From the Mar 6 – Mar 12, 2003 issue

News

The Great Northgate Mystery

Neighbors Worried About Private Meetings Between Mall Owner and Mayor

by Amy Jenniges

Seattle City Council members feel like they're in the dark about imminent city plans for Northgate. "The council has not been able to get information," reports one frustrated council aide. "[We've] been kept out of the loop. We just get inklings of concepts."

What's more disconcerting is the fact that Northgate residents are out of the loop, too. They know something's going on at the mayor's office, but they don't know what. "I think there might be an announcement on the 12th," guesses Barbara Maxwell of Maple Leaf, a neighborhood just south of Northgate. "I think it's going to be in the form of proposed legislation."

Mayoral spokesperson Marianne Bichsel won't give The Stranger many details, either.

"You're going to see the mayor talk a lot about Northgate in March, releasing some of our ideas in March," Bichsel says. She also acknowledges that the mayor's office is in discussions with Simon Property Group, the owner of Northgate Mall.

But residents in several quiet, middle-class neighborhoods around Northgate-- Pinehurst, Maple Leaf, Victory Heights, and Licton Springs--aren't content to wait for further details. Those neighborhoods' community councils are convinced that the mayor is currently talking with Simon Property Group about tossing out neighborhood development guidelines, like open space requirements.

Neighbors say that if anything's going on between the mayor and Simon, they want to be part of it. The residents want to ensure that Nickels and Simon stick to guidelines outlined in the Northgate Area Comprehensive Plan (NACP), a 1993 document (predating the city's Neighborhood Plans) that many of the area's current activists helped put together. In other words, neighbors don't want the mayor to change the NACP to suit the mall by eliminating a development disclosure requirement. Several community councils have sent letters to the mayor's office in the past few weeks, detailing their concerns.

"We understand that your office is currently negotiating with Simon Property Group to obtain a development agreement," writes the Maple Leaf Community Council. "We have some serious concerns with regard to... the lack of public process." The Pinehurst Community Council's letter adds, "We are concerned... that new development will not adhere to the long-term vision for the Northgate area." Seattle City Council Member Richard Conlin has weighed in too, saying that the mayor needs to work closely with Northgate's residents and stick to the NACP's goals.

The long-term Northgate vision is clear. Northgate is designated as one of Seattle's "urban centers," and development is supposed to be pedestrian-friendly--not auto-friendly, like suburban development. "The vision is a mixed-use area where people live, work, shop, eat, and especially walk," says Garth Ferber, the Pinehurst council's president.

To keep the area's largest developments--those over six acres, like Northgate Mall--in sync with Northgate's "vision," there's a General Development Plan (GDP) process outlined in the NACP. When large property owners want to develop (or redevelop) their property, they have to file a GDP and disclose what's going to happen on their site in the long term. A GDP also puts restrictions on development, to keep changes in line with the NACP guidelines. For example, a GDP specifies the number of driveways a development can have, and requires that 15 percent of the development be open space.

In recent years, Simon Property Group has been unable to get its GDP approved. Neighbors have appealed two GDP versions on the grounds that they weren't pedestrian-friendly enough.

Now, neighbors are concerned that the mayor will propose legislation nixing the GDP requirement so Simon can make changes at the mall--and so the city can have a few acres of the south parking lot, to build a water retention pond. It seems that they're right: Bichsel says the mayor would like to see the GDP lifted, but she can't discuss the details yet. "We know that the community is concerned about the mall and the property owner," she says. Any mayoral proposal regarding Northgate Mall would most likely go through the city council, however, and at that point neighbors would have a change to weigh in. "The city council can have whatever types of hearings they want," Bichsel adds.

amy@thestranger.com