Neighborhoods, Education, Civil Rights & Culture Committee 42823

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

The April 28th, 2023 regularly scheduled meeting of the Neighborhoods Education, Civil Rights and Culture Committee will come to order.

It's 9.32.

I'm Tammy Morales, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Nelson.

Here in Chambers.

Council Member Sawant.

Present.

I should say Vice Chair Swann, sorry.

And then Chair Morales.

Here.

Present.

Thank you.

If there's no objection, today's agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

We have two, three items.

Well, we have a lot of items, but many of the appointments that we have are on the consent agenda.

So we will do that first.

And then we'll have a panel presentation from our new Social Housing Development Board members.

And then we've got two items from Department of Neighborhoods regarding landmarks preservations.

So we will go ahead and get started with public comment.

At this time, we'll open the general public comments in-person and virtual hybrid period.

I see one person online, and I don't see any public commenters signed up.

Is that right, Devin, in-person?

One in-person.

One in person, okay.

So we'll open the public comment period.

I will moderate the public comment period.

Everyone will have two minutes to speak.

I'll call, maybe we'll start with online and then we'll do the person, in-person commenter.

For the person who is online, if you'll press star six when you receive the cue of you have been unmuted.

and then you'll hear a chime when you have 10 seconds left.

So please wrap up your comments at that time.

Okay, let's go ahead and get started with Megan Murphy.

Megan, please press star six.

Yeah, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, great.

I'm here because I'm very angry because when I was 21, I turned down somebody from my town in Sioux City, Iowa, as a live-in nanny.

And it was way too much money for just being a nanny, like having my graduate school paid for a house or a car.

And I was living with a sister, and he was the CEO of Gateway Computers Headway.

And he and his brother were worth $8 billion.

He's able to send people to stalk me here in Seattle, a computer CEO, and it's violating my civil rights.

Very much so.

Control me on my Zoom meetings when I'm in a 12-step recovery meeting.

And I feel like I got in the billionaire class list to be stalked.

And it could be because of my activism and that there's people that don't want to see me succeed or get ahead.

And it helps me when I tell the public what this feels like because not one person has the right to surveillance another and make them feel threatened and mentally abuse them by doing this behavior.

And when I could try to complain when I had my son in Sioux City, Iowa, I was called crazy.

And when I moved here to Seattle, I have several people who know about this and do not think I'm crazy for it.

And it even makes it more insidious for the people with money abusing their power to follow me in any capacity, stalk me, surveillance me, try to mentally abuse me like I'll think that they're going to try to show up again because of the level of stalking.

And it's really sick.

And anybody who's helping them do that, any third parties that are helping them stalk me need to become whistleblowers and say, hey, I'm not going to stalk you.

It's wrong to stalk her.

I'm not going to sexually harass her for you because it's very disgusting.

And he was Ted Waite was turned in as a client of Jeffrey Epstein in the last.

Thank you, I don't see anyone else signed up online, Devin, can you call the person who's here in chambers?

Yes, we have Tiffany McCoy.

real change and campaign co-chair for initiative 135. Just wanted to express deep thank you to you for working closely with the campaign on the implementation and for ushering in the first Seattle social housing developing board in the city of Seattle, but also to the general public, the very first social housing developer through a citizens initiative in the entire country.

We all know that we have a tremendous housing crisis, we need as many tools in our tool belt as we can, we need to make sure that folks of all income levels are able to access high quality, deeply affordable housing and have access to restorative justice and the ability to leave in.

clean green buildings as well.

So just want to say thank you, looking forward to this work, looking forward to working closely with your office, and also just appreciation for helping to secure the $200,000 from the state that the developer will start out with.

We desperately need that money and hope that your office is actually successful this year with this city council.

securing an ongoing progressive revenue with the campaign to make sure that we are acquiring and building as much housing as we can as quickly as possible.

So just deep gratitude.

Thank you.

Looking forward to working with you.

Thank you, Tiffany.

Okay, that concludes our public comment period.

Devin, nobody else signed up?

No.

Okay, we will close out public comment then and move on to our first agenda item.

Devin, will you please read items 1 through 12 into the record?

I'll read the news.

Agenda items one through 12, appointments 02528 through 02539, appointments to the LGBTQ Commission, the International Special Review District, the Seattle Women's Commission, the Community Involvement Commission, the Families Education Promise and Preschool Levy Oversight Board for briefing, discussion and possible vote.

