City, Vulcan push higher South Lake Union height limits

South Lake Union neighborhood activists usually meet Vulcan Real Estate executives at public meetings, over PowerPoint slides and sign-in sheets. They're now meeting over hors d'oeuvres and wine.

Vulcan hosted a get-to-know-us party last month in the midst of a contentious, two-year rezoning process in South Lake Union, where the company holds about 5 million square feet of undeveloped property. Company officials hoped a casual social gathering would warm up neighbors and activists wary of the developer's clout in the fast-changing neighborhood.

Seattle wants taller buildings in South Lake Union, and is starting to study the impact of towers as high as 30 stories. Residents fear they'll be walled in. High-rises could block views of the Space Needle and lake, and cast parts of the neighborhood in shadow.

Vulcan is the biggest player in this attempt by the city to create a new urban center. City leaders want to add a community center, 16,000 jobs and 8,000 housing units by 2024, and building heights could rise from the current 65 to 125 feet to as much as 240 to 300 feet.

A final decision by the City Council is not due for at least a year.

"We get really depressed every so often thinking, how in the world are our voices going to be heard?" said Lorie Groth, a resident at 2-year-old Vulcan development Veer Lofts and a board member of South Lake Union Friends and Neighbors.

Groth considers Vulcan "arrogant," and she wants more details about the company's plans.

Vulcan says it can't be more specific, because it doesn't know what the market will support. Company officials point to their commitment to the neighborhood and say Vulcan can be trusted.

Owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Vulcan has been the driving force in transforming a quiet neighborhood of cheap apartments, squat commercial buildings and warehouses. Now, even amid a recession, the neighborhood is filled with cranes and construction workers building condominiums, restaurants and retail, and a new headquarters campus for Amazon.com.

Vulcan is South Lake Union's biggest landowner, and the company is well-connected at City Hall. It was a big supporter of former Mayor Greg Nickels, and Mayor Mike McGinn hired Vulcan senior community-relations manager Phil Fujii to be his deputy mayor.

A recent decision by the City Council to allow extra height for a University of Washington research facility on Vulcan property upset residents who contended the company and UW should have waited until the neighborhood-wide rezone was completed.

Vulcan employees wrote personal e-mails to the biggest critics, asking them to attend the get-together. There were cookies, veggies and dip, wine and beer.

The development company even poked fun at its sometimes mysterious and untouchable reputation by calling the event "Vulcan Declassified." Afterward, the group strolled a few blocks over to a city meeting about the environmental study of development options.

Groth couldn't make it to the event, but she was unimpressed.

"There are more neighborhood discussions that Vulcan could spearhead, but instead they tried to ignore it until things got a little uncomfortable, and then they threw out some wine," she said.

Vulcan spokesman David Postman said the company has "a track record" of good development.

"Our values aren't going to change," he said. "That's what I would hope gives people some confidence and faith that we're not a hit-and-run developer. We're in South Lake Union long term."

Matt Roewe is an urban designer and Queen Anne resident who has been on three or four committees about South Lake Union's future and sits on the neighborhood's design-review board. He said Vulcan doesn't receive enough credit for the outreach it does.

"They have gone out of their way to make sure everyone's voice is heard on this issue," he said.

The company is thinking long term about the neighborhood, Roewe said. It participates in neighborhood meetings and listens to community leaders, something you couldn't expect from a smaller developer, he said.

Roewe agrees with Vulcan and the city that the current zoning in South Lake Union has led to "breadboxes" — low-level buildings that fill entire blocks. Instead, they propose "pencils" — tall skinny towers that leave room around the bottom for views and public spaces.

Part of the discussion, no doubt, will include exchanging the right to build taller for an agreement to add green space or other community amenities.

"I do not think we'll be able to change the tone of ... our leading critics," Postman said. "I thought the goal was to be accessible to as broad a spectrum of people as we can."

Most of the 70-some people who showed up at the recent party were curious. They wanted to know when the Flying Fish restaurant was going to relocate to the neighborhood. Or they had a question about a specific project.

"People just want to know the timing," said Lori Mason Curran, the director of real-estate investment strategy for Vulcan. "It was really just a two-way conversation."

Kevin McCarthy, who blogs about South Lake Union and lives on a houseboat along Westlake Avenue North, headlined a blog post about the event: "Vulcan is offering free booze tonight."

He went to the event, and said he understood why Vulcan put on a party.

"I think they definitely have a PR problem," he said.

He was a founding board member of the Lake Union Opportunity Alliance, a neighborhood group that formed out of concern that residents were not being heard in the rezone process. That group is waging its own battle of PR, with a Web site and some political activism.

"It's been somewhat of an uphill battle in that Vulcan is very powerful," said John Pehrson, alliance president.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com