Tax Deal Clears the Way for Seattle's Grand Waterfront Park Plans

"Visions of a grand new downtown waterfront for Seattle moved one significant step closer to reality Thursday after Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that the city had quelled threats of obstruction from downtown property owners," reports David Kroman.

"By reducing a proposed tax on downtown residents and businesses from $200 million over the next 20-years to $160 million, enough property owners have agreed to not formally challenge the tax," explains Kroman.

Through a program called Waterfront Seattle, the city has been planning the new waterfront park for a decade as a component of the city's plans to remove the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

"The $160 million over the next 20 years will fund a 20-acre park, a new Alaskan Way, a walkway connecting Pike Place Market to the waterfront and a number of other waterfront features. The concept was designed by James Corner, the famed landscape architect best known for New York City's Highline Park," according to Kroman.

The threat that local property owners would not agree to a local improvement district (LID) (i.e., a tax on increased property values) could have still sunk the city's vision for a grand new waterfront park.