With little commotion, the proposed expansion, renovation and lease extension of the Seattle Asian Art Museum passed out of Council committee today and is headed for final approval.
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Understanding the SAAM expansion
The City Council is considering a plan to expand the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park and extend the Seattle Art Museum’s lease on the property for an additional 55 years. The plan has many supporters, as well as a dedicated set of opponents.
Continue readingA missed opportunity that never really was
Yesterday afternoon the Council voted to declare a piece of city property to be surplus, and to allow the official owner, Seattle City Light, to sell it. Selling off surplus city property is a fairly regular occurrence, but for many reasons this one stands out as a rather frustrating exception.
Continue readingUnderstanding the MHA Draft Environmental Impact Statement
On June 8th, the city published a Draft Environment Impact Statement (DEIS) for the “city-wide” implementation of the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program. It’s 462 pages of dense material. Here’s your cheat sheet.
Continue readingFort Lawton
In February of 1898, seven hundred acres on Magnolia Bluff were given to the federal government. Today, almost all of that land is back in local hands. Almost — the last bit has been the source of plans, lawsuits and headaches for ten years.
Continue readingArenas committee holds its first meeting
Monday morning the Council’s Select Committee on Civic Arenas held its first meeting, which entailed a high-level overview of the committee’s purview, as well as the issues related to the SODO Arena and Key Arena proposals that are likely to come before it.
Continue readingCouncil gets an update on the Waterfront
Last week the Council got an update from the Office of the Waterfront (OOW) on the waterfront reconstruction mega-project’s 2016 progress and the work plan for 2017.
Continue readingUnderstanding the Key Arena RFP
This morning, as promised, the City announced a Request for Proposals (RFP) for redevelopment of Key Arena at Seattle Center. There have been reports that the city has found more than one organization interested in at least discussing renovating the Key Arena as an alternative to Chris Hansen’s plan to build a new arena in the SODO district. This is an attempt by the Mayor to actively and formally explore that option. The RFP asks for proposals to redevelop it into a “world-class civic arena” for music, entertainment and sports events, including possibly an NHL or NBA franchise. Let’s dig into …
Continue readingThe homeless encampment legislation impasse, or “city hall was crazy town today”
On a day when everyone in City Hall was supposed to be working on the budget, apparently no one was working on the budget. Instead, all attention was on competing efforts to craft an ordinance specifying when, where and how to clear unsanctioned homeless encampments around the city. When the dust cleared at the end of the day, there were two separately authored versions of the bill, plus a vague promise from the Mayor for his ideas on how to reform the current process. But equally important — and in the end probably more valuable — some people were finally willing to talk on …
Continue readingNotes from this morning’s Council Briefing
The Council is back, and wasting no time getting busy on legislation. To no one’s surprise, homeless encampments were the big topic.
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