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Zoning Changes Bring Good and Bad in Downtown Seattle

Posted by: Nate Berg

2 March 2008 - 9:00am

Zoning changes in downtown Seattle have created a more dense area, as was intended. But the zoning changes are also bringing some unintended consequences.

"This time two years ago, former city council member Peter Steinbrueck was pushing a zoning package designed to transform downtown Seattle. He envisioned remaking the urban core from a space dominated by office buildings into a bustling residential center. His plan seems to be working. Approximately 15,000 units are currently proposed to the city or under construction, thousands of which are in apartment and condo towers between Belltown and I-5. 'I consider this to be the most important work in my 10 years on the council,' he says."

"But the zoning changes that allow developers to build taller buildings and denser neighborhoods are also resulting in designs that could inadvertently hinder the very urban vitality Steinbrueck, now teaching sustainable architecture at the University of Washington, sought to foster."

Full Story: Towering Problems
Source: The Stranger, February 27, 2008
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The promise of 'communities' yet-to-come must be particularly offensive to people who pre-date incoming developments. What is the 'beginning of a community that has the body language of a community?' Does this imply that the current neighborhoods in and around downtown Los Angeles lack such a 'body language'?
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