Councilman has own plans for downtown

Seattle City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck wants to scale down parts of Mayor Greg Nickels' plan for a taller downtown and force developers to pay more for affordable housing, parking and other amenities.

Steinbrueck's proposal, unveiled Thursday, sets up a debate on the most sweeping revision to the rules governing Seattle's skyline in more than a decade.

Nickels in January proposed eliminating many current restrictions on building heights imposed by the 1989 CAP initiative, hoping to spur more downtown density and curb suburban sprawl.

The mayor's proposed zoning changes would allow buildings to climb to 700 feet in the downtown core and up to 600 feet in parts of the Denny Triangle north of downtown — hundreds of feet higher than allowed under current rules.

Steinbrueck's alternative would trim the maximum height of buildings in the Denny Triangle to 500 feet and reduce by several blocks the area in which the tallest towers would be allowed.

Steinbrueck, who chairs the council's Urban Development and Planning Committee, wants developers to pay higher affordable-housing fees, provide more underground parking and provide other public benefits as they reap profits from taller buildings.

"It's a fair tradeoff. That's what all this is about; it's striking a better balance between development and community needs," he said.

The council will hold public hearings on the zoning proposals in February before taking a vote in March.

Steinbrueck would double an affordable-housing fee proposed by the mayor for developers of high-rise residential towers, to $20 per square foot.

Developers also would be required to build awnings to shield sidewalks from rain and provide bicycle commuters with shower rooms in large office buildings.

And, in perhaps the costliest proposal for developers, Steinbrueck wants to require more underground parking instead of cheaper, above-ground parking garages, which he said "destroy street life."

Some developers and business advocates criticized Steinbrueck's proposals as overly burdensome.

"This is going to dramatically run up the cost of development in downtown Seattle," said Richard Stevenson, president of Clise Properties. He said Seattle risked losing jobs and housing to neighboring cities such as Bellevue.

Kate Joncas, president of the Downtown Seattle Association, said Steinbrueck's ideas were not forward-looking, noting that he led off his comments Thursday by reading a letter by former Mayor Charles Royer from the mid-1980s describing the sort of vibrant downtown Seattle ought to pursue.

"He's looking 30 years backwards; we're looking 30 years ahead," Joncas said.

Steinbrueck called those criticisms "nonsense" and said he wants to concentrate the tallest office towers in downtown and protect neighborhoods from "high-rise sprawl."

But he said his plan would still allow developers plenty of room to grow.

In the downtown office core, for example, Steinbrueck's plan would eliminate the mayor's proposed height limit, though the size of buildings would still be regulated by a formula constricting their gross square footage.

Though Steinbrueck has been among the most harsh council critics of Nickels, his latest proposal drew a mostly positive response from the Mayor's Office.

Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis said Steinbrueck's plan was not radically different from what Nickels had proposed.

"I see this as very consistent with the mayor's proposal," he said. "We just want to get it done."

Ceis did question the wisdom of raising the affordable-housing fee, saying the mayor had carefully crafted the $10-per-square-foot fee.

"You have to be careful in the economics of such a fee so that you don't end up with the opposite result from what you are trying to achieve," he said.

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com