A RESOLUTION adopting and approving an application for surplus federal property at Fort Lawton, including a redevelopment plan, and authorizing the City of Seattle Office of Housing to forward an application to the United States Department of Defense and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in response to the closure of the Fort Lawton Army Reserve Center.
Agenda Items 436. Resolution 31887. Adopting a Peruvian application for surplus property at Fort Lawton, including Redevelopment Plans Committee recommends the resolution be adopted as amended. Council Bill 119 535 relating to the Fort Lunt Redevelopment Plan application, the committee recommends the bill pass cancel 1195 ten relating to land use and zoning. The committee recommends the bill pass. All of these items are interrelated. Thus we read them into the record together. So I'd ask Councilmember Mosquito. Is it mosquito. Or. Yes. Okay. That's a mosquito to describe them all. And then we'll vote individually if that works with you. That would be great. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm really excited about today, and thank you for giving us a little bit extra time to describe these three pieces of legislation as they all hold together. This is really an incredible opportunity for us to celebrate the culmination after 15 years. This is about a community vision for affordable housing to be developed at Fort Lawton. Take in community engagement, planning and advocacy advocacy. As I mentioned for 15 years, that is now going to create a variety of homes, including homes for seniors and veterans experiencing homelessness, affordable rental homes for families and individuals, affordable home ownership opportunities for low income buyers. And with housing costs soaring and displacement crisis at a very high levels, as we just talked about, there is an intense need for these homes to be built now more than ever. And as we do so, we've talked about as we create greater density in the city, one of the most important things that we can do is also preserve and expand access to greenspace of the Fort Lawton land that we are talking about. 60% of this site will be dedicated to parks and open spaces, complementing the natural beauty of the recreational space that is right next door at the Discovery Park Park. This is wildlife habitat at Discovery Park. And the area that we all love to enjoy in Councilmember Bagshaw is district that will not be touched by the development at Fort Lawton's or will be complementary and all but up to the existing land at Fort at Discovery Park and this Fort Lyon housing will be a complement for the neighborhood. And by creating affordable homes in a very high cost area of our city, Fort Lawton will further expand our commitment to exactly what you were just asking about our commitment to fair housing, creating greater inclusion and advance opportunities by opening access to more families to be able to live in a very high cost area of the city that has previously been out of reach for very low income communities, especially for communities of color and low wage workers. So I want to underscore today is a win win. It's a huge opportunity and it's a rare opportunity to gain access to a significant portion of public land from the federal government. At no cost. At no cost if it is used to build affordable housing and services, especially for homeless. It's a win win for Seattle's highly competitive retail I'm sorry, highly competitive real estate market. And over the course of several evening hearings and I will over the last few years and especially five public hearings at the Housing, Health , Energy and Workers Rights Committee just this year, we've heard from community and interest in doing a couple of things. Number one is expanding access to bus services in the neighborhood and increasing school capacity. We heard from Scott and folks from Metro that they will engage in a process for looking at the frequency at which busses should come and how to potentially add stops or routes to the area. Over time, we've heard the desire for increased school capacity and actual school buildings for teaching. What we've heard from Seattle Public Schools today is that they will engage in that process of looking at additional facilities for classrooms. But the most pressing issue that Seattle Public Schools has right now is the need for more play fields. And that's exactly what we're creating here. We're also creating more space for wildlife habitat. And as you heard, I think from some of the folks who presented today and in previous committees, we've heard the desire to make sure that there's more space opened up to wildlife habitat and that we reduce our surface parking lot streets. In today's package, we have a really great amendment that came directly from the coalition that was working with Fort Lawton and in the neighborhood that they brought to our attention the desire to reduce the surface parking space by at least a third and to work with communities so that we could create more public space, especially for wild wildlife habitat, including the blue heron population. So I'm really excited about the proposed package that you have in front of you. The amount of work that has gone into making this these three pieces of legislation that you just heard described come together is really important. And, Mr. President, if I might, I think there's a few details as it comes to housing that I'd like to underscore for the population, for the community. That'll be very helpful. Thank you, Councilman. So there is. About five buckets that are critically important. Number one, homes for seniors. This is 85 supportive housing units for seniors, including veterans who've experienced homelessness. On site, there will be house housing, case management, residential counselors and housing stability plans created so that we're really not just creating a door and a roof, but we're creating the ability for folks to get stabilized. Thanks to the support of services in partnership with Catholic Housing Services and United Indians of all tribes. This is not just creating a house, but it's truly creating a stable home for folks. Again, that land will be at zero costs. The second bucket is for individual