Creating Opportunity In South Lake Union
Background

The Mayor's action agenda projects the South Lake Union neighborhood as a regional hub for biotechnology and other sciences, bringing thousands of jobs and households to the area by 2020. Land use changes are one piece of this plan. 

Updating the South Lake Union Neighborhood Plan
In the 2004 Comprehensive Plan 10-year update, South Lake Union was designated an urban center. An urban center designation recognizes the significant growth planned for the neighborhood. The Comprehensive Plan has targeted 16,000 new jobs and 8,000 new households to be added to the neighborhood between 2004 and 2024.

Being designated an urban center is a regional designation. The King County Countywide Planning Policies contain requirements for an urban center plan. The South Lake Union neighborhood plan update will address those requirements, acknowledge the growth that is planned for the neighborhood, and to capture the changes to the neighborhood over the past seven years.

The updated South Lake Union neighborhood plan builds on the existing plan; requirements for Urban Center plans under the Countywide Planning Policies; plans for large scale redevelopment of the neighborhood; major public investments planned for the neighborhood; and ongoing City efforts to support the growth of the neighborhood. The development of the South Lake Union Urban Center plan was managed by DPD staff, incorporating community input and participation.

As with the current neighborhood plan, the updated neighborhood plan consists of four parts:

  1. recommendations to amend the South Lake Union neighborhood goals and policies in the Comprehensive Plan;
  2. an update to the recognized neighborhood plan to reflect new goals and address requirements in the Countywide Planning Policies;
  3. an updated set of strategies to implement the goals and policies; and
  4. community prioritization of the policies and strategies.

A series of meetings were held between June of 2005 and June of 2007 to receive public input on ideas related to the neighborhood plan. See the Events and Activities Page for more information.

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Supporting Seattle Businesses
Mayor Nickels has proposed a height increase on two blocks in South Lake Union to support an extraordinary proposal to retain a large and growing Seattle-based company. The Mayor’s proposal, which the Council is considering, includes incentives for historic preservation and arts facilities, and requires a contribution for affordable housing. The proposal is modeled on programs that have been successful in Downtown Seattle and with a citywide approach to incentive zoning the Mayor recently sent to Council. The Mayor’s two block height increase will provide a starting point for the analysis of applying these concepts more broadly through the neighborhood.

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Improving Urban Form
In 2008, the South Lake Union Friends and Neighbors Community Council (SLUFAN) will be working with DPD and other community groups to review heights, densities and the neighborhood’s urban form. This study will implement recommendations from the SLU neighborhood plan. DPD will be supporting this effort with staff assistance and will lead the environmental review of options that arise from this work.

The urban form study seeks to:

  • Promote development that maintains South Lake Union as a vibrant, sustainable place to live, work and play. 
  • Provide for a more diverse and attractive neighborhood character by providing a mix of housing types, uses, building types and heights.
  • Provide for public benefits including affordable housing through zoning incentives.
  • Enhance the pedestrian quality at street level by providing amenities, taking into consideration light and air as well as public view corridors and providing for retail activity at key locations.

The public will be invited to participate throughout the process. The study will start off with an intensive urban design workshop (charrette). The workshops will be open to the public and include opportunities for public comment at the end of each day. Additional opportunities to review and shape the proposals will be provided at each step in the process.

To be included on the mailing list for the urban form study or to share your ideas about how development in South Lake Union could be improved, please contact Lish Whitson, Senior Planner, DPD at lish.whitson@seattle.gov or (206) 233-0079.

Creating Housing Opportunities
Legislation creating more housing opportunities in South Lake Union by rezoning and amending the Land Use Code was passed by the Seattle City Council in May 2005.

See Legislation Report or Legislation.

Rezones
Rezones allow the flexibility for mixed-use development, including housing. The proposed Seattle Mixed (SM) zone eliminates barriers to housing development while respecting the neighborhood’s commercial history. The SM zone permits commercial and manufacturing activities, allowing existing businesses to remain and prosper.

