The Olympia City Council approved the Capital Mall Triangle subarea plan on Tuesday, with amendments on affordable housing incentives and economic development options.
The Capital Mall Triangle subarea plan has been in the works for over two years. It aims to transform the vicinity of Capital Mall into areas that will convert into urban neighborhoods with mixed land use.
In a 6-1 vote, the council adopted the first reading of the Subarea Plan with a couple of changes proposed by Councilmember Dani Madrone:
David Ginther, senior planner with the city's Community Planning and Development (CP&D), noted that the recommended affordable housing height bonus overlay applies to the core of the subarea. It increases the maximum building height from 105 feet to 130 feet, essentially allowing a couple of extra floors.
The current plan states that 100% of the units must be affordable for households earning 80% or less of the area median income to qualify for this height bonus.
During the discussion, Madrone proposed amending the provision in the plan by reducing the affordable unit requirement from 100% to 30% to qualify for the height bonus. She said this change would allow for mixed-income developments while incentivizing affordable housing. The councilmember added developers could choose to include more than 30% affordable units, but the lower threshold ensures that mixed-income projects can still benefit from the height bonus incentive.
Ginther provided some information about TIF, which he said is a newly allowed funding tool in Washington state.
TIF uses increases in property tax revenue within a defined area to fund public infrastructure. The increased tax revenue from rising property values in the TIF area goes towards paying for public improvements, potentially funding things like streets, sidewalks, utilities, transit facilities, parks, and affordable housing.
Ginther added that any TIF-funded projects must be shown to catalyze private development in the area.
Madrone recommended removing LU 11, the strategy discussing studying and potentially establishing a TIF area. She also suggested removing TIF references throughout the plan.
Instead of specifying TIF, Madrone proposed modifying LU 12 to use broader language about seeking funding opportunities. She suggested changing the wording to "seek funding opportunities, including an in-depth assessment of available economic development tools." She aims to keep options open and allow for consideration of various economic development tools without prematurely focusing on TIF.
Madrone seeks a thorough evaluation of all potential funding mechanisms before committing to any particular method.
The subarea plan covers the area surrounding Capital Mall, bounded by Cooper Point and Black Lake Boulevard. Extensive community engagement was conducted, including 29,000 outgoing emails, five community meetings, stakeholder workgroup meetings, presentations, and briefings for organizations and city committees, and received 300 written comments.
According to Ginther, the main themes from public input include safe and comfortable mobility, complete urban neighborhoods, and environmental commitment.
Ginther enumerated some recommendations in the Capital Mall Triangle subarea plan:
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JnNwmn
There have been insistent requests for affordable housing in this area. It is surprising that after ramming through useless Missing Middle rezoning, anyone on the council now wants to reduce the affordable housing ideas for this area.
Thursday, July 11 Report this
Scooter
I'm a little skeptical when I hear about planning.... 20+ years ago when I moved to Olympia there was a study/planning for an exit/entrance onto HW 101 to the westside..... there was another study done a couple plus years later. As you know, we still do not have that interchange and yet the City of Olympia continues to add more and more to the westside.... I think every member of the council needs to drive through the Cooper Point Black Lake intersection every day at rush hour for a month or two and then sit down and discuss planning on the westside..... course, they could always add a few more speed bumps here and there.....
Thursday, July 11 Report this
Southsoundguy
Land communism.
Thursday, July 11 Report this