Thank you.

So we have a consent agenda here with appointments to boards and commissions.

As a reminder, the consent agenda functions like the City Council consent agenda, where colleagues can pull items for discussion if they choose.

Otherwise, we'll vote on all of these as a package.

But I do want to read everybody's name into the record.

We have 12. So we have appointment 2539, the appointment of Heather Hardschmeyer as a member to the International Special Review District Board for a term to December 2024. Appointment 2528, the reappointment of Marques Gittens as a member of the Families Education Preschool Promise Levy Oversight Committee for a term through January 30, sorry, December 31st, 2025. Appointment 2529, the reappointment of Susan Yu-Yi Lee as a member of the FEPP Levy Oversight Committee to a term for December 31st, 2025. Appointment of Crystal Guerrero as a member of the Seattle Women's Commission for a term to July 1st, 2024. Appointment 2531, the appointment of Sarah Lui as a member of the Seattle Women's Commission for a term to July 1st, 2024. Appointment 2532, appointment of Rye Armstrong as a member of the LGBTQ Commission to April 30th, 2025. Appointment 2533, the appointment of Jeremy Erdman as a member of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission to April 30th, 2025. The appointment of Gerald Siminator, as that might be Italian.

As a member of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission to April 30th, 2025. Reappointment of Martha Lucas as a member of the Community Involvement Commission for a term to May 31st, 2025. Appointment 2538, the reappointment of Dong Soo Michael Seo as a member of the Community Involvement Commission for a term to May 31st, 2025. appointment 2535, the appointment of Julia Jenin Shields as a member of the Community Involvement Commission for a term to May 31st, 2025. And finally, appointment 2536, the appointment of Salvo Rockman as a member of the Community Involvement Commission for a term to May 31st, 2025. Okay, so Colleagues, you all received their appointment packets and applications.

So if there are comments or questions, now is the time.

And I do want to ask if anybody is requesting for a particular appointment to be pulled for individual discussion.

I am not seeing anything.

Okay.

So in that case, I move the committee recommends approval of these appointments.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Vice Chair Sawant.

Yes.

Chair Morales.

Yes.

Three in favor.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the council approve these appointments will be sent to the May 9th, 2023 City Council meeting.

Okay.

Will you please read item 13 into the record?

Agenda Item 13, Introduction of the Seattle Social Housing Developer Board for Briefing and Discussion.

Great.

Thank you very much.

I'm going to ask our board members if you'll join us here at the committee table.

And while you're coming up, I will just give a little bit of background.

As you know, my office has been working on social housing funding and policy since 2021. After hearing a huge demand from community, We pursued funding in the 2022 and 2023 city budgets.

We spent time working with social housing developers in France.

We worked on land use legislation that would dovetail with social housing.

And we even started working with state legislators in November to get some seed funding ahead of the passage of Initiative 135. This is a concept that I really believe in.

I've seen it in action.

And it's one that voters collectively demanded this past February.

With the passage of I 135 Seattle is once again embarking on something that has not been seen in other cities in this country, just as we have with worker rights with tenant rights.

with progressive revenue, with immigrant rights, we're leading the way on bold new, or at least new to this country, housing models.

Social housing is a model that we've seen take shape internationally over the last 100 years or so, from Austria to Singapore to Argentina to France and Finland.

It's a model built on the idea of providing a universally high standard of living, coupled with universal affordability.

In many places, social housing is publicly owned and run or operated by quasi-governmental social landlords with strict government oversight.

Many models also include renters in the decision-making process through democratically elected rental councils.

In many jurisdictions, social housing is used as a tool for neighborhood-wide equitable development, often integrated into the fabric of new neighborhoods or new market rate developments.

I got to tour this kind of a neighborhood while we were in France a couple of years ago, where 33% of all housing units are being built as social housing.

Social housing promotes income diversity and social mixing as a way to combat displacement and isolation, and as a way to repair the harm done through exclusionary policies.

In Seattle, that means practices like redlining and racial covenants, and the legacy that those practices have left on our city today.

This is a tool to bolster current affordable rental and home ownership options.

Another 20% of housing in that neighborhood I mentioned earlier is being developed as affordable rental and home ownership options, meaning that over 50% of all units developed provide affordability across a spectrum of incomes, completely free from market speculation.

And that's something that I think we really need here in Seattle if we're going to address the deep crisis that we have.

So this is where we start that journey.

