Managing change: Seattle’s 21^st century urban renaissance

ABSTRACT

Evolution of the urban planning and historic preservation disciplines has resulted in an “uneasy alliance” in practice, one further complicated by the back-to-the-city movement and increased development pressure in older urban neighbourhoods. In Seattle, as in other U.S. cities, the pace, intensity and scale of redevelopment has caused dramatic spatial and social transformations. Although research has shown that older built fabric provides economic and social benefit for cities, neither regulations created by planners for guiding redevelopment nor strategies created by preservationists for retaining urban heritage have been successful in reconciling these different, yet interconnected, sets of values. We engage three Seattle neighbourhood case studies to clarify and evaluate policies, programs and strategies used by planners and preservationists for reimagining neighbourhood transformations. This work suggests a need for more creative, integrative collaboration between the two fields to simultaneously engage – and reconcile – social and economic tensions caused by urban redevelopment.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban conservation
• everyday heritage
• Seattle
• urban renaissance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See Project for Public Spaces https://www.pps.org/blog/cultivating-place/ and NTHP’s Main Street Center at http://www.mainstreet.org/home .

2. See Stone, M. 11 April 2017. “Amazon is taking over Seattle – and residents are calling it ‘Amageddon.’” Business Insider Tech Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-is-taking-over-seattle-2017-4.

3. Seattle’s urban village strategy guides growth in order to match the existing and intended character of the city’s diverse neighbourhoods. Urban Centers (such as Uptown and the U District) are the city’s densest neighbourhoods and serve as both regional hubs that provide a diverse mix of uses, housing, and opportunities for employment. Urban Center Villages (such as Pike Pine) are typically urban neighbourhoods that are less dense than Urban Centers, but provide opportunities for both housing and employment.

4. Washington’s Growth Management Act (GMA), adopted in 1990, requires most Washington counties and cities to prepare comprehensive plans for managing projected population growth. The GMA lays out the basic contents of the required comprehensive plans.

5. Sound Transit, the Puget Sound’s regional transit authority, recently announced plans for extensive light rail expansion, see Sound Transit 3 http://soundtransit3.org/; in 2017, the Seattle Department of Transportation launched a pilot bike share permitting program, see http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/bikeshare.htm.

6. For more detail on affordable housing development incentive packages, see Seattle Office of Housing https://www.seattle.gov/housing/housing-developers/incentive-zoning .

7. For more information on Seattle’s Housing and Livability Agenda (HALA), see http://www.seattle.gov/hala .

8. For more information on Seattle’s Arts and Cultural District Program, see https://www.seattle.gov/arts/arts-and-cultural-districts .

9. For more information on the Only in Seattle economic development initiative, see https://www.seattle.gov/economicdevelopment/business-districts/about-only-in-seattle.

10. Seattle’s Urban Design Frameworks set out a shared community vision and specific implementation actions for focusing community advocacy efforts. Urban Design Frameworks are used by City departments to coordinate work plans and to advance the shared community vision. UDFs also provide guidance to developers working within the community of focus. (see also City of Seattle OPCD Uptown 2016, City of Seattle OPCD UDistrict 2016).

11. See also NTHP: “How to Think like Jane Jacobs” https://savingplaces.org/stories/how-to-think-like-jane-jacobs and NTHP “All About Jane Jacobs” https://savingplaces.org/story-categories/jane-jacobs .

12. The Preservation Green Lab (PGL), a Seattle-based initiative of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, works to connect issues of historic preservation, building reuse and sustainability. See the full report, “Older, Smaller, Better: Measuring how the character of buildings and blocks influences urban vitality,” at http://forum.savingplaces.org/act/pgl/older-smaller-better?_ga=2.72942675.1123562620.1501610194-980246227.1498941765 .

13. Social measures included median age of residents, number of women- and minority-owned businesses, diversity of residents, and residential rents (NTHP 2014).

14. See Note 7 on Seattle’s Urban Center strategy.

15. For more information on the U District rezone and UDF, see U District Urban Design. http://www.seattle.gov/opcd/ongoing-initiatives/u-district-urban-design .

16. The U District served as a pilot neighbourhood for the HALA program in 2017; affordable housing requirements will be implemented more broadly across Seattle in coming years.

17. For more information on Seattle’s URM policy, see: Unreinforced Masonry Buildings. http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/codesrules/changestocode/unreinforcedmasonrybuildings/whatwhy/ .

18. See Seattle Municipal Code 23.58A.042: http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~public/toc/23-58A.htm .

19. For example, a 500-sf studio at the Charmaine Apartments, a 1929 brick apartment building, recently rented for $1,075 per month. In the recently constructed Astro building just blocks away, a 535-sf studio units rent for $1,755-$1,965 per month (see Uptown Alliance 2016).

20. Data gathered by Uptown Alliance, 2016.

21. See “Bringing Preservation Home: Working on the Past in Local Historic Districts.” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/tps/education/workingonthepast/index.htm Retrieved 19 February 2007.

22. Estimates were obtained from King County Assessor’s Office, Localscape: Putting King County in Focus, http://localscape.property/#kingcountyassessor/ (assessed 30 July 2017), and are based on analyses from the King County Washington State Office of Financial Management.

23. The PPCOD has since been thrice amended to achieve desired outcomes.

24. For more information on the PPCOD and the Department of Neighbourhoods historic resource survey, see Pike/Pine Conservation District. https://www.seattle.gov/opcd/ongoing-initiatives/pike-pine-conservation-district#background .

25. In 2015, the City and County of San Francisco established a Legacy Business Registry and Legacy Business Historic Preservation Fund to help support businesses that have been serving their communities for 20 years or more and that have demonstrated significant contributions to neighbourhood identity and character. These tools provide educational and promotional resources for qualifying businesses to help prevent displacement. For more information, see: https://sf-planning.org/legacy-business-registry.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katherine Idziorek

Katherine Idziorek is a PhD student in Interdisciplinary Urban Design and Planning program at the University of Washington. Her research interests include socially sustainable urban redevelopment, community resilience, and appreciative approaches to planning process. Katherine has eight years of experience as an urban design consultant and is a former co-president of the Uptown Alliance, a place-based community advocacy organization in Seattle.

Manish Chalana

Manish Chalana is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Design & Planning as well as an Adjunct Associate Professor in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and the Jackson School of International Studies’ South Asia Center at the University of Washington. Dr. Chalana is also co-Director of the Center for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse (CPAR) at the University of Washington. His research interests include historic preservation planning engaging themes of social equity and resilience and international planning and development. Dr. Chalana’s work has appeared in multiple peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Heritage Stewardship, Future Anterior and Public Historian. He co-edited Messy Urbanism: Understanding the “Other” Cities of Asia, published by Hong Kong University Press (2016).