Central District YMCA and church land part of mayor’s plan to speed up Seattle ‘taller and denser’ zoning changes

A proposal to speed up near-term development of new housing while the city continues to pound out longer-term changes to its growth plan includes a block of the Central District.

Mayor Katie Wilson announced her plans to speed up Seattle “taller and denser” zoning changes earlier this month.

Wednesday’s busy Seattle City Council land use committee meeting includes the beginning of debate on a set of proposals that would surgically upzone areas of the city “to support near-term investment in additional housing supply” while “while broader, more holistic changes to implement the new Comprehensive Plan work their way through the process.”

The Wilson administration package includes proposals for a Fremont / Stone Way rezone, n expanded Downtown Retail Core and Belltown rezones, plus new incentives to retain a grocery store and housing in Lake City. Planners say the proposals would remove code barriers to passive house, modular and mass timber construction, make it easier to convert from commercial space to housing in more zones, and would surgically rezone select blocks to support multi-purpose redevelopment on sites with community-based uses.

One of those blocks is in the Central District. Under the proposal, the land around the Meredith Mathews YMCA and nearby Ebenezer AME Zion Church would be surgically upzoned:

Rezone the property between 23rd and 24th Avenue fronting on East Olive Street that is owned by the Seattle / King County YMCA from Lowrise 2 (LR2) to Neighborhood Commercial 2 with a 75 foot height limit (NC2-75). Additionally, rezone three adjacent parcels owned by the Ebenezer AME church from the Lowrise 3 (LR3) zone to the NC2-75 zone. In total the rezone area would consist of four parcels and 1.4 acres of land.

A broader component would “amend the City’s Planned Community Development (PCD) regulations to make redevelopment more viable on large sites in any downtown zone that are owned by nonprofit agencies.”

“Potentially relevant large properties include the Goodwill campus of sites on South Dearborn Street, and would also apply to other large properties owned by non-profit agencies in downtown,” the council analysis (PDF) reads.

While there are currently no public plans for redevelopment of the 23rd Ave adjacent properties, officials say the legislative package is hoped to spark near-term development with projects entering permitting over the next one to three years.

The near-term push comes as Seattle is also focused on completing an overhaul to its long-term growth plan. CHS reported here on on the next phase for shaping core elements of the new growth plan and the debate that will likely burn hottest for those opposed to change in the city: future growth in areas like Montlake, Madison Valley, Madison Park, and Madrona.

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