The proposal changes existing Neighborhood Commercial 3 (NC3) and Commercial 1 and 2 (C2 and C2) zones in parts of the neighborhood (see map) to Seattle Mixed (SM) zone (renamed from Seattle Cascade Mixed).

Code Amendments
In addition to the rezones, code amendments include:

  1. Requiring Design Review for new development in the Industrial Commercial (IC) zone until this zone is re-considered as part of a citywide examination of industrial areas in 2005; Adding "Seattle Mixed" as the new zone name for the current Seattle Cascade Mixed (SCM) zone and amend rezone criteria to allow the broader use of the SM zone in other areas, where appropriate.
  2. Requiring pedestrian-oriented design, such as transparency of street-level facades, or upper-level setbacks along a mapped network of streets.

These changes are intended to encourage housing development in a pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use neighborhood throughout South Lake Union.

Seattle Mixed Zone Highlights
The Seattle Mixed zone allows a broad range of uses, including housing. Development standards focus on building design, allowing flexibility for how the buildings are used, while maintaining a desirable urban form. Key features of the zone include:

  1. Upper-level Setbacks: structures abutting certain east/west streets and the Cascade and Denny Parks are required to setback at either 45 or 75 feet, depending on the height limit (see map).
  2. Common Open Space or Recreation Area: these amenities are required for residential development and are required in an amount equal to 5 percent of the floor area in residential use for structures with 20 or more units.
  3. Required Parking: residential is one space per unit; nonresidential is specified by use.
  4. Street-level Requirements: pedestrian-related requirements apply according to a mapped network of streets (basic standards or Class 1 or 2 Pedestrian Streets, see map).
    • Class 1 Pedestrian Streets: street-level uses are required as well as development standards that are applicable to the street-level of new development;
    • Class 2 Pedestrian Streets: development standards, such as transparency and limits on blank facades, apply to the street-level of new development, but uses are flexible; and
    • Basic standard: less stringent development standards apply to the remainder of the streets.

See Legislation Report or Legislation.

Creating Employment Opportunities
Land Use Code amendments designed to accommodate the unique characteristics of research and development laboratories in South Lake Union were unanimously approved by the Seattle City Council in 2003. The legislation:

  • Allows additional height and applies a new height measurement technique
  • Increases the interior allowance for mechanical systems necessary for laboratories
  • Allows increased rooftop mechanical equipment, with setbacks to address height, bulk and scale impacts
  • Assigns a lower, more appropriate, parking requirement for research and development laboratories
  • Clarifies the definition of research and development laboratories (see the full text of the legislation)

During recent years, a number of buildings have been converted or constructed for biotechnology uses or biotech research and development laboratories. A study of these buildings showed that Seattle's Land Use Code did not recognize the unique features of biotech uses and created a competitive disadvantage when compared to office and other uses. In December 2003 Mayor Nickels signed the legislation and praised City Council, the Office of Economic Development (OED) and DPD for their efforts. The Mayor also acknowledged biotech/high-tech businesses and institutions that have made a commitment to Seattle in or near South Lake Union, such as Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, and the University of Washington.

Updates to the SLU Neighborhood Design Guidelines
Amendments to the Land Use Code to correct and clarify the South Lake Union (SLU) Neighborhood Design Guidelines were passed in May 2005. These revised guidelines will aid our volunteer Design Review Board members and others active in the design review process do their work in furthering quality design in South Lake Union.

In applying the SLU guidelines to recent development proposals, Design Review Board members have reported the need to make revisions to the wording of certain guidelines. The revisions more properly express the intent of design guidelines, focusing on design objectives without prescribing the manner in which an objective is to be met. Flexibility in achieving good urban design is central to the Design Review process and of design guidelines.

The revised guidelines maintain their focus on the neighborhood’s key urban design elements to:

  • Reinforce the existing context and character of the neighborhood; and
  • Outline ways in which new development proposals can relate well to noteworthy buildings and positive attributes in the neighborhood.

See ordinance and updated design guidelines.

Other South Lake Union City programs to create housing and job opportunities

Last Updated: January 11, 2008