Site Report 4: The Past and Future U-District

Image of the University District marketing zones (single family homes, businesses, etc). University District (Seattle, Washington), June 2013. City of Seattle DPD, U-District Urban Design Framework.

Block 59’s neighborhood feel yet commercial HUB is unique to its location. From previous site reports, we have found out that Block 59 has a portion located on the residential Brooklynn Avenue, and a portion on the commercial University Way (The “Ave”). Today, block 59 is very much a two sided phenomenon in which on one side is far different from the other.

On Brooklynn Avenue, people are walking along the sidewalk and enjoying the Seattle suburban feel that the block has to offer. All of the buildings on Brooklynn Avenue are considered “single family housing” as you can see in the picture on the left. Continuing, one might not realize that a quick walk up either side of the hill, known as 55^th and 56^th street, will bring you right into the commercial HUB of University District. University Way (The “Ave”) is known for its diverse restaurants and stores, this all might be lost with the proposed rezoning plan of the University District.

In June of 2013, there was a University District market analysis performed to see the cost and revenue of rezoning. In this, they noted that at the current time (June, 2013), it wasn’t profitable to rezone the University District “the costs of high‐rise development are currently greater than the costs of development, meaning that a high-rise development would not be likely to be financially feasible even if the cost of land was zero” (City of Seattle DPD, pg. 3), but could be possible in a later time (City of Seattle DPD, pg. 3), that time is now due to the population grow in the University District. Seattle, most of modern America, and the modern world are considered transit-oreinted. Everything revolves around being able to branch out, network, work in the suburbs and live in the city or vise versa. This modern transit-oriented populus is causing the density in suburban areas, like the U-district, to expand. The only problem is the University District has no where to expand to, this creates the issue of rezoning and building up instead of out.

Most residents of the University District have long fought the efforts of the City of Seattle to rezone its growing (physically and economically) area, but the rezoning was recently approved by the City Council. Rezoning plans for block 59 don’t deal with the single family homes on the Brooklynn Avenue side of things; that area will be left untouched by developers. On the other hand, the University Way side has been considered for rezoning, but it appears as if they have heard the outcry of the residents in the area “In our public outreach, we’ve heard strong support for preserving the Ave’s scale and fine-grained commercial mix. This proposal keeps heights on the Ave relatively low, going from 65’ to 85’ south of NE 50th St., and keeping the existing zoning to the north” (Office of Planning and Community Development, pg. 39), this shows that the city cares about the publics opinion and is looking into preserving the northern part of the “Ave’s” zoning plan.

If the City decides to leave the northern part of the “Ave” alone, this would mean block 59 would remain untouched by this rezoning. Leaving block 59’s current zoning would mean the preservation of historical buildings on this block, as well as maintaining its two-sided residential and commercial feel. Although this is promising news for block 59, many other blocks in the University District appear to be on their way to change. This change could have ripple effects, possibly causing the council to look into rezoning the northern part of the “Ave” in future years.

To answer the question of what a student-centered U-District would ideally look like, I think there would be more affordable housing. Rezoning gets rid of this idea by making it difficult to find housing in the U-District. This is due to affordable housing being torn down for new, expensive, sky-scraping apartments. I think, ideally, some places should get rezoned and repurposed in the University District due to their lack of use; but these areas should be used to create more affordable housing for University students and staff.