Form revised: December 6, 2011

 

 

 

FISCAL NOTE FOR NON-CAPITAL PROJECTS

 

Department:

Contact Person/Phone:

CBO Analyst/Phone:

Legislative

Sara Belz/4-5382

Geoffrey Wentlandt (DPD)/

4-3586

NA

 

Legislation Title:

AN ORDINANCE relating to land use and zoning, establishing a new Station Area Overlay District, amending general locational criteria for single family zones, expanding an existing pedestrian zoning designation, amending Seattle Municipal Code sections 23.34.010, 23.47A.005, and 23.47A.009, and amending the Official Land Use Map, Chapter 23.32, at pages 43 and 60 to rezone areas within the Roosevelt Residential Urban Village. 

 

Summary of the Legislation:

The proposed bill enacts the following:

 

Rezones.  The bill adopts a package of 25 rezones that meet the Roosevelt neighborhood’s goals for integrating a light rail station into the heart of the residential urban village.  The rezones are centered on the neighborhood business district around Roosevelt Way NE and NE 65th St.  Most of the rezones are changes to slightly higher intensity Neighborhood Commercial Zones along the arterial roadways near the commercial core.  Several of the rezones not directly located on an arterial roadway or on the edges of the commercial core are changes to multifamily zoning designations.  In total the proposed rezones comprise roughly 20 acres of land.  DPD’s capacity model estimates the rezone creates additional capacity for approximately 880 housing units and 326,000 gross square feet (GSF) of commercial space.

 

Station Area Overlay District. The bill establishes a Station Area Overlay district (SAO) that includes all proposed commercial and multifamily zoned areas within a quarter-mile radius of the future light rail station.  An SAO is an established set of supplemental development regulations intended to support transit stations.

 

Pedestrian Overlay. The bill extends an existing Pedestrian (P) designation. The P designation is a suffix to a zoning classification that denotes additional development standards intended to encourage an intensely pedestrian-oriented retail environment.

 

Incentive Zoning.  The bill applies the City’s incentive zoning program for affordable housing to the properties in the Roosevelt Residential Urban Village that would be rezoned under this legislation.  

 

 
 
 


Background:  

In 2005, Sound Transit decided to locate a planned light rail station in the center of the Roosevelt neighborhood and selected a site under 12th Ave NE between NE 65th St and NE 67th St, with an entrance located along 12th Ave NE on the current QFC site.   Following Sound Transit’s decision, the community began reviewing and updating its neighborhood plan, Tomorrow’s Roosevelt, which was originally adopted by the City Council in 1999. 

 

Neighborhood Plan Amendment.

When the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association (RNA) completed its review of the Neighborhood Plan, it proposed zoning changes to support concentrating residential density and commercial uses around the planned light rail station.  The review resulted in substantial revisions to the Goals and Policies of the Neighborhood Plan.

 

Future Land Use Map Amendment. 

Based on the Goal and Policy revisions to Neighborhood Plan the RNA workgroup also proposed changes to the City’s Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Map.  These changes were officially adopted by the City Council through the 2009 Comprehensive Plan annual amendment process.  The package of rezones in this bill matches appropriate zoning designations to the areas that were re-designated on the Future Land Use Map. 

 

Please check one of the following:

 

____    This legislation does not have any financial implications.

 

 

_X__   This legislation has financial implications.

 

 

Other Implications: 

 

a)      Does the legislation have indirect financial implications, or long-term implications?

This legislation would likely generate minor financial implications for the City in two ways.  First, the legislation will create additional development capacity in the area (estimated 880 housing units, and 326,000 gsf of commercial space), which could result in an increased demand for the municipal services provided by the full range of City departments.  The increase in the need for additional services is expected to be balanced by the corresponding incremental increase in property tax revenues, sales tax revenues and other revenues associated with increased development.  In sum, the increased development will be balanced by increased revenue at existing rates.

 

The more direct and immediate cost of implementing the legislation is the impact on DPD to process the area-wide legislative rezone.  Costs to process the rezone include updating land use and zoning maps, permit tracking systems, and GIS systems.  DPD’s IT department provides the following estimate for the scope of work for affected staff:

 

Project Manager                     16 hours

Hansen Analyst                       100 hours

GIS Administrator                   65 hours

Database Developer               5 hours

Quality Assurance.                  67 hours

Production Support                 2 hours

 

Estimated Total.  186 hours @ $65.00/hour = $16,575.00 + a 20% contingency = $19,890.  This amount would be funded out of the DPD’s IT unit and would be accommodated within existing budget authority and staffing levels.

 

Additional review time would be required for projects in incentive zoning areas, resulting in additional costs that would be determined on a project-by-project basis.  DPD permit review staff estimate that projects in neighborhood commercial zones would require an additional 3.5 hours of review time by DPD and Office of Housing (OH) staff to review the project against incentive zoning provisions.  This would result in a total cost of $875 for each project permit that is subject to incentive zoning. Some or all of this cost would be passed along to applicants in the form of permit fees.

 

OH works with DPD and with all developers who take advantage of affordable housing incentive zoning programs.  Currently, one staff person at OH administers the program on behalf of that department.  OH is authorized to collect a $550 permit fee, $65 per unit fee for monitoring of affordable rental housing, and $300 fee for transfer or sale of affordable owner-occupied housing.  These fees ensure that this legislation has no negative fiscal impacts for OH.

 

b)     What is the financial cost of not implementing the legislation?  

There is no direct cost of not implementing the legislation.  However, if the rezones are not enacted the City would not receive the preferred form and character of development in the Roosevelt neighborhood envisioned by citizens and called for in Comprehensive and Neighborhood Plans. 

 

c)      Does this legislation affect any departments besides the originating department? 

The Office of Housing would be affected as described under section a) above.

 

d)     What are the possible alternatives to the legislation that could achieve the same or similar objectives?  

No, rezoning property within the City of Seattle requires City Council action via ordinance. 

 

e)      Is a public hearing required for this legislation? 

Yes, a public hearing was held on September 19, 2011, at Roosevelt High School.

 

f)       Is publication of notice with The Daily Journal of Commerce and/or The Seattle Times required for this legislation?

Yes.

 

g)      Does this legislation affect a piece of property?

Yes, passage of this legislation would result in the rezoning of several properties within the Roosevelt Residential Urban Village.  See Exhibit A to the ordinance.

 

h)     Other Issues:  None.

 

List attachments to the fiscal note below:  None.