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Civics & Culture/Environment & Sustainability/Housing/Social Welfare

Washington State Awards Rural Community Block Grants, Program Imperiled

by Stephen Fesler @safesler on September 20, 2017

On Monday, the Washington State Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) announced awards of the 2017 Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs) to rural jurisdictions across the state. $10 million is planned for disbursement to 23 rural communities with an emphasis on benefiting lower-income people. The grants range from $24,000 to $750,000 allowing for a variety of investments. The grant funding will be partially used to leverage other private and public financing tools to increase the overall impact. CDBGs are an important economic development and equity tool that the federal government provides.

The Trump administration has proposed full elimination of the CDBG program from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget, though Congress appears unlikely to zero out the $3 billion annual program. In larger communities like Seattle, the impacts from CDBG cuts could be substantial, amounting to nearly $9 million in annual funding losses–in addition to tens of millions more in other grant programs for infrastructure, economic, and affordable housing development.

The 2017 grants to rural communities fall short of demand for investment. 37 application requests were submitted to Commerce totaling $18 million in needs. While the share of proposals awarded grants (25) is more than 67%, Commerce was only able to fulfill 55% of the total project cost requests. The gulf between need and investment is wide.

Here is just a few of the projects that the CDBGs for 2017 will fund:

$750,000 for water system improvements in Benton County.
$24,000 for capital facilities planning in Cle Elum.
$24,000 for an emergency center feasibility plan in Colville.
$188,707 for a public housing rehabilitation program in Cowlitz County.
$24,000 for a wastewater system in Creston.
$436,069 for expansion of a Montessori School in San Juan County.
$24,000 for flood damage repair plan in Sprague.
$24,000 for a downtown corridor revitalization plan in Tonasket.
$750,000 for a medical clinic expansion in Whatcom County.

As should be evident, the types of projects that can be funded by CDBGs is broad and tailored to community needs. This is why the program is invaluable to communities across the state and country, especially smaller communities that may not be able to make targeted investments otherwise.

Carsharing & Ridesharing/Transportation

How Uber Drivers Can Help Us Plan Cities for Self-Driving Cars

by Guest Contributor and Yes Segura @urbanistorg on September 20, 2017

Most recently I have taken on a new venture in which I am dedicating my career to helping cities plan for autonomous vehicles (AVs) and other disruptive transportation technologies (e.g., drones, electric vehicles, and hyperloop). My startup is called Smash the Box Planning, where we smash the box instead of thinking outside of it.

For the meantime, I’ve started Uber driving in Seattle. After driving around the city for a couple of weeks, I realized that Uber drivers can play a huge role in planning our cities for self-driving cars.

Typical Ride

A typical Uber Driver ride consists of these four steps:

Uber customer requests a ride.
You accept the ride and drive to where they are located on the map.
You pick up the rider.
Travel to the destination in which you then drop off the rider.

Understanding what a typical ride consists of really opens up your eyes when observing the urban landscape as an Uber driver.

What Would an Uber Self-driving Car Look Like in a City?

Uber is more or less so like renting out your car, but with self-driving cars you would just imagine taking the human driver out of the equation. Taking those main functions of a typical ride from requesting a ride via your app, to the car self-navigating itself to you, then picking you up, and driving to your final destination for a drop-off is valuable information that an uber driver’s knowledge and experience can help us plan our cities for AVs. This is inclusive planning that allows for drivers to have an input on issues and concerns they believe need to be identified. This is also sustainable planning, because of how Uber drivers are well-equipped with navigating the streets of urban areas, so by having them help us design our roads will allow us to identify the most common issues and concerns, and in return planning for an AV future that will mitigate unforeseen issues.

For the sake of keeping this article short, I’m just going to focus on the key assets that an Uber driver acquires from driving, but also highlights elements for designing cities for AVs: maps, data, major events, and drop-off and pick-up zones.

Housing/Parking

SDCI Takes a Stab at Parking Reform

by Doug Trumm @dmtrumm on September 19, 2017

On Thursday, the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) issued draft legislation that would reform how the City deals with parking requirements. SDCI promises to provide “flexibility for building owners to make parking facilities with excess capacity available for public use.”

Notably, the proposal would correct a Director’s Rule defining “Frequent Transit Service” to make it much tougher to sue to block new housing without parking based on the argument transit schedules sometime do not match reality, such as when peak hour traffic delays frequently scheduled buses. The logic here is that we should require more parking, although this induces more trip demand and further worsens traffic, slowing buses even more in absence of dedicated lanes. This was a tactic used by Livable Phinney to delay an apartment project on Greenwood Avenue.

