Washblog || 500 march for Responsible, Neighborhood-friendly Development

500 march for Responsible, Neighborhood-friendly Development

By puget sound SAGE
Thu May 17, 2007 at 03:08:50 PM PST
Section: Diary Topic: Land use/zoning issues

[Front paged: NM]

April 21 marked a dynamite 500-person march and rally from Seattle's Little Saigon small business district to the nearby 10.3-acre Goodwill site, on which a large mixed-use development is proposed by developer TRF Pacific in partnership with Ravenhurst, LLC. The Dearborn Street Coalition for a Livable Neighborhood (DSCLN) has enjoyed widespread media coverage from a variety of large and small news outlets, including TV and radio. A good recap of the march and rally can be found in the Seattle Times article on April 22, 2007.

26 organizations make up the DSCLN, including SAGE, a policy and organizing group working to make development benefit people of all incomes. In addition, a dozen other allied groups actively support our efforts for responsible, neighborhood-friendly development at the Goodwill site on Dearborn Street. The coalition is organizing for a Community Benefits package that would entail support for existing small businesses that would be threatened and opportunity in the project for new local business, quality jobs for grocery and retail workers, housing that these workers and nearby residents could afford, green building techniques, a Vietnamese Cultural Center, traffic mitigation and increased transit, and the like. The coalition also desires meaningful input in the design (currently a fortress-like structure that doesn't fit the scale of the surrounding neighborhoods) and would like the number of Big Box stores scaled down.

Goodwill Industries has an agreement to trade their prime real estate close to the city core in exchange for new facilities to be included in the new development. The mall retail size is proposed at 650,000 square feet, with 2300 parking spaces below and 550 housing units on top. Besides a Comprehensive Plan amendment and a contract rezone, the developer is also requesting a street vacation, which would privatize three public streets that run through the site.

Our diverse coalition has been raising questions about not only the type of community benefit, but also about the character and scale of a Big Box national chain store development that would affect the cultural and economic vitality of the small business districts of Little Saigon, the Chinatown/International District, and the Central District.

The first round of negotiations ended without agreement about eight weeks ago, but the DSCLN hopes to come back to the table - this time, for a meaningful voice in development that shapes our communities.

In the week following the rally, eight of nine Seattle City Council members sponsored a Brown Bag Lunch forum with SAGE entitled Making Development Benefit All Families on April 28. Leslie Moody and John Goldstein of PWF and Lee Streib of Change to Win presented to a standing-room only crowd on CBAs and other successful tools that help ensure that people of all incomes benefit from a wave of development that is sweeping Seattle.

For more background & FAQ sheet, see SAGE .
More info posted at: Beacon Alliance of Neighbors .

< Engaging younger voters: the long-time puzzle | Response to Rep McMorris >

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