Jackson Place Seattle

The  Squire Park Community Council meeting on Saturday featured a presentation about the status of the big new development on the Goodwill property at Rainier and Dearborn.  The presenter was Darryl Vange of Ravenhurst Development, one of companies involved in the project, who was chalking up his 126th community meeting on the topic.

The short answer on the status is that the project is stalled at the city level for the rezoning of the property from industrial to retail/residential mixed-use.   In May the rezone was recommended by the city's Director of Planning & Development, and that was appealed by project opponents.  An appeal hearing was originally scheduled for June, but got pushed out to September 22nd because the appellants weren't prepared to present their challenge at that time.  If the appeals are denied in September, the next step would be city council approval of the rezone in the first or second quarter of 2009.   According to Mr. Vange, this pushes the earliest start of construction out to late 2010, with an opening in late 2012.  

It's a huge project, with an estimated cost of $350 million.  In fact, they've already spent $6 million on just the planning process.   Once complete, it will contain a mix of big-box and smaller retail stores,  550 apartments, and 2200 underground parking spaces.    Here's the specific breakout:

• A 170,000 sq. foot Target store
• One other big box store, possibly Lowe's (they'd close the Rainier location), or another retailer like J.C. Penny's 
• A 50,000 sq. foot grocery store
• 4 25,000 sq. foot retail stores, about the size and type of Best Buy, etc
• 30-40 small retail spaces for restaurants, etc
• 80-100 very-low-income apartments for seniors, priced for those with incomes around $14,000 per year
• 100-120 low-income apartments priced for people earning around $27,000 per year
• 350 market rate apartments (described as being at the lower end of market rate)

The development site is about 11 acres, mostly owned by Goodwill (for perspective, developers claim it would spread over 70 acres if built to normal suburban standards).  Goodwill will turn the property over to the developers in exchange for a new building on the site to house their retail and job-training operations.  Evidently their existing buildings are in a very poor state of repair, and this project is a way for Goodwill to continue their mission at that site without having to raise private funds to build new facilities themselves.

One of my original concerns was the car-centric nature of the development, starting with the 2,200 parking stalls.   To contrast that, Mr. Vange says that a comparable development in the suburbs would have about 3,300 spaces.   He also says that the project is designed to support other modes of travel too, with 300 spots to park bikes (both above and below ground), 12-22 foot wide sidewalks and traffic signal changes to support pedestrians, and access to several major bus lines and a possible Jackson St. streetcar in the future.   

The project's impact on traffic has been studied as part of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).   For the busiest intersection at Rainier & Dearborn, the average delay during peak hours would go up about 17%, increasing the wait by 7 seconds.  All other intersections would see smaller impacts than that.   The project will also pay for a variety of traffic improvements, including an additional lane southbound on Rainier between Jackson & Dearborn. 

The other issue is the type of retail.  The large spots will definitely be national chains, but what about the smaller stores?  Is there any commitment to supporting locally owned businesses?   According to Mr. Vange, the answer is yes.  They've pledged to subsidize the leases for small businesses up to $100,000 per year, bringing the overall rate down to about $27 per square foot per year for about 10 businesses.  For comparison, that's about the same as  the rate for commercial space around 23rd & Jackson.

I came out of the presentation feeling more positive about the project than I had before.   I end up shopping at Target once a month or so for some basic things, and it would be nice to do it here in the neighborhood instead of driving to Northgate or West Seattle.   A good grocery store would also be a benefit to the area, and it would be hard to turn down 200 units of affordable housing.   And while the sheer number of parking spaces still gives me pause, I'm guessing that the cost of gas in 2012 and beyond will keep those from being 100% utilized.

Mr. Vange's parting words to the Squire Park group were to encourage people to speak out if they support the project.  He says the city council always hears from opponents of projects, but rarely from the supporters.  

Both supporters and opponents will have their next chance to speak out on Monday, September 22nd.

With the tanking national real estate market and the months-long silence on the issue, I had assumed that the big redevelopment project at the Goodwill site had been put on hold. But today there was some movement on the project when the city's Director of the
Department of Planning & Development conditionally approved the Master Use Permit for the project.

The project would replace all the buildings on the 10.25 acre Goodwill site from Rainier on the east, to 13th on the South, and Weller and Dearborn on the north and south. It includes a six story building with almost 700,000 square feet of retail, including at least two big-box stores, 565 residential units, and parking for 2,307(!!!) vehicles.

There's a lot of opposition to the project, including the Squire Park and Jackson Place neighborhood groups. Opponents have until May 15th to appeal the project, and if they do there will be a public hearing in early June. It also requires City Council approval as a final step.

(h/t to Andrew)
So let's hear it: who supports and opposes the project as currently designed?

I was over near Jackson St. today and saw that all of the cars parked along the street had flyers on them advertising a "Neighborhood Forum" on the subject of CASA Latina's pending move from Belltown to 17th & Jackson.

The agenda for the meeting definitely establishes it as being opposed to the move, but more interesting was the group organizing the event: Jackson Street Community Association. Note that this is not the Jackson Place Community Council (JPCC) that is the city-recognized community group for the area near and to the south of Jackson.

There's been a lot of controversy about CASA Latina and the good neighbor agreement (GNA) that was negotiated with them. The JPCC board supports it, and a vocal group of residents in the area have been opposed. Now it appears that some in that latter group are trying to secede and create their own community group to directly oppose CASA Latina and the GNA.

I spoke to a JPCC board member who hadn't previously heard of the new group but he has "a pretty good hunch that they are in fact setting themselves up as adversaries to the official Jackson Place Community Council group".

