The Port of Seattle is petitioning a decide to overturn Seattle’s not too long ago handed rezone to permit housing on the sides of town’s industrial district.
The port’s primary argument is town’s laws virtually completely advantages one particular person, Chris Hansen, who owns the parcels close to T-Cell Park which might be almost certainly to see new improvement following the invoice’s passage. The port argues the invoice ought to have gone by means of extra analysis and that housing is an incompatible use of business property, the petition says.
If profitable, the petition, filed in King County Superior Court docket, would invalidate the brand new legislation, handed final month.
The port’s petition is one other volley in what’s develop into one of the vital tense fights inside Metropolis Corridor in years. The legislation in query was launched late final yr, however the combat has its roots in a long time of friction between the port and town over the way to regulate industrial areas.
The legislation, which handed 6-3, rezoned the underused parcels simply south of the baseball stadium to permit for the development of as much as 990 residences. Council President Sara Nelson, the invoice’s sponsor and most zealous proponent, mentioned new improvement there wouldn’t solely signify a small dent within the metropolis’s bigger housing disaster but additionally be a catalyst for the long-sought “maker’s district” close to the stadiums, by which small-scale artisan producers might have house to arrange their companies.
The invoice bumped into intense opposition. Maritime and industrial pursuits within the space have lengthy opposed new housing in Sodo, arguing it might impede the circulation of products to the realm and create a suggestions loop of stress on future elected officers to suppress business within the space. In 2023, the Port of Seattle threatened to explode a bigger settlement regulating maritime and industrial land use except housing was barred from these similar properties. Nelson’s proposal was considered as a betrayal of that settlement.
“In its haste to advance the proposal, the Council summarily disposed of longstanding protections the Metropolis has afforded to industrial makes use of, all as a way to open the door for a single housing challenge,” the petition reads.
Regardless of some apocalyptic predictions about what the housing would imply for the port’s future, the invoice ended up passing, with members citing town’s research that advised the impression can be minimal. Port commissioners urged Mayor Bruce Harrell to veto the invoice, regardless of it passing with a veto-proof six votes. Harrell as a substitute returned the invoice unsigned — permitting it to enter legislation, however remaining impartial on its deserves.
Because the invoice progressed by means of the committee course of, the Port of Seattle and its umbrella Northwest Seaport Alliance issued imprecise authorized threats, arguing town should be doing extra environmental evaluation underneath the State Environmental Coverage Act.
Thursday’s petition makes good on among the threats. As a result of the invoice constitutes what it views as a rezone of a selected property, the port argues town ought to have needed to undergo extra environmental evaluation and given events extra avenues to attraction.
The port additionally argues {that a} rezone of this sort is unlawful when the property in query is for a considerably totally different use than the encompassing space — on this case, housing being incongruent with business.
The petition additionally repeatedly suggests the council’s consideration of the invoice was unlawful. Rezone conversations are sometimes thought of quasi-judicial and communication with events is severely restricted. Though the petition doesn’t say straight that members of the council had communications with Hansen and his associates, it says in the event that they did, that might have been unlawful.
The Port of Seattle has struggled to get well shifting as many volumes as earlier than the pandemic. Cargo numbers improved final yr, however the port misplaced market share to different West Coast ports, based on inner numbers offered by Commissioner Fred Felleman. It’s additionally working to seek out new makes use of for its underused Terminal 46.
A spokesperson for town didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. A consultant for Vipond Group, which manages Hansen’s properties, mentioned he had not but reviewed the petition.
