parts of the Central Business District and Belltown.

In the study's most-aggressive option, the city would change zoning to allow the equivalent of 10 more 25-story office towers in the study area.

"Basically, it is a plan to zone properties back to where they were before the CAP Initiative" 14 years ago, said Douglas O. Howe, a Denny Triangle developer.

Nickels said he would like to see proposals that would create much more downtown housing — and perhaps even define downtown more broadly to include Pioneer Square, First Hill and South Lake Union.

The mayor pointed to Vancouver as a place where development regulations had a profound effect on creating the kind of thriving, livable downtown that brings people closer to work, cuts down on traffic and reduces sprawl in outlying areas.

Nickels intends to propose zoning changes by late next year at the earliest. In the meantime, skeptics are asking whether Nickels is floating the idea to see whether there is support for it. If it does gain momentum, the plan will likely spark a debate about the costs of creating more dense development downtown.

"If the mayor does not undertake a true cost analysis associated with turning our city into another Manhattan or Vancouver, I believe he won't be around for a second term," said affordable-housing activist John Fox.

J. Martin McOmber: 206-464-2022 or mmcomber@seattletimes.com; Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com

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