The jacksonstreet.org domain was registered back in November 2007, and was done so anonymously. An email sent to the address listed on their website hasn't been answered yet.

Anyone out there have any clues about this? If so, leave a comment below.

Update: Genji Shiga responded to the email I sent to jacksonstreet.org, and confirmed that they are mainly motivated by CASA Latina move and the existing community groups' support of it. They currently have 3 people on their board of directors and they're actively seeking to grow the organization.

Regarding potential conflict and overlap between Jackson Place Community Council and his new group, Genji responded that:

We believe that the JSCA is complimentary to the Jackson Place and Squire Park community groups, especially with respect to the issues regarding CASA Latina. For example, apparently the Presidents of both Jackson Place and Squire Park fully support CASA Latina's move to 17th Ave. S. and S. Jackson Street. We believe that such bias towards such move may have had the unintended negative consequence of preventing such community groups from informing and educating their constituents of all applicable issues. Accordingly, we believe that the JSCA provides a forum where residents and other stakeholders in the neighborhood can learn more about such move. We believe that regardless of your position on an issue, the disclosure of more information is always better than less.

I'm guessing that next week's meeting on this topic will be pretty interesting, so you may want to attend if you're involved in the CASA Latina issue or want to learn more: Wednesday, January 30th, 6pm, Douglass-Truth Library.

By now, most people have heard that CASA Latina will be moving their headquarters from Belltown to Jackson Place, specifically 17th and Jackson. This will happen in the summer of 2008.

So what is CASA Latina? Centro de Ayuda Solidara a los Amigos, or "The Center of Supportive Aid to Friends" is a day labor organization that provides Latino immigrants with employment and educational opportunities. They help unite workers and employers, and provide English as a Second Language classes, among other services. To learn more, see their website.

This has been a very hot topic for the members of the Jackson Place neighborhood. Rumors have been running rampant throughout the CD, with the most prevalent being that the majority of the Jackson Place residents are not in support of CASA, but that the JP community council board went their own route and welcomed them with open arms.

I attended the December meeting of the Jackson Place Community Council Monday evening and this topic was the main focus of discussion with both opinions being well represented. Of those in attendance it did seem that the majority of the neighbors opposed the move, while the board, although not unanimous, was in favor of CASA coming to the neighborhood.

Arguments FOR CASA Latina
• helps to support immigrant families
• helps to assimilate immigrants into our culture
• helps those willing to work to find it
• gives JP residents an opportunity to help others in need
• helps to spark other altruistic actions in the neighborhood
• shows Seattle that JP is not a neighborhood that has succumbed to gentrification and is not exclusional

Arguments AGAINST CASA Latina
• increase in homeless flooding the parks and vacant lots
• increase in crime, specifically drugs
• increase in people looking for work that aren't associated with the program
• all of theses increases happening in an area with parks and schools
• CASA takes no responsibility for any problems that arise with their members away from the center.

It definitely seemed that a majority of the neighbors at this meeting felt that the city, the mayor's office, and the Belltown neighborhood are "dumping" CASA Latina out of Belltown and downtown because of recent renovations and a surge in high priced condos and apartments into a more "blighted" neighborhood such as the JP. They seem to be offended that, if this conspiracy exists, these kind of opinions about JP are prevalent. They feel that JP is a residential area and that any form of a day labor organization is better suited for a more industrial area.

This mentality was met with quite alot of resistance with those in opposition using such language as "anti-immigrant" and "unamerican" to descibe these ideas. They seemed to be offended that Latino day laborers are being portrayed as "trashy", "dirty" people that ruin any neighborhood that they come in contact with, when they are really hard working people just trying to survive in this country.

The fact of the matter is that CASA Latina is coming to JP whether they like it or not. The majority of the neighbors at this meeting understand this, but feel that the Good Neighbor Agreement (GNA) with CASA should not be signed because it is a meritless document, "without teeth", leaving CASA with very little responsibility with monitoring those in their program. They also feel that there should be a neighborhood vote on whether or not to sign the agreement.

The board feels that it is too late for members of the neighborhood to organize a vote on this issue. They seem content in signing the document, but will further discuss this matter at the next board meeting Monday, January 7th Location TBA. Anyone may attend this meeting. JPCC website

To an outsider, like myself, it definitely appears that a majority of the neighborhood was left out of this process, although unintentionally. It seems that people waited too long to voice their opinion, and I am not sure that opinions six months ago could have stopped this move. To me, I think that the truth lies in between the two arguments. CASA Latina looks like an organization that is aimed at helping hard working people find much needed work. I feel that they will help many immigrants find work and establish a home here. Isn't that what this country is about? Hard work and a sense of community? But I also think that there will be some isolated incidents of crime, panhandling, or other unwanted activity that will give this program a bad name and create fuel for some within the neighborhood to say, "See, I told you so!". But, I hope that CASA lives up to all of its expectations and brings the established members of the neighborhood and the new guests together to make this great neighborhood even better.

So, friend or foe? How about froe.

What's your opinion on this? Would you want a day labor organization moving in next door to you??

Yeah, me neither.

Some of the members of the Jackson Place Community Council have put together a neighborhood newsletter. It will be published quarterly and if anyone would like to help with its production, contact JPCC through their website. They mentioned that they need help selling advertising.

Headlines from this issue: Larry Bafus opens Working Dog Bicycles, Dearborn Street Goodwill Development, City awards Jackson Place traffic funds, CADA Development at 17th and Jackson, CASA Latina (17th and Jackson), New Sculpture Park, The History of Jackson Place, Concerned About Crime