AN ORDINANCE relating to the transfer of City real property for housing development; transferring the jurisdiction of a 1-foot strip of the property from the Office of Housing to the Department of Transportation for right-of-way purposes; declaring the remaining property located at 7750 28th Avenue NW (“Loyal Heights Property”) surplus to the City’s needs; authorizing transfer of the Loyal Heights Property to Habitat for Humanity or its designee; authorizing the Director of the Office of Housing or the Director’s designee to execute and deliver a contract for transfer of land, deed, and related documents; and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.
Agenda Item 17. Council Bill 119 890 Billings The Transfer of city real property for housing development trusts for the jurisdiction of a one foot strip of property from the Office of Housing to the Department of Transportation for y of way purposes. The Committee recommends the bill passed. Thank you so much, Madam Per customer Muscat. As chair of the committee, you are recognized in order to provide the committee report. Thank you very much, Madam President. This is a small but very exciting piece of policy that we are now able to put into action that builds on the work that we began years ago. Actually, in my first year at City Council. We passed legislation to allow for community and housing advocates to be able to acquire city owned land or utility own property that could be transferred to the city at no cost for the creation of affordable housing. And here we are putting that policy concept into action. We know that the price of land in Seattle has significantly increased over the last decade, with greater competition on available in making it much more expensive to build housing and to especially build affordable housing in our community. We need to take every opportunity that there is to acquire or to maintain city owned land in city hands or to transfer it to those who have the value of the city's commitment to ensuring affordable housing and core public services in our community have the opportunity to build on that property and to create housing and strong community opportunities such as community centers and childcare. In 2018, in partnership with our friends at the state legislature, we passed legislation that I sponsored to update the Seattle disposition policies to put into place the newly granted state authorization to make sure that we are prioritizing affordable housing for surplus lands and to embed an equitable development lens into that process. Last year, we authorized the first no cost transfer to the Office of Housing for Affordable Homeownership for the Loyal Heights property following that piece of legislation. And this year, this piece of legislation follows up on all of those steps to enable the department to transfer the loyal site to actually create the permanent affordable housing that's been desired on this site for so long. This will result in affordable, first time home ownership opportunities for the first time in this area, creating things like three bedroom townhouses that will be built by Habitat for Humanity on the site, along with preservation of trees that, long said about building affordable housing and creating community led development does not have to be in competition with trees. And here's a great example of where we're cutting back our offsets and we're creating opportunities for trees to remain in place and to be planted. I want to thank the Office of Housing and Habitat for Humanity for putting this project together and very much look forward to seeing families move into this site really excited about the opportunities that this provides for us. This project has received the permits and homes to be turnkey ready and for families to move in within the next year. November 20, 21st at the latest. Thank you so much to all the folks, especially in community who worked on this and in my office Erin house for her ongoing stewardship of these types of issues and our partners at the office of Housing. Really excited to see this finally move forward. Thank you so much. Are there any additional comments on the bill? Councilmember Strauss, please. Thank you. Council President. Thank you, catherine mosqueda. I'm glad and thankful to see this bill come forward. We know that housing in the Oil Heights neighborhood of North Ballard in 1970s was worth about $30,000 in the 1980s and was about $100,000 today. As it stands, one of the lowest prices for houses in the area is at $650,000. Many over a million. I am still a renter today because I can't buy into the neighborhood in which I grew up in. And this is an opportunity to welcome new neighbors who were able to buy into the neighborhood for the many decades previous to the last run on our real estate market. So I'm very, very excited to welcome these new neighbors. Just a couple of comments about the site, the site specifically in regards to Tres, thankful that the Office of Housing was able to preserve the trees along the perimeter. We know the trees provide an economic value and will be easier to cool and to keep warm. The units of housing there as well as it's just nice to look at them. Unfortunately, the trees that I used to walk by when I was walking home from middle school along 28 cherry trees or cut down a number of years ago. Again, beautiful, beautiful trees that I wish were still in the neighborhood. I'm glad that we've been able to retain the tree once again, highlighting the note from the committee, which is that by preserving these trees along the perimeter, we were we reduce the number of units on the lot by one. So while we'll have seven neighbors, we could have had a cost benefit analysis that we have to do in regards to unit housing. I have also heard some concerns about the need for green space in the area and that this could have been used for green space. I will just highlight that we have Boyle Heights Elementary School a couple of blocks away. Boyle Heights Community Center, a member of what's further. Sunset Park is very close by home gardens and hopefully as works because of the great work of neighbors. The garden patch is looking like it will still remain just a quarter mile away. So again, this provides access to general generational wealth in the Oil Heights neighborhood and an opportunity to buy into the neighborhood. And I'm glad to welcome our neighbors. Thank you very much. Council President Holmes. Councilmember Strauss, are there any additional comments on the bill? Hearing no additional comments on the bill. Will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill or else? Yes. Must get a yes. Yes. So what? Yes. Strauss Yes. Herbold Yes. Suarez Yes. Lewis Yes. President Gonzalez. Yes. Nine in favor and opposed. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Will the court please affix my signature to the legislation report of the Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee Item 18 Will the clerk please read the title of item 18 into the record?