and family size rental units. These are 101, two and three bedroom apartments for renters earning up to 60% of the area median income. So you can imagine this is greater space for families to grow and thrive, opportunity for community, space for those tenants there . So it's not just going to be homes and units, it will be actual community space. And this housing is being developed by Catholic Housing Service. The land is coming at an extremely discounted price. The third bucket is homeownership opportunities. And having been a person who just went through the process of trying to become a first time home buyer, it is very cumbersome, it is very confusing and it is very stressful if we're going to create equity in this city. And by equity, I mean racial justice, equity, economic equity. We need to also create the ability for folks to buy their own first place so that they can create greater equity in their pockets, in their bank accounts, so that people can get out of generational poverty without universal guaranteed retirement security. Often the ability to own your own place is one way to pass on a wealth to future generations and to get out of generational poverty. As we create homeownership opportunities, especially for our low income communities, this is one of one way for us to achieve our commitment to equity. And this will create 50 to 3 bedroom townhomes and row homes for low income buyers. Low income buyers between 64 to $86000 a year for two or five person households. So that's our missing middle housing. That's our low income, middle income housing to create greater self-help so that people can create sweat equity and create opportunity to have true equity in their pocketbooks. Thanks to the folks at Habitat for Humanity for working on this portion. And again, the land for this type of housing will come at zero cost. Further, we have included into the requirements the requirement for green building standards, which will be required for all of these new homes at Fort Lawton. And finally, as we heard before, it's important to preserve access to green space and public, public play areas. So 60% of the 34 acre site for park will be maintained for parks and related uses. That's 13 acres for passive recreation, six acres for two multipurpose fields and surface parking lots, five acres for forest land incorporated into Discovery Park. And the existing building where they have the parks maintenance facilities. Parking lot will be reduced now by a third. Again, this land will be at zero cost for the open public spaces. So, Mr. President, with that, I just want to say a few. Thank you, if I might, and perhaps I should hold those. Thank you. Until other folks have a chance to say a few words. Thank you. Consumer Indicator Customer Bagshaw Thank you. Councilmember Mosquito just said about 90% of what I was planning to say. So this is going to be very abbreviated. But I do want to acknowledge our neighbors from Magnolia. Thank you for coming again. And I tried to get your questions answered at the committee and having people address them. And I have been involved in this for way more than the last couple of years, the five committees that we've had in Fort Lawton. And I really want to acknowledge Steve Walker. Thank you. And Emily Alvarado, Tracy Radcliffe from our council central staff that have worked so hard on this. But truly we are getting six acres more of active sports field. That's something that we negotiated with the Seattle Public Schools. There's going to be 60% more of this land that's going into parks. We're not taking more of Discovery Park, Fort Lawton is asphalted right now. We're going to be turning that into housing and a great portion of it is going to go into parks. As Councilmember Mesquita said, the whole idea that it could be an either or. And as I mentioned at the committee meeting just the day before that committee meeting, I'm hearing from folks that are saying, well, look, we've got a really good idea. Let's not do it in Fort Lawton and let's put it down in inner bay. Well, frankly, we are going to have to be looking for space all across the city and all across our region to even begin to scratch the surface on the amount of affordable housing that we need. And it strikes me that, yes, after 15 years, this Fort Lawton plan is one that we have negotiated with the neighbors, with the neighborhood, and I'm very pleased that we're moving forward with it. And I respect the fact that people say there's change. You bet there's change. Seattle is changing everywhere and no neighborhood is really to be swept. Created from this. We need to incorporate, hear the voices and be inclusive. And I believe that in this particular case, over 15 years that we have done that. I also want to acknowledge more Marty Marty Cloister, who was here earlier, I think he's left. But Habitat for Humanity is giving people the opportunity for home ownership, and we know that that's really the step forward for so many families. So I'm very happy to be joining you in this councilmember mosquito. Thank you for bringing it through your committee. And also, I want to acknowledge the United Indians of all tribes, Catholic Housing Services and all those who are helping us get here and bring this across the finish line. Thank you, Councilman. Make sure you have the questions or comments before we turn it back to Councilwoman Mesquita. Customers want. Thank you, President Harrell. I want to start by acknowledging that we are on the Indigenous land of the Duwamish people, and I'm specifically acknowledging that because we are discussing in this item in the next two items the disposition of Fort Loudon. As everybody knows, in 1970, courageous activists of the United Tribes of all Indians occupied the military base on Fort Lawton to demand it be returned as indigenous land. And it was through that struggle that the DAYBREAK Star Center was one. You know, in other words, the result of a resolute demonstration of civil disobedience. Once again proving that when we fight, we can win. And it was a big victory, even though the movement did not win all the demands that they had. Today, we are voting on approving a plan to transfer ownership of Fort LUDDEN from the federal building for the from the