Round Two: City Council Favors Million Dollar Condos Over Park InitiativeBy Thad Curtz
Local waterfront activists have recently been learning a bitter lesson - you can't ever assume something's settled. In 2002, the City Council left legal heights on the isthmus between Capitol Lake and Budd Inlet at 35 feet because of impressive community opposition to high-rises there. They also rezoned more than four blocks along Water Street to allow five-story housing, so most people assumed that a compromise had been established. In fact, nothing's safe unless it's permanently protected. Since January, Olympia citizens have spent a great deal of time and energy opposing or supporting a request by Triway Enterprises to rezone the isthmus for high-rise luxury condominiums. Interestingly, it seems everybody makes environmental arguments now, whether they support or oppose the proposal. Some supporters genuinely believe in them; they are just willing to sacrifice the aesthetic value of the sweeping Romantic view from the Capitol for diffuse possible long-term environmental benefits. However, some downtown businesses and the many people from the real estate industry who have provided a lot of the support for the rezone also keep using environmental arguments. They say Triway's project will encourage walking, biking and mass-transit use; reduce driving; leave more rural land available for agriculture and open space - and be good for business, of course. Unfortunately, building 141 luxury condominiums, selling for around $1 million each, really wouldn't do much to meet those worthy goals. Of course opponents of the rezone share and support those goals, but they could be met equally well by putting housing in lots of other places downtown. How to best address the need for housing in the downtown area is a complex issue. If there is any substantial environmental argument in favor of Triway's project, it's the unsupported claim that a luxury "pioneer project" supported by city concessions would kick off lots more downtown housing. However, Triway's own market study says just the opposite is true, and that the company should start with moderate housing to develop the market. This fact seems to have had no influence on the conversation. The critical role that decisions about land use by the County Commission and the Port of Olympia play in whether more housing is built downtown, and where it can be located, has been also been pretty much ignored in the discussion. These important policy decisions need to be carefully monitored and taken into account. Policy makers also need to be held accountable for ignoring the will of the people. So far, wide and deep community opposition at the City Council level hasn't been enough to stop this proposal. Letters to the editor, written testimony to the Planning Commission and the Council, and sign-ins and speakers at the public hearings all ran strongly against the rezone. Recently, the Olympia Capitol Park Foundation gathered around 4,000 city voters' signatures in just over five weeks to successfully complete its initiative campaign to compel the Council to study the cost of an isthmus park, and explore ways to get financial help creating one. This was the first such successful campaign in the city since 1955, when citizens passed an initiative to create Watershed Park and Sylvester Park, which we so take for granted today. In response to the citizens' initiative, the City Council did start the park study. At the same time, though, five of the seven Council members went ahead and voted to take a big step toward a rezone. Jeff Kingsbury, Doug Mah, Rhenda Strub, Joan Machlis, and Craig Ottavelli all agreed to proceed toward rezoning for up to 90 feet, requesting ordinances to consider in November, before the park study will be completed. Only Councilwoman Karen Messmer voted to oppose this motion, out of respect for the ongoing and growing opposition by a significant percentage of Olympians. (Joe Hyer straddled the fence, saying he wouldn't vote for more than 65 foot heights at this time, but might be persuaded to vote for more.) At this point, the Councilmembers voting in the majority apparently intend to simply ignore the implications of the citizens' initiative, going ahead and voting on the rezone in December. They've decided to split the initative's study in two pieces, starting with a rush assessment by December 1 of costs and "an estimate of funding capacity for the likely participants." They've reserved actually looking for or talking with any other possible sources of funds for a "Phase Two," which they say they won't do unless their quick mini-study concludes that "sufficient capacity exists to reasonably support" creating a park. If passed as currently proposed, their rezone would significantly increase the value of this land. It would allow Triway to build an additional 171,000 square feet of high-rise housing with prime views on its property, in addition to 90% of the commercial space it can currently build. The bottom line is that rezoning right away will make it much likelier that the park option will be beyond reach if the citizens' five-month long study is ever completed. This isn't over yet. The city's Land Use Committee recently recommended eliminating the property tax break for housing on the isthmus. The national financial crisis makes it even harder to finance projects, and has dramatically reduced the home equity and investments of buyers. The Council could postpone the rezone decision and actually explore a park option when the study's complete. They could require an updated market analysis before giving away the views based on a speculative proposal and the promised success of Triway's project. The rezone could be thrown out as a result of subsequent litigation. So far, though, one big lesson for Olympia's environmental activists seems to be that bringing a great deal of public opinion to bear on such a significant issue just isn't enough to persuade the Councilmembers we all elected. Thad Curtz runs the website for Friends of the Waterfront, at http://www.friendsofthewaterfront.org
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