AN ORDINANCE relating to the sale of City real property for multifamily development; declaring the property located at 12705 30th Avenue Northeast surplus to the City’s needs and authorizing its sale to the Low Income Housing Institute or its designee; and authorizing the Director of Finance and Administrative Services to execute and deliver the contract for transfer of land, deed, and related documents.
Agenda item five. Constable 118888. Relating to the sale of city real property for multifamily development, declaring the property. Located at 12705 30th Avenue, Northeast surplus to the city's. Needs and authorizing its sale to the Low Income Housing Institute or his designee, and authorizing the Director of Finance and Administrative Services to execute and deliver the contract for transfer of land, deed and related documents. Committee recommends the bill passes amended. House Member Burgess Thank you. This is Fire Station 39, the old location out in Lake City. And we have a little procedural matter that we're going to take care of first. Substitute version of this bill, which Councilmember Herbold is going to speak to. Concerning her vote. I move to amend Council Bill 11 8888 by substituting version eight for version seven. Second spot, moved in second to substitute version eight for version seven. All those in favor say I. I oppose. The ayes have it. So we have a substitute bill. May I speak to the changes? Yes. Should I wait? I assume people knew of it. We've already had it voted. But why don't you tell us what we just voted on? Okay. The changes reflected in the substitute recognize the council's role in moving this project forward dating back to 2011. The original bill, as proposed, did not have a recognition of the resolution passed in 2011 Resolution 30862, which directed the Office of Housing and the Finance and Administrative Services Department to look at the suitability of the the property. The 2011 resolution that actually required that was resolution 31292, which required that the Office of Housing consider this particular site as a a site for meeting shelter needs in the city. And then later in 2012, there's reference now in the ordinance recognizing that statement of legislative intent, requesting that the executive develop a proposal for the future development of Fire Station 29. Now, instead of long term shelter, the focus was on long term housing for low income or for formerly homeless individuals or families. And then in 2013, the Council earmarked $950,000 in funding to support specifically the capital costs associated with the the activation of the ground floor space that would be would provide services desired by the community, which then turned out to be child care services. And then finally, the recognition that the city has year after year moved these for these funds forward without reallocating them for for another purpose, with the idea that it might take some time to get the disposition of this property in line with what the the Council and the Executive had hoped this property's use would be would be ultimately determined to be. A considerable concern. BURGESS Thank you. This legislation specifically declares this property surplus to the city's needs and authorize authorizes its transfer to the Low Income Housing Institute for Affordable Housing and Child Care and Preschool Services. It authorizes the Director of Finance and administrative services to execute and deliver a contract for transfer of the land deed and related documents. Lehigh has agreed to construct a six storey mixed use building with 70 units of affordable housing. These units will serve people with area median income of 60% or less. It will also include 15 one bedroom units 25 two bedroom units, five three bedroom units, five open one bedroom units and 20 studio units. So definitely for many of these units are suitable for family housing, these units must remain affordable, affordable for 50 years. There will be four preschool classrooms in the building on the first floor that will serve up to 80 children. These classrooms will be run by the Refugee Women's Alliance as part of the Seattle Preschool Program. And the idea is that this building will be ready for occupancy in September of 2018. We heard public comment today that the city did not follow its normal process for disposition of property. And so I just want to address that very briefly. In March of 2012, OFAC sent out 1550 neighborhood notices soliciting comments on Fire Station 39 and potential uses for the property as either homeless shelter, housing or low income housing. There were 219 separate comments received as a result of this early feedback from the community. The Director of Planning and Development embarked on a several year process, working with the community to develop an acceptable proposal for a redevelopment of the old fire station 39 site. In March of 2016, FAA sent out additional notices on disposition of the property, explaining the work that had been done and explaining that the property would be used for low income housing for families and a preschool. This notice was sent to all residents and property owners within 1000 feet of the property as well as anyone, any individual organization or agencies who had commented on the earlier notice. The second notice garnered garnered zero responses consistent with the city's surplus property disposition policies. FAA has issued a notice in the Daily Journal of Commerce on December 14 and 15, announcing a public hearing on the final disposition. That hearing was held on January four, 2017, at 930 in the morning. The committee held the public hearing and then voted on this action that we are acting on today. All of the city's normal policies and process for the disposal of surplus property were followed in this case. Thank