On Dec. 21, Mayor Nickels signed legislation adopting the 2006 annual amendments to the City’s Comprehensive (Comp) Plan. The changes, approved by City Council on Dec. 11, include:

• changing the Future Land Use Map designation for land on the north side of Dearborn Street from “industrial” to “commercial/mixed-use”
• designating the North Highline area as a potential annexation area
• encouraging use of incentive zoning that would require developers to provide housing units affordable to low-income households when the developers are in areas where the zoning is changed in a way that increases development capacity
• giving more priority for improving pedestrian safety in places experiencing high levels of growth and in places with a history of pedestrian/vehicle accidents
• replacing the neighborhood plans for both Roosevelt and South Lake Union with new goals and policies that resulted from recent planning efforts in those two neighborhoods
• adding the triangle of land bounded by Denny Way, Aurora Avenue and Broad Street to the Uptown Urban Center
• calling for demolition of aerial transportation facilities in the shoreline zone, such as the Alaskan Way Viaduct, and to allow construction of a tunnel or surface configuration to replace that roadway within 200 feet of the shoreline
• promoting an increased use of ferry service that accommodates pedestrians