Northgate

May 2007

1

Northgate Area Rezone Proposal

Background Information

Seattle's Urban Centers. Over the next 20 years, the City of Seattle is expected to grow by

more than 51,000 households and 92,000 jobs. The City's growth strategy is to guide the

majority of this growth into six designated "Urban Centers", which are compact areas developed

intensively for a mix of land uses. Northgate is one of the City's designated Urban Centers.

Northgate Goals & Revitalization Efforts. A Neighborhood Plan was adopted for the

Northgate Urban Center in 1993 and is incorporated in the City's Comprehensive Plan. The

overall objective of the Comprehensive Plan's Northgate policies is to transform an autooriented

landscape into a thriving multi-family residential and mixed-use Urban Center that

concentrates pedestrian-friendly and transit-oriented development in the urban core to protect

and complement surrounding neighborhoods.

Northgate's growth has lagged that of other Urban Centers' for more than a decade. Since

1995, development of new residential units reached only six percent of the Northgate housing

growth target and from 1995 to 1998, only 16 percent of employment targets had been

achieved. However, this trend is changing with a number of significant public and private

projects, which have been initiated or accomplished over the past few years. These have

included the Northgate Branch Library, Community Center and Park Campus, Maple Leaf

Community Garden, Fifth Avenue NE Street Improvements, Open Space and Pedestrian

Connections Plan, and Public Arts Plan, and design of the Thornton Creek Water Quality

Channel. Development projects in the planning or construction stages include Northgate Mall

Redevelopment, Thornton Place, King County Metro's Transit Oriented Development, and

redevelopment of three large properties along or adjacent to Northgate Way Ð'- Mullally, Wallace

and Kauri. The Seattle Parks Department is also in the early stages of planning and design of a

park on the current Metro park-and-ride lot at 112th Street to accomplish a long-standing goal of

the Northgate community,. These initiatives, along with positive economic and market

conditions, have created a rare opportunity to shape growth in Northgate comprehensively,

rather than to react to individual projects.

Building on the Northgate CTIP. In 2006, the Seattle Department of Transportation

prepared the Northgate Coordinated Transportation Investment Plan (CTIP), to help plan for

anticipated growth. The CTIP includes a long-range (2030) area-wide transportation analysis

and identifies a list of priority transportation and pedestrian improvements that will accomplish

four major objectives: move people safely and efficiently; reduce drive-alone travel; support

housing and economic development; and protect neighborhoods. The final CTIP report was

published in September 2006.

May 2007

2

Focus on Northgate Way. Following a design workshop in late 2006, the City began early

discussions with the Northgate community regarding the option of legislatively upzoning

properties along or adjacent to a portion of Northgate Way (generally from Meridian Avenue to

Roosevelt Way) to help encourage and focus additional residential and mixed-use development

in this important corridor. In April, the Northgate Stakeholders Group transmitted an advice

memo to the Mayor and City Council expressing support for considering legislative rezoning

actions that could further Northgate revitalization by increasing density and heights (up to 125

feet) in the Urban Center. The Stakeholders also reaffirmed the importance of implementing the

CTIP improvements