The proposal would also correct a parking zone overlay that treated Northgate like it’s not even an Urban Village even though it’s actually an Urban Center. Large mixed-use urban developments, most prominently a light rail station-oriented affordable development, are expected in Northgate ahead of Link extending there by 2021. This change would allow them either to share parking or not build it at all.

Northgate, though a parking crater today, is expected to transform into an urban center with the arrival of light rail. (Sound Transit)

SDCI lays the groundwork for more shared parking schemes in Seattle. The legislation would “create a new use category, ‘flexible-use parking,’ to allow for greater sharing of parking in certain zones, including in: Lowrise 3, Midrise, Highrise, most commercial, and industrial zones; and in mixed-use development garages in light rail station areas,” SDCI wrote in its bulletin.

The agency also made the connection to the City’s housing affordability goals.

“We are working to address housing affordability from all angles, including lowering the cost to build housing,” SDCI director Nathan Torgelson said. “By lowering the cost of construction and encouraging more housing near public transit, we will make Seattle more accessible and affordable to everyone who lives and works here.”

“As recommended by the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA), this legislation also clarifies existing regulations that provide flexibility for residential projects to tailor their supply of off-street parking in accordance with demand in Urban Villages, Urban Centers and other areas served by frequent transit,” SDCI said in its release. “By reducing the provision of excess parking, this policy decreases construction costs and encourages more housing in communities best served by transit, lowering the cost of building housing overall.”

The vast majority of Seattle developments build parking, even in areas with frequent transit service, where the City of Seattle has waived parking requirements–and a big chunk of that parking goes unused.

Events

South Lake Union Boom Tour on Saturday

by Scott Bonjukian @NWUrbanist on September 19, 2017

For our final walking tour of the year we’re partnering with local housing organizations to take a close look at the South Lake Union development boom. While the neighborhood is best known for its transformation from a working class warehouse district to a global technology hub, the area also has a stunning variety of affordable housing projects putting roofs over the heads of Seattle’s lower income residents, including formerly homeless people and seniors. We’ll look at everything from preserved apartment buildings to new towers that utilize incentive zoning. We’ll also visit contrasting community spaces like a neighborhood p-patch and a new mid-block alley built by Amazon.

On this tour we’ll have representatives from Seattle Tech 4 Housing, Bellwether Housing, and the Seattle Office of Housing.

You’ll learn and see so much on this unique look at South Lake Union that we are experimenting with a fixed ticket price – rather than an optional donation – to better support our programming. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

CLICK HERE TO GET TICKETS
When: Saturday, September 23, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Where: Outside the Museum of History and Industry at Lake Union Park (860 Terry Ave N)
Walking distance: 2 miles
Ticket price: $10 per person

Urbanist Tours: Rainier Avenue Video Recap

Elections & Endorsements/Politics & Government/Seattle City Council/Seattle Mayor

Seattle Council Votes Tim Burgess Mayor

by Doug Trumm @dmtrumm on September 18, 2017

Seattle’s mayoral musical chairs is over, and the person occupying the seat is Tim Burgess.

This afternoon the Seattle City Council voted 5 to 1 to install Councilmember Tim Burgess as mayor. Burgess’s opening occurred after Mayor Murray resigned Tuesday and Council President Bruce Harrell declined his first right to keep the position, opting to turn the position over to one of his colleagues on the council. That made Burgess the third mayor of Seattle in one week.

Burgess needed five votes to become mayor and got them with only Councilmember Kshama Sawant opposing him. The Seattle Ethics Commission recommended Burgess not vote on his own appointment given his inherent conflict of interest. The position comes with not just power but also a big pay check. The position of Mayor of Seattle comes with a base compensation of $175,000 a year. Pro-rated to 71 days–which is how long Burgess will serve–that’s just over $34,000. Seattle City Councilmembers make $117,000 per year.

The Seattle City Charter dictates that the mayoral transition after the November election, which normally takes place on January 1, will take place on November 28 in this case, City Attorney Pete Holmes said. That means either Cary Moon or Jenny Durkan will be mayor sooner than otherwise expected. Either would be the second woman to be mayor of Seattle, with Bertha Knight Landes, who served from 1926 to 1928, the first.

The five councilmembers who voted for Burgess said nice things about him in commentary before voting. Burgess was painted as a mentor and all around nice guy of high integrity.

Then, Councilmember Sawant took the mic and reminded everyone of some of Burgess’ flaws in her estimation, highlighting his positions on homelessness and police accountability.