With the passage of I-135, voters have mandated that the Seattle social housing developer provide homes for people built to passive house standards, certified by union labor, with rents capped at a third of household income for those who are earning between zero and 120% of area median income.

These homes must also represent income diversity through an intentional mix of units in each building.

a fourth for households earning below 30% AMI, a fourth for 31 to 50, a fourth for 51 to 80, and a fourth available to folks who are earning between 80 and 120% AMI.

This PDA will also democratize decision-making by having residents represent seven seats on the board.

Currently, those seats are represented by the appointments that were made by the Seattle Renters Commission.

Each building will also have its own renter council.

ensuring that residents are involved in both micro and macro decision-making.

In a way, we're sort of in uncharted waters here, but in another sense, we're walking down a very well taken path and this board will be the ones leading us.

This board represents a broader way of experience and knowledge from lived experience of housing instability, homelessness, and accessing services in our current ecosystem, as well as public finance, labor representation, public policy, nonprofit affordable housing development, social housing, and regional planning experience.

So with that, I want to welcome our panelists here.

We have 13 board members.

We do have one who was not able to make it today, but we've got five people here in person with us in chambers, and then we've got six on the line with us.

So thank you all for being here today.

I'm going to ask each of you to introduce yourselves and the sector you're representing.

And then we've got a few questions, and I'll open it up for my colleagues as well.

So maybe I will start here at the table.

I'll let you choose.

I'm going to go ahead and go.

Thank you.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes.

My name is Kylia Baldwin.

I am one of the representatives appointed by the Seattle Renters Commission.

I'm a lifelong Seattleite and lifelong renter.

Hello.

My name is Tori Nakamatsu-Figueroa, and I'm here representing labor.

Hi, my name is Julie Howe and I am here, I guess, representing affordable housing development.

I had been an affordable housing developer for over 25 years.

Hello, my name is dawn daily I've been appointed by the Seattle renters Commission, I have had previous experiences with housing insecurity and on house listeners, and I have also one of the 60 to 80% or 50 to 80% am I representatives here, thank you.

And I'm Chuck DePue, I'm the mayor's representative to the PDA board.

I have a long history in community development finance so I'm excited to kind of go down this journey.

Great.

Thank you all.

Okay, I'm going to turn to the folks who are online and I will just call on you.

If you could introduce yourself, Ibo.

Hello, my name is evil Barton I use he him pronouns, and I have lived experience with being chronically homeless as well as professional experience working in permanent supportive housing, along with supporting the gender diverse community of Seattle.

Thank you, Katie.

My name is Katie the bread.

I am a trans woman who lives in Seattle.

I have experience with working with youth, young adults, like, you know, the younger generation of us.

I also have lived experience with being homeless as well and navigating the systems.

Thank you.

Tom.

Hello.

My name is Tom Barnard.

He, him pronouns.

I'm a senior citizen.

I lived in Seattle for 31 years and I now live in SeaTac.

I was appointed by the Renters Commission and I have lived experience in homelessness elsewhere and near lived experience in homelessness here.

I am also a member of Seattle Democratic Socialists of America and am one of the members of the Housing Justice Work Group.

Very interested in this topic.

We've worked extensively to get 135 passed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tom.

Devin.

Hi, my name is Devin Forschmidt.

I'm one of the board members appointed by the Seattle Renters Coalition.

I am a lifelong renter or renter for my whole adult life.

Professionally, I am a Head Start teacher, so I work with low-income and largely immigrant families.

I have also had a lot of experience living in homes with unsafe conditions and poor maintenance and have that piece of lived experience.

I am also a member of the party for socialism and liberation and the answer coalition.

Thank you, Brian.

Good morning everyone.

My name is Brian Ramirez.

I was appointed by El Centro de la Raza as a board member.

I have 5 years of housing policy, housing research, city planning, tenants rights, and affordable housing development experience.

In addition to my professional experience, I hold a significant amount of personal experience with housing security growing up first-generation, low-income, Latinx in Southeast LA and the Inland Empire, and just seeing how those really deep social economic issues impact our community.

So really happy to be part of the board.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Michael.

Good morning, Michael Eliason.

I'm a researcher, writer, architect, and Passive House Consultant in Seattle.

I was appointed by the Green New Deal Oversight Board.

Perfect.

Thank you all.

And I do want to acknowledge that Alex Lou is also on the board.

He was not able to make it today.

