Community Cornerstones

City of Seattle Office of Housing January 2013 Community Cornerstones A new model for development in Southeast Seattle: A study and proposal for an Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Loan Program Needs | Vision | Opportunities | Challenges Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities Table of Contents Introduction 1 Beacon Hill Station 13 Community Cornerstones Program Mt Baker Station 15 Background and Report Purpose 1 Columbia City Station 16 Transit-Oriented Development: Othello Station 16 Benefits and Challenges 2 Rainier Beach Station 16 Equitable Transit-Oriented Development: Benefits and Outcomes 3 Considerations for an Equitable Transit-Oriented Gentrification and Displacement in Development Loan Program 16 Southeast Seattle 4 Problems Addressed and Program Design Considerations 16 Understanding Southeast Seattle Station Areas 7 Proposal for an Equitable Transit-Oriented Demographics and Real Estate Markets 7 Development Loan Program 17 Community Demographics 7 Program Objectives 17 Residential Market Analysis 8 Partners 18 Retail Market Analysis 9 Principles of Equitable Development 18 Land Market Analysis 9 Program Characteristics 19 Southeast Development Capacity and Next Steps and Timeframe 20 TOD Potential 10 Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Projects Interview Findings 11 Underway or Recently Completed 20 Station Area Findings and Recommendations 12 Appendices 23 Rainer Station 13 What is Equitable Development? Equitable development is an approach to creating healthy, vibrant, communities of opportunity for everyone. Equitable outcomes result when intentional strategies are put in place to ensure that existing low-income communities and communities of color participate in and benefit from decisions that shape their own neighborhoods. By including equitable development in Seattle’s transit- oriented development program, the entire region will benefit. For more information, contact Ryan Curren, ryan curren@seattle gov Introduction tCommunity Cornerstones Programt tBackground and Report Purposet A $3 million Community Challenge Grant, awarded to the City of Seattle in November 2011 by the U S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), provided the opportunity for the City to work on priorities identified in the recently updated Southeast Seattle neighborhood plans, particularly in light rail station areas These neighborhood plans provide a vision, goals, and Othello Neighborhood Planning community workshop community-preferred strategies for each neighborhood area and are the result of a three-year effort by the City of Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development Rainier Station The HUD grant allows the City to address those community Lake goals that fit within the grant program’s parameters, such 90 as: Washington n Growth in new housing and commercial uses near light rail stations Mt Baker n Strong commercial districts that include a mix of small, local and ethnic businesses Beacon Hill n Housing affordable for a range of incomes and household SEATTLE 99 sizes Columbia City n Multicultural community centers to strengthen diversity Community Cornerstones Program The resulting grant-funded program, Community Legend Cornerstones, brings together multiple City departments, financial institutions, and other partners to implement a Light Rail Stations new model for equitable development in the Southeast Existing and Proposed Seattle light rail station areas The map shows the area Light Rail Othello within a half-mile from each station Existing and Planned Streetcar Integrated Strategies Commuter Rail Community Cornerstones focuses on three integrated Roads Rainier Beach Station community development strategies Half-mile Station Buffer Strategy 1. Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) Loan Program. Work with public and private Southeast Seattle Light Rail Station Areas partners to secure key sites for mixed-use transit-oriented development (TOD) projects that include market-rate and affordable residential space, and dedicated small business as a vehicle for leveraging additional resources focused on and community space equitable transit-oriented development This report helps Securing sites in an accelerating real estate market is a key determine how an ETOD Loan Program could address gaps challenge to preserving or building affordable or mixed- or barriers in meeting various neighborhood objectives income housing and community facilities near transit Please see the program proposal outline at the end of this Across the country, TOD acquisition funds have emerged report 1 Strategy 2. Commercial Stability Strategy. Provide n Identifies the state of gentrification and susceptibility to technical support and innovative approaches to stabilize displacement in each station area and grow local businesses in the established multicultural n Recommends strategies for market-rate and affordable business district between Othello and Graham streets on TOD to occur in each station area Martin Luther King Way n Identifies critical financing needs and evaluate other This strategy supports economic development around opportunities and challenges to deployment of a station areas by supporting job creation opportunities and targeted ETOD Loan Program in Southeast Seattle increasing the performance of existing small locally-owned n Recommends goals and objectives for a loan program businesses to enhance their economic competitiveness and provide guidance to inform next steps and position them to better access new markets open due to proximity to light rail Building owners will also receive technical assistance to activate vacant commercial space that is affordable and appropriate for local- and ethnically- owned businesses Strategy 3. Capacity Building to Plan for a Shared Multicultural Center. Support the formation of a Southeast Seattle-wide multicultural steering committee that is effective, authentic and durable With City staff support, capacity building funding, and a broad community outreach strategy, this steering committee will create the Station at Othello Park Apartments organizational infrastructure and direct the preliminary feasibility analysis needed as the foundation of a shared multicultural community center tTransit-Oriented Development:t This center will support community-building activities of tBenefits and Challengest the existing culturally and ethnically diverse communities Through the neighborhood planning process, communities Research shows TOD has the potential to improve the came to understand that sharing across cultural lines allows lives of local residents by providing greater access to jobs, them to more easily address shared agendas, increase their services, educational and health institutions, and social political presence, and improve their ability to exercise self- networks For residents who don’t own cars, access to determination public transit is an even greater necessity TOD can reduce the cost of living because there is less cost involved when Management and Partnerships using public transportation It also contributes to a high Seattle’s Office of Housing manages the Community quality of living by improving walkability, contributing to Cornerstones Program in partnership with the Office of neighborhood beautification, and reducing greenhouse gas Economic Development, Department of Planning and emissions Development, and the Department of Neighborhoods The TOD Success Not Guaranteed University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs will monitor and evaluate the project Additional potential The presence of light rail does not guarantee the success partners in the ETOD Loan Program—such as Enterprise of nearby TOD1 Households that value light rail access Community Partners, Impact Capital, and the Rainier Valley and higher-density housing also tend to strongly Community Development Fund—bring expertise and prefer attractive, vital, and walkable physical and social potential funding environments Households with expendable income strengthen the existing business districts and encourage Purpose of Document new commercial investments that expand the array of This report: goods and services in a neighborhood n Examines demographic and real estate market trends in Risk of Involuntary Displacement Southeast Seattle to identify particular actions necessary to stimulate new development in station areas Some station areas lack an active and safe public realm For market-rate TOD to succeed in those station areas, n Defines the characteristics of equitable TOD and identifies opportunities and challenges of such development 1Center for Transit Oriented Development. Rails to Real Estate: Development Pat- terns Along Three New Transit Lines. 2011. 2 significant non-housing investments are needed in the built form, and in transportation and pedestrian networks Despite the positive impacts associated with new TOD, these investments also raise concerns about the potential for displacement of existing residents and local businesses due to accelerating real estate values A 2012 Puget Sound Sage white paper on TOD2 found that without adequate affordable housing, low-income households face involuntary displacement to lower-cost housing, often in the suburbs This relocation can have harmful consequences for individual households, their Davie and Channa Hay, owners of King Donut in Rainier Beach communities, and the environment, such as short-term financial challenges from moving costs to long-term the Southeast Equitable TOD in Southeast neighborhoods financial instability due to increased

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