Mayor Nickels has sent legislation to the city council that would
require developers who get waivers for building “significant additional
development capacity” to return the favor by providing the city with
public benefits—contributing money for low-income housing, for
example. The resolution, known as “incentive zoning” legislation, was a
no-brainer for Team Nickels. Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis told me last August:
“That’s the way it works. You [developers] get something. We [the city]
get something in return.”
Ridiculing developer complaints that public-benefit requirements
“don’t pencil out,” Ceis said developers don’t have much of a case
given that the council passed
incentive zoning for downtown last
year
and “there’s no shortage of cranes there now—it
worked.”
However, Ceis’s policy principles apparently don’t apply to Vulcan,
Paul Allen’s development company. The mayor’s office sent down a
separate customized piece of Vulcan legislation that would allow the
developer to double the size of its South Lake Union property between
Terry and Boren avenues and John and Harrison streets, without having
to make good on public-benefit requirements.
“Vulcan is getting a deal,” says Council Member Richard Conlin.
“They do better [with their customized legislation] than they would do
under the mayor’s incentive zoning proposal [for developers in
general].”
Council Member Peter Steinbrueck agrees: “Absolutely,” he hollers
into the phone when asked if Vulcan’s zoning waiver on the $300 million
to $400 million project should qualify as “significant additional
capacity.” “There’s hypocrisy going on here,” he says. “There’s a
contradiction with what would be extracted under the mayor’s own
incentive zoning strategy.”
Vulcan is developing the property into a seven-story building that
will house Amazon.com. According to
the resolution, Vulcan would get to develop four floors above current
zoning guidelines, but would only have to compensate the city for two
bonus floors. The difference could amount to as much as a $5 million
loss to the city’s low-income housing fund.
The Vulcan legislation will go before the council’s land use
committee on December 6, when Steinbrueck will propose
amendments—including one that would force Vulcan to kick in
another $2.6 million for low-income housing.
Of course, the Nickels legislation already demands about $5 million
from Vulcan in exchange for giving the developer two extra floors. Many
at City Hall, including the mayor’s office, feel it’s not worth losing
that financial commitment (not to mention possibly botching the
opportunity to have a vibrant business like Amazon.com at the center of a revamped South
Lake Union), by holding Vulcan to the tougher standard it is seeking
from other developers. “The loss of the proposal,” Ceis told The
Stranger, “would be a real tragedy. This is a lot of jobs.”
However, Council Member Sally Clark points out that Vulcan has a
plan B on the table: If the taller building plan falls through, Vulcan
will offer the online retail giant a different swath of South Lake
Union property for a corporate-campus-type setting.
Meanwhile, Ceis’s point about jobs is an odd one. These aren’t new
jobs. Amazon is already headquartered in Seattle.
The mayor’s office did not return follow-up calls for this story.
