City council passes land-use legislation

The Seattle City Council held its final meeting of the year Monday, passing legislation to protect industrial lands, rezone part of South Lake Union for prospective tenant Amazon.com, and strengthen the city's noise ordinance to try to make peace between nightclubs and residents who live near them.

Much of the legislation was sponsored by Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck, who packed the agenda with land-use legislation for his final council meeting. He is stepping down after 10 years in office. It was also the last meeting for Councilmember David Della, who last month lost his bid for a second term.

• The council voted 6-3 to protect blue-collar jobs by curtailing office and retail development on industrial lands. Proposed by Mayor Greg Nickels and tweaked by Steinbrueck, the plan will reduce the maximum amount of office space from 100,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet in some industrial areas, and to 10,000 square feet in other industrial areas.

All council members said they wanted to preserve industrial jobs. But only five consistently sided with labor unions, industry groups and the city's Planning Commission in rejecting amendments that sought to delay the legislation.

Those five were Della, Jean Godden, Nick Licata, Richard McIver and Steinbrueck. Sally Clark ultimately voted with the majority but supported several amendments by the bill's opponents.

A coalition of landowners is likely to challenge the council's vote, a coalition spokeswoman said, noting there hadn't been enough time for public comment under the state's Growth Management Act.

• The council decided to allow 160-foot buildings on two South Lake Union blocks to accommodate the expected move of Amazon.com to property owned by Paul Allen's development firm, Vulcan.

The move would bring at least 4,000 workers to the area. In return for the taller buildings, which would more than double allowed development on the two blocks, Vulcan would pay roughly $6.3 million to build affordable housing in South Lake Union.

Licata was the only dissenter in the 8-1 vote, saying the deal didn't provide enough affordable housing.

A Vulcan official said the company hopes to soon make a formal announcement about Amazon's move.

• Nightclubs will face tougher penalties for excessive noise.

The change to the noise ordinance approved by the council will be enforced primarily by two new city inspectors equipped with noise meters.

Clubs will get a warning after one offense in a year. With a second offense, the city can fine the club $1,000, or the club can use that money to better insulate the building to reduce noise. On subsequent offenses, the city can fine the club $2,000.

A nightlife advisory board will recommend a specific noise limit to the city, and that will take effect June 1.

• Seattle will sell part of a downtown block for $25 million to Seattle developers Triad to build a 40-story tower as part of a $350 million Civic Square project. About half of the block across from City Hall will be taken up by the condo and office tower, which Triad will own. The other half will be turned into a public plaza that the city will own.

Triad will deduct the cost of designing and building the plaza from the $25 million, and the city expects to receive a final payment of $1.5 million.

The public plaza, which will be the largest in downtown Seattle, will include retail shops, cascading terraces and fountains. Construction will begin in 2009 and end in 2011.

The property sale passed 7-0. Council members Godden and Tom Rasmussen did not vote.

• The council unanimously approved an agreement between Seattle Public Utilities and the city of North Bend that should allow the East King County city to lift a nine-year moratorium on new construction.

Under the agreement, North Bend can buy up to 1.1 million gallons of water daily from Seattle. The additional water will allow North Bend to serve more customers, and allow long-awaited new development within its limits.

• A building owned by the nonprofit Central Area Motivation Program (CAMP) will be purchased by the city and torn down to make way for a new fire station. Along with approving the purchase, the council directed the city's human-services department to help CAMP with long-term strategic planning.

The two-story building at 2615 S. Jackson St. will be replaced with a new Fire Station No. 6. The fire station is too small for equipment and past its useful life, city officials say. Changes were approved 8-0, with Councilmember Jan Drago absent.

• Seattle will explore starting a licensing and inspection program for rental housing, according to a resolution the council adopted.

The city will hire a consultant for $50,000 to look at other programs around the country and make recommendations by March on how to establish a Seattle program. Under the present system, the city responds to complaints about rentals that do not meet the city's housing code.

Staff reporters Bob Young, Sanjay Bhatt and Rachel Tuinstra contributed to this report. Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com