federal government, I'm sorry, to the city and to approve a plan to build some affordable housing there. I will, of course, be voting in favor of the these items because I support building these 237 units of affordable housing on Fort Lauderdale rapidly, as rapidly as possible. And to build more, there would require a new environmental impact statement, which could take years. So I support these agenda items. However, I think we also need to be honest that this has been for years and not not necessarily by the current council here, but in general has been a monumental missed opportunity that could have allowed us to build far, far more affordable housing than we now have in our hands. When former Mayor Ed Murray had city departments conduct the year for the Fort Lauderdale redevelopment, they studied different alternatives. But the maximum affordable housing they studied was 237 homes, which makes that our legal maximum at this stage. The mayor made that decision without consulting members of the public. I'm sure that after today's vote there will be numerous press releases from the political establishment doubting this Fort Lawton redevelopment plan as a triumph. Absolutely, we should celebrate every affordable home that gets built. But I think there's a danger that that triumphalism is such an exaggeration that it does not. It belies the bitter realities that we face in terms of our affordable housing crisis. For comparison, Fort Lauderdale will have 237 affordable homes on 34 acres. In comparison, affordable housing activists on First Hill in District three successfully won sound transit poverty to be used to build affordable housing on a parcel of Madison Street. That one parcel will have over 300 units, more than all of the 34 acres of Fort Lauderdale. My staff calculated the ratio and the first affordable housing project will have over 100 times as much affordable housing as Fort Lauderdale relative to its area. Similarly, the North Lot affordable housing redevelopment of the Pacific Hospital PDA will have more affordable housing than all of Fort Lauderdale. Similarly, the same housing affordable housing project in the central area near Pratt Park will have more than Fort Lauderdale. The list goes on, and all of those properties are on single parcels and not on the vast 34 acres that Fort Lauderdale sits on. So I will be voting in favor of this plan because I want every affordable home that we can get. But I also my message is for affordable housing activists that we should not let up for 1/2 in demanding as massive a possible expansion of social housing in Seattle. Because, you know, as we have these tiny projects heralded with a lot of fanfare, they are actually falling far, far short of what is needed to truly address the affordable housing crisis in Seattle. We will have to tax big business and the super rich to raise the funds that will be necessary to build social housing on the scale that is needed. That is in the many thousands every year, not in the hundreds. And we also need rent control to stop the continued hemorrhaging of existing affordable housing. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Swan. Councilmember Mosquito. We'd like to cancel Ramon Gonzales, please. Thank you. Council President I just wanted to echo my thanks for everybody who has been working on this issue for for so long. I think one person who was left off the thank you list is the great Kenny Pittman who just retired last week. He has been instrumental along the way for continuing to advance the relationship between us and the federal government, to allow an opportunity for us to even be having these conversations around using the surplus property in this manner. And I just wanted to underscore that when you read about the efforts, the 13 plus year efforts around for lot and it's it's it's striking to me that when the city initially proposed development in this manner on Fort Lawton and that was in 2008 and the original proposal actually proposed 415 units of affordable housing. We're now down to about 50% of that. Part of that is because of construction costs and because of, you know, so are other realities related to the process. And I think it's really unfortunate that we are now here over a decade later in a situation where we have half the amount of housing units we could have had in 2008 had we been able to proceed as we wanted immediately before the recession. So I think this is a while we're well, we aren't getting those full capacity of housing units that I think all of us would really, truly want to see in this in this uniquely situated neighborhood. I think it's important for us to acknowledge the work that has been done to allow us to be in a position now to accept the 200 plus units of affordable housing that will certainly meet the needs of many families in the in the city of Seattle. So I really want to thank Councilman Mosqueda for bringing us across the finish line and Councilmember Bagshaw, for your dedicated service to District seven, to be in a position where you're finally seeing this over the finish line must feel pretty tremendous. So congratulations to you as well. Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez. Customer Worse. I will be a little bit brief and I'll probably be showing my age here, but some of us were there in 1973 when we took over DAYBREAK Star, and we didn't actually have the movement, but we did it and we got it done. Anything else? I want to thank the CEO, Michael Tully, who just walked in, who is the CEO of United Indians and also my cousin, always involved in Indian Country and the struggle for Native American people. But I want to add that this goes further back than 2008. Back in 2000, when we were trying to build the People's Lodge, which would have included housing units, a cultural center, an elder center, and more low income housing and medical services for not only native and urban people, but other people who would require those services. Those neighborhoods fought. I was on the board for almost 30 years with the United Indians and work with Bernie White Bear, and I was also legal counsel for 15 years. Those neighborhoods fought us tooth and nail for 13 years. So the historical perspective is this well before nine