Mayor Greg Nickels rolled out his Southeast Seattle "action agenda" yesterday, vowing to put as much city attention on Rainier Valley neighborhoods as he has focused on downtown, Northgate and South Lake Union in his first three years on the job.

Nickels' goal in Southeast Seattle is to take advantage of huge public investment in Sound Transit's new light-rail line to revitalize an area that private developers and employers have passed by for decades.

The mayor's plan emphasizes preserving the diverse ethnic mix of businesses and residents in Rainier Valley more than it calls for new city spending to spur growth in the area.

In all, Nickels would earmark about $95 million for Southeast Seattle, although the vast majority comes from the already established Rainier Valley Community Development Fund and voter-approved levies for education, parks and affordable housing.

Nickels and his top staff see the challenge unfolding in Southeast Seattle this way: How to ensure that people who now live and work in Rainier Valley enjoy the benefits of light-rail-driven growth and are not pushed out by rampant development and gentrification?

"Change is happening. We know it can be frightening and unsettling. We will be here throughout this to make sure the benefits accrue to people working and living here in the community," Nickels said last night to a packed house at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center.

The mayor acknowledged that the city faces a difficult task. "We're looking for answers still," he said. Solutions, which are just taking shape, include technical and financial aid for immigrant and ethnic businesses; new regulations that would allow for cottage housing and other innovative kinds of affordable housing; and focusing the $50 million community-development fund so it helps a wide array of residents and businesses.

The city defines Rainier Valley as a long, narrow swath bordered by Interstate 90 to the north, the city limits to the south, a line roughly one-quarter mile west of Martin Luther King Jr. Way to the west, and roughly Rainier Avenue to the east. The area has 45,000 residents, with people of color accounting for about 80 percent of the population.

Siobhan Ring, executive director of the Tenants Union of Washington, said Nickels' plan sounds nice, but it will need more teeth to keep people from being pushed out of Rainier Valley neighborhoods. "It's just so important that this language be followed with specific policy tools to create equitable development. And those tools aren't articulated yet," Ring said.

The Tenants Union already has seen signs of gentrification in Southeast Seattle. Ring said the group recently helped immigrants organize to fight a 28 percent rent increase and displacement after their building was bought by a developer.

Nickels and his top aides agree that gentrification is coming. Sound Transit's 14-mile, $2.4 billion light-rail line from Tukwila to downtown Seattle will run down Martin Luther King Jr. Way, through the heart of Rainier Valley. Nickels expects a transit system that is supposed to get people downtown in 12 minutes will attract heavy private investment and new residents to the area.

In an effort to respond to community goals, Nickels organized an eight-month planning process involving about two dozen representatives from business, nonprofit and neighborhood groups. They combed through a pile of previous Southeast Seattle blueprints and culled from them a 15-page list of specific recommendations. They presented their vision to Nickels in January, and he unveiled his preliminary response last night.

Nickels' glossy "Southeast Seattle Action Agenda" brochure reads a lot like a report card, with the mayor stressing investments the city already has made in the area.

Still, it offers a few fresh proposals, such as Nickels' plans to create a city-funded Wi-Fi access area in Columbia City and save the Hillman City P-Patch from private development by acquiring it with $190,000 in taxpayer money.

David George, a resident of the Hillman City neighborhood, was thrilled to hear the mayor's P-Patch proposal. "Everywhere in the world people segregate unless they have spaces like this. That's why people like the south end," George said.

Nickels also has applied for $100 million from a new federal-tax-credit program that benefits investors in economically distressed areas, and he has pledged $2.5 million to help the Salvation Army's bid to build a $30 million community center.

Jill Nishi, the city's economic-development director, is heading up a Southeast Seattle interdepartmental team similar to one Nickels created for South Lake Union, where billionaire Paul Allen's company, Vulcan, is redeveloping that area as a biotech center. The South Lake Union team met weekly and was headed by consultant Ken Johnsen.

Last night, the heads of 10 city departments and agencies were on hand in a show of support for the mayor's agenda.

Nishi notes that there is still plenty of time to safeguard against gentrification. Private investors are not yet gobbling up property in Southeast Seattle. Light-rail funding was approved just 18 months ago, and the trains are not scheduled to start running until 2009.

"The idea is to build and rebuild the community so when a tide [of private investment] comes in all boats will rise," said Councilman Richard McIver, who has prodded Nickels to focus city resources on Southeast Seattle.

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com