A condo owner says a new building with threatened her views.
A condo owner says a new building will threaten her views. city of seattle

The owner of several Seattle condos appears to be learning for the first time that she owns the condos but not the air outside them.

Londi Lindell owns several units* in a five-unit, three-story condo building in Westlake with views of Lake Union. Now, a developer wants to build a six-story building nearby. To build that building—which would include 86 apartments, two live-work units, and two commercial spaces at 1600 Dexter Avenue North—the developer is asking the city council to rezone the plot of land to allow for a six-story instead of four-story building. The change would allow the new building and result in about $1.1 million or eight units of affordable housing units through the city’s new mandatory housing affordability program.

The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections and the hearing examiner green-lit the proposal, finding that the change in zoning would have a “negligible” impact on views in the area. But Lindell appealed, asking the city council to consider additional evidence: a Redfin ad from when she bought the building advertising "THE VIEWS ARE INSANE.”

An ad Londi Lindell says she saw before buying her condo building.
An ad Londi Lindell says she saw before buying her condos. City of Seattle

In her appeal, Lindell wrote that she “purchased the Marcus Condominimums in September 2017 principally due to the spectacular views of Lake Union from each of the condominium units." (The council declined to consider the Redfin ad.)

Testifying before a city council committee, Lindell said she and her husband purchased the condo building* “when we sold our family home planning to move from suburbia into the city.” She argued that the hearing examiner underestimated the effect the new building would have on her views.

“We ask you to make a decision that supports your existing citizen and not a developer,” Lindell told council members, asking that they limit the upzone to 50 feet (or about five stories) instead of 65 feet.

These types of arguments against development are usually couched in other concerns—parking, privacy—but here Lindell lays it all out.

Rezoning the nearby lot to allow for a taller building "will block each of the views from these units devaluing the Marcus Condominiums by hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Lindell wrote in her appeal.

Emily Badger wrote about this phenomenon in the New York Times last month. When homes are just another commodity, those who own them (whether a single family house or a building of condos) naturally see an investment to protect. “Zoning effectively invited homeowners to look beyond their properties in ways they hadn’t,” Bagdger wrote. “And it helped create the expectation that communities would change little over time — or that homeowners would have a say if they did.”

The Seattle City Council will vote on the rezone at 2 pm. UPDATE, 3:15 pm: The council approved the rezone.

*CORRECTION: It’s unclear if Lindell owns all five condos in the building. In testimony before the city council, Lindell said “it’s a building my husband and I recently purchased” and, later, “I have five units in that building.” King County property records show Lindell is associated with an LLC that owns three of the five condos. Another LLC owns a fourth unit, and the county records do not list an owner for the fifth unit. The number of units Lindell owns did not affect her ability to appeal the project.