well, since 1973. Our efforts that we did in 2000, what we tried to do in 2008, I am proud to sit here today and thank customer Mosqueda and Councilmember Bagshaw that we kept at it, that our compass was clear about what we wanted to do with that property. You've heard me say this before. Sometimes just because you chant, When do we want? We want it now. That's not how the world works. You have to keep marching forward and clear and what you need to do for the community. And sometimes you don't get everything you want, but you get to that point where you can actually take a vision and have it transferred into brick and mortar. So I want to thank Councilor Mesquita and Kenny Pittman and again, Councilmember Bagshaw for being relentless and working in the district and Michael Tully and the other CEOs that have worked before him, that we worked hard on this. And also Michael Reichert, a Catholic Community Services. Liz Taylor Cowlitz I could go on and on and on. This has been a piece of property that the tribes have worked on for many decades. So I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Whereas, Caspar, I'm a skater. All right. Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. And you're damn right we're going to send out a press release after this, because this has been 15 years in the making, and that does not make anybody establishment. But that means we're celebrating a small components that together, woven together will actually help create more affordable housing throughout the city. We're sending out a press release because we're quite literally demilitarizing a parcel of property that was publicly owned that should be put to the public's use so that it can be used for the public good, not a military base. We are absolutely celebrating the fact the. We're creating affordable housing for seniors and for vets. We're creating apartments that will be one, two and three bedrooms so that more families can live in the city. We're creating first time home ownership options, and we're preserving 60% of former military land now for parks and public spaces. Yes, we are celebrating. And yes, we also know that this is one small tool in a very large toolkit that we need to address the crisis of housing in every single one of those opportunities that we can to build on public land. We will take advantage of it. Last year, with the first piece of legislation that I passed was making sure that every parcel of publicly owned property that is not being used for the highest and best use that we've determined is surplus and no longer needed by the city. We should preserve that public land and stop plugging budget holes and actually build affordable housing. This is an extension of that commitment on every parcel of land. We should be working to create housing and community services and the ability for more people to live in the city so that more working families can have the chance to grow , live and thrive in the city so that more seniors have a place to call home and don't get displaced. So that vets who are sleeping homeless on our street have a place to call home. That's what we're celebrating today. I'm incredibly proud to be working with our colleagues to get this over the finish line. After 15 years in the making, after five committee hearings this year, after the opportunity to work with those who wanted more space for the blue heron to get rid of surface parking streets. We are going to celebrate this and then we will keep working and organizing. We also know that when we reduce the cost of housing by building on public land, we make it more affordable by 15%. That's a smart use of the public's dollar. This is a smart use of public land. We are also making smart investments for future generations and for our elders. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who helped to make this day possible. I'm looking at Director Walker and his team, Emily Alvarado. Thank you to the Office of Housing. Thank you to the folks at the United Indians of all tribes for being there from the very beginning to help advocate for turning this military land into better public space. Thank you to our partners at Catholic Community Services and Habitat for Humanity at the Housing Development Consortium and so many others from the housing world who've been advocating for this for so long. And thank you to our team, Traci Radcliffe and Kettle Freeman from central staff for your ongoing tenacious work on this, along with Kenny Pittman, who Councilmember Gonzalez mentioned earlier. He retired last week. He got to see this over the finish line. So we are so happy that he was able to celebrate that committee vote and we wish him the best in his retirement. Finally, thank you to my staff, Erin House, who has been working on this over the last few months to really make sure that we had all of our eyes dotted and t's crossed and we won't give up. We know that we need additional housing. And we also hear you in terms of the need for more transit and potentially schools in the future and will be there to work with you to do that analysis. So, yes, look for that press release because it is coming and congratulations to every one of our colleagues for all of your work and the community at large, for your tenacious work to turn this parcel into housing. Thank you. Councilmember ROSQUETA, I think that's a good cue to vote on. We're going to vote on three pieces of legislation. We're going to take them individually or do the resolution first. And so those in favor of adopting the resolution that resolutions 31887, please vote I, I oppose vote no. The motion carries and resolutions adopted. The chair will sign it on council bill 119535. Please call the roll on the passage of the Bill O'Brien. PACHECO All right, so on. I beg John Gonzalez Herbold, I Suarez Ms.. Gather by President Harrell. I know I've done a bunch of. O'Brien's a lot, but I'm going to say I. Myself, the bill passes and the chair will sign it. And regarding council bill 119510, please call the roll on the passage of the Bill O'Brien. I did go sarwan. I begged sr Gonzalez Herbal Juarez Mascara. Hi, President Harrell. Hi. Nine in favor not opposed. The bill passed. And Cheryl sign it. Please read the next agenda. Item number seven.