Not Abundant: And thus SoDO Housing dies a quiet death

Last year’s bitter battle over former Council President Sara Nelson’s bill to open the area near Seattle’s sports stadiums to residential development ended quietly May 12. The City Council repealed Nelson’s signature initiative, which would have allowed several hundred residences and small business “maker’’ spaces south of T-Mobile Park.

The unanimous vote came after the state’s Growth Management Hearings Board, which enforces compliance with state land-use laws, faulted the ordinance last fall for comprehensive-plan violations and failure to timely submit the legislation for state review.  The board ordered the city to revise the ordinance or face financial sanctions.

First-term Councilmember Eddie Lin, the repeal’s sponsor, said last week his measure “is not intended to review previous policy decisions,’’ but argued the city was compelled to act due to threat of state sanctions. He promised to work with supporters and opponents “to find a (land) use that everyone can live with.”

Despite Lin’s hopeful words, repealing the ordinance shows no signs of easing the decades-long conflicts over residential and commercial development near shipping terminals fiercely opposed by the Port of Seattle and longshore labor. Mayor Katie Wilson has already touched off controversy by siding with the Port on draft stadium-area zoning that would bar new housing altogether.

Last year, Nelson had rallied housing advocates and construction-trades interests behind her bill, arguing that residential and limited commercial development would help ease the city’s housing crunch, create jobs, and foster small business. The potential development sites are owned by Chris Hansen, backer of the ill-fated Seattle Sonics arena concept.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance, a joint venture of the Seattle and Tacoma ports, and their longshore allies contended housing would worsen traffic congestion and stall freight movement as they fight to reverse a long-term slide in cargo volume.

Nelson won passage of her measure on a 6-3 vote, but her victory was short-lived. She lost her council seat last November to Dionne Foster, a progressive challenger strongly backed by port interests.

The Stadium Transition Area Overlay District (STAOD), created in 2000, was intended to balance sports uses with adjacent SODO industrial activity. In recent years the stadium authorities that control the T-Mobile ballpark and Lumen Field pushed for changes in the special district to permit entertainment, hotels, and restaurant developments.

Various developers have advanced ideas of converting shipping terminals to convention centers and hotels. But they came up against the Port of Seattle, dockworkers and maritime companies that fear encroachment on scarce industrial lands would push out traditional waterfront businesses.

Adoption of Nelson’s ordinance was a rare defeat for the port interests, but they quickly appealed the action to the state agency and Superior Court. Those lawsuits continue despite the bill’s repeal.

Being out of office six months hasn’t tempered the fiery Nelson. She blames the City Council staff for the procedural missteps, along with the Law Department and her former council colleagues for “carrying the Port’s water” and ignoring her pleas to delay the repeal.

The city could have put a hold on any development plans pending resolution of the appeals, she said. “There was not a need for a repeal,” she said in a recent interview.

“Shame on (the council) for denying up to 1,000 homes, all those jobs and spaces for small businesses,” she said. “We have a housing affordability crisis going on. I just can’t understand.”

Lin, chair of the council’s Land Use Committee, offered to consider new ideas for development near the stadiums without offering any specifics. Council members Rob Saka, Joy Hollingsworth, and Maritza Rivera, who voted for Nelson’s bill last year, all voiced support for considering the issue again.

“I would love to see this proposal brought back,” Rivera said. “I think it’s important for all the partners to work together toward something that everyone can support.”

Saka said he stands by his vote to back Nelson, but he acknowledged the many unresolved conflicts. “There remain pending issues the city will need to confront,” he said.

The wait won’t be long for the next round in the fight.

In the city’s upcoming review of Comprehensive Plan policies this fall, Mayor Wilson’s proposed sub-area plan would ban housing in no uncertain terms.  

Draft policies proposed by the city planning office for the Duwamish Manufacturing and Industrial Center, which includes the stadium district, would “encourage a broader mix of uses’’ including hotels in the area, “but do not allow any residential uses and do not amend codes to allow even limited residential uses” near the stadiums.

This position seemingly contradicts Wilson’s all-out push for new housing density everywhere, even in the face of neighborhood concerns about traffic congestion and loss of trees.

One factor may be the remarkably friendly relations between the Port and City Hall since the mayoral and City Council elections, which have been more often strained and contentious in the past.  Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa had a seat on Wilson’s transition team.

Since the November elections, “we have seen a truly collaborative spirit with the city,” said Port Commission President Ryan Calkins. “Not only do we want to make sure we address industrial affordability, we also want to make sure workers are able to live in the city where they work. Key staff from the city, the port and other agencies have been working together toward this shared vision.”

The Sound Industrial Alliance, representing the Port, maritime trade organizations and waterfront businesses, is backing the prohibition of residential uses near the stadiums.

“While we acknowledge the urgency of addressing housing affordability, locating housing in industrial areas where there are limited services and significant environmental, safety, and freight conflicts is neither an equitable nor effective approach,” the Alliance said in a letter to the city.

But housing backers – construction, laborers,’ and electricians’ unions, along with the Housing Consortium and the T-Mobile ballpark authority – are fighting to keep residential development options on the table.  They cite a 2013 environmental review of development policies that concluded housing would not hamper Port operations, a conclusion the Port didn’t challenge. Then-Mayor Bruce Harrell, however, did not recommend allowing housing in the face of strong Port opposition.

In a recent letter to the city, housing backers insisted the latest draft policies should be revised to encourage retail and entertainment near the stadiums “including lodging and other complementary uses such as residential in targeted circumstances that are compatible with the vision for the stadium district” with measures to protect industrial activities elsewhere in the SODO area.

“We are still hopeful the City will find a pathway to leave the door open for this incredible opportunity that wouldn’t harm the region’s important industrial base,” said Monty Anderson, executive secretary of the Seattle Building and Construction Trades Council.  

The coalition members are “still in the process of talking to folks, and seeing what could be salvaged,’’ said Johua Curtis, director of the T-Mobile ballpark district. “It’s not over.”