you very much. Any further comments from any of my colleagues? Councilmember suarez. Thank you. I just want to add some comments and thank the council member for Council Member Licata and of course Council member. I just forgot Lisa's last name. Herbold And the people that worked to this, of course, Councilmember Burgess. I'm incredibly excited to vote to approve the transfer of Fire Station 39 to the Low Income Housing Institute for Development of Affordable Housing and a new preschool. The homes created on this site will house 70 families making at or below 60% of the area. Median income people making 60% of AMI are often people in our service sector, grocery workers and other food service employees, nonprofit professionals like the preschool teachers who will be running the programs on the ground floor of this building. These are the people that make the comforts we value most in our communities possible. The preschool on the ground floor of the building will be funded using the Seattle Preschool Levy dollars and will provide for classrooms serving up to 80 children. I'm very happy to see that the Refugee Women's Alliance Rewa as a provider for this new school as North Seattle becomes a hotspot for growth, having affordable housing like this new building will ensure that people can work, play and live in the communities of their choice. As in North Seattle, particularly District five has become more diverse in recent years. Having organizations and having organizations that are culturally responsible. Responsive, I'm sorry. Like where you are physically located in the community is more important than ever. At the recent North Scale Human Service Summit, the first of its kind in the North End on December 6th. The providers talked about the need for place based services and services that reflect the community. I'm sorry, services that reflect the community. This is a great example of the city making investments to support the establishment of the very resources we know people want and need. The most high quality preschool has been proven to be the deepest impact on children and children's leaders success and stability in life. This is an asset that will continue to pay back pay back to the public in ways we may not even realize today. This is a great use of public land, and I'm happy to vote yes on this bill today. And as a resident of the North and particularly Lake City way for 30 years, I can say that the neighbors, the communities were aware of the growth and the planning that went into and are happy and are welcoming of this facility in Lake City, way in District five. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Whereas Councilman Burgess, more comments. Yeah. Just finally, this is, as I said in committee last week, this is a win win. We have a great new fire station right next door and that's serving of the Lake City area in northeast Seattle. We have affordable housing going in an area where it's clearly needed. But it's really gratifying to me that the city pressed hard to make sure we had preschool classrooms here. We have a shortage of preschool classrooms in North Seattle. This is going to address that. But this is a model that I hope the city will take to other parts of the city where we are able to serve a variety of public purposes, from affordable housing to taking care of our kids and making sure that they have the strong and fair start that they deserve. So to others in the city government who deal with disposition of city property, please look at this as a model for what we might do with the other parcels in the city that we don't need for our basic core city services, but could be used for something like we're seeing here at the old fire station 39 site. Thank you. Any further comments? Councilmember Herbold. Thank you. I just want to thank Councilmember Burgess Town Council central staff for working with me to revise a few of the recitals. I just think it's really important that the city tell the full story of projects like this. This was a project that took six years from from inception to bring to fruition. And I also want to thank my former boss, former Councilmember Lakota, for his vigilance on this project. He went to countless community meetings and heard many, many concerns. I had a lot of fun reading from a 2012 Urban Politics, his his newsletter, where he very wisely stated that facts alone were not going to change the minds of people who had concerns. And he was right. It was involvement of the community in in the process of of making this final decision that really, really made a difference. So with that, I also want to thank the seven or eight different city departments that were that were involved in bringing this forward. And again, thank both the previous councils, as well as the executive in making sure that we continue to earmark the funds that were later that will be now used for the implementation of the child care facility downstairs. Funds that the Council had. Many years before, and I'm sure there were many uses that would have been great uses for that. But we stayed true to what our original goals were, and that's fantastic when the city can do that. Very good. Please call the role on the passage of the amended bill. 118888. Swan I. Burgess. I. Gonzalez. I. Purple High Johnson. Suarez O'Brian. High President Harrell. High seven in favor and unopposed. Bill passes and the chair will sign it. And before we go to the next agenda, item number six from Councilman Burgess. Councilmember Johnson had a personal family situation that he forewarned me is going to have to do with 315 not knowing when it was going to occur. He knew he had to leave. So he will be missing the remainder of this. And we wish him well on his personal obligation. Please read. Agenda item number six into the record.