Civics & Culture/Link light rail

Sound Transit Expands Station Busking Program

by Doug Trumm @dmtrumm on September 18, 2017

This morning Sound Transit announced it has expanded its street performer program, taking it beyond the pilot program at University of Washington and Capitol Hill Link light rail stations to Beacon Hill, Mount Baker, Columbia City, Othello, Tukwila, and Angle Lake.

“After finishing the pilot project in February, we used feedback from communities and peer agencies to devise a set of guidelines for expanding performance sites to select stations,” said Sound Transit Chief Executive Officer Peter Rogoff. “Our goal is to create a welcoming experience for light rail riders. By providing opportunities for street musicians to perform at more stations, we help support the unique character of those neighborhoods served by Link.”

A survey of transit riders and street performers revealed wide support for expanding the busking program, Sound Transit said.

The busking program should help Sound Transit transform the atmosphere at its stations–which now tend toward drab utilitarianism with little in the way of entertainment or retail–and enliven the spaces within, many of which are beautiful adorned, such as the region’s most recently opened station at Angle Lake, as pictured above.

Sound Transit’s expanded busker program also allow larger performances: “The program now allows as many as five performers at a time, up from a limit of three during the pilot. Performance locations are marked with stainless steel stars to help prevent performers and audiences from blocking station traffic.”

Design Review/HALA/Housing

Housing Now’s Open Letter on Design Review

by Housing Now Seattle and Guest Contributor @urbanistorg on September 18, 2017

Before most new buildings in Seattle can be constructed, their plans must first go through a process known as “Design Review.” Design Review Boards (DRBs) consist of volunteers selected by the city. These boards review building proposals and recommend changes to make building designs more aesthetically pleasing and functionally integrated into their surroundings. Sounds good, right? There are two problems: first is that there’s no objective definition of good design. What may seem like a good or at least acceptable design to one person may be objectionable to another. Design review is as likely to suppress interesting designs as it is to avoid “bad” designs. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the time it takes to undergo multiple design revisions raises the cost of building housing. This applies to both for-profit and nonprofit buildings alike.

Fortunately, the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) report identified design review reform as a priority. The goal was to reduce the costs that design review adds to the price of new housing by exempting more smaller projects from design review and creating an abbreviated design review for medium projects while reserving the full design review process for the largest projects. Since smaller projects are more sensitive to costs and uncertainty, this makes a lot of sense. It’s also the case that a small project is less likely to become a visual eyesore than a large one.

The HALA report was published in July 2015 and the Seattle City Council is just now getting around to implementing this proposal. Housing Now has written them the following letter expressing our ideas about this proposal and how it can be improved.

Cycling/One Center City/Transit

One Center City Finally Finds Mode Balance

by Ryan Packer @typewriteralley on September 18, 2017

In June, I wrote about how the One Center City stakeholder group was heading toward a downtown where the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel could no longer accommodate buses, but where no additional street space had been allocated on the surface for public transit.

A quick recap: in either March or September of 2019, Convention Place Station is slated to close and the entirety of the tunnel will no longer be able to accommodate buses. Sound Transit and King County Metro are moving forward with truncating several bus routes that currently operate on surface streets in downtown Seattle or in the tunnel, particularly the routes that use the 520 floating bridge.

The idea of either adding an additional bus lane to 4th Avenue or even converting 5th Avenue into a two-way transit mall were both discarded as either impacting traffic too much for marginal gains in transit travel time (4th Avenue) or impractical to implement given the timeline and neighborhood opposition in the core of the downtown retail district (5th Avenue).

The major geometric issue to solve is northbound transit capacity. A crucial part of the plan is a two-way protected bike lane to galvanize the center city bike network and finally provide safe connections through downtown up the hill from 2nd Avenue. Traffic studies had shown that transit times would be slowed down if the number of buses on 4th Avenue remained the same and an additional general purpose lane was converted to a bike lane and the dedicated turn signals needed to keep users on the bike lane safe prevented free left turns off 4th.

On Thursday night, the One Center City advisory group was presented with a solution. 5th Avenue, which is southbound for most traffic, has a continuous contraflow transit-only lane that currently ends at the express lane entrances to I-5 at Cherry Street. If this was extended to Marion St, and a transit only lane installed there, buses could get onto the new two-way 6th Avenue, which has room for an additional transit lane. From there buses have an easier way to get out of downtown via Pike Street or Olive Way. Just under 30 buses per hour would use this pathway during the PM peak when traffic is at its worst.