This committee heard from Alex and from Julia at the last committee meeting, as they are the two council appointments.

And Alex is a transportation planner.

Great.

Okay.

With that context, then I have a few questions for folks.

My first question is sort of general.

Social housing is a fairly new concept here in the United States, but it's been practiced for decades in other places.

So I'd love to hear from some of you just about what you're excited about with social housing and what you're looking forward to working on here.

I will open it up unless somebody needs to be called on.

looking online and go first on that.

I think there are a couple of things that from my background, I'm a planner that now does a lot of finance stuff.

So there's a certain point of where it's the math.

That's really important to understand.

I do a lot of training in finance in the work that NDC does.

We're a national nonprofit nationally.

So I'm excited about that piece.

The part that's exciting is that the idea of social housing or in other terminology, mixed income housing.

So a wider variety of people within communities as well as within buildings.

I mean, it's been around for a while.

I think what Seattle's trying to do is really elevate it from a policy level.

And whether we're able to achieve that objective and how funding gets mixed in projects will be exciting because generally it doesn't.

And I think that's one of the reasons why we have such segregated income housing.

So I'm interested in kind of seeing how we can kind of push the envelope a little bit on that concept.

Yeah, thank you.

Did somebody else want to turn.

Yeah.

Um, so one of the reasons that I'm most excited about social housing and this iteration that was developed by folks who have experienced homelessness folks who have been working with folks who've been experiencing homelessness and housing stability that piece of this legislation being brought by people who have been most impacted by housing crisis in the city is really, really powerful.

I'm also really excited about how permanently affordable, limited, like having caps on rent will bring stability to people who, and to this wide range of people who all experience housing stability.

that our city continues to be really unaffordable.

It continues to be really disparate and economically and racially.

And I am super excited about this adding to the options and like solutions that we have to address our homelessness and housing instability and displacement crises.

Yeah, I would love to chime in as well.

I'm really excited about the potential for stability that this model brings.

I think the United States has, you know, for a long time been decades behind a lot of other countries in our housing practices.

One of the limitations that the currently available affordable housing options have is the lack of stability and the permanent affordability piece.

You know, with our current options, a lot of times if you get a better job, if you start making more money, then you can't access your housing anymore.

which actually de-incentivizes people from seeking better employment.

And so with this model, people will be able to reach permanent stability and build community and really put down roots and create really long-term sustainable community that's not in jeopardy all the time, and that people are really able to become secure and create a home, not just a temporary house.

So that's really exciting to me.

Yeah, thank you for that, Devin.

I do think it's important to understand that very often the way our affordable housing projects work right now is that if you qualify, if your income qualified, and you must be to be there, if you get a raise and your income goes up, you're kicked out.

And so this really is about providing more stability, providing permanent affordability for folks and more security for our community members.

So thank you for raising that issue.

I wonder if anybody would be interested in talking about your your professional experience and how you think that can contribute to this board.

You know, we have this is going to be a lot of work.

It's it is as as Chuck was mentioning about figuring out financing issues, figuring out how we make these projects pencil and.

And even with the notion of taking the cost of land out of the cost of production, this will be challenging.

So as it is with any kind of housing project.

So Julie, I wonder if maybe you can talk a little bit about what you can bring to the board in that way.

Sorry, excuse me.

So I've definitely spent my career wrestling with this topic, and, and within the programs that we have, which are pretty constrained right as we've kind of mentioned and in many different ways.

And, and also kind of at the edges of those programs trying to demonstrate kind of other options.

And so because of that I've been so kind of deep in the weeds and in how things work and deepen the numbers as Chuck had mentioned.

that I have kind of a career's worth of struggling with this.

At the same time, more recently, I've been doing research on housing models, social connection and mental health.

And like Devin mentioned, the ability for people to have stability and affordability.

We know from the research, these things, affect our mental health.

And being able to be in one place for a while and make those social connections, that is preventative of poor mental health and curative in some ways.

And so I think those two pieces, being able to be, you know, know the details of how things work, be able to work the numbers, and then kind of keep my eye on the big picture of kind of the health of folks that are living in housing.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Yeah, please.

I'm a former social worker for Head Start and an educator who does public programming and educational programming.

And with my lived experiences and others' lived experiences, I have a firm belief that we need to provide educational platforms and activate creative spaces.

Within my role, I have been able to leverage creative spaces, educational spaces, creatives into a mutual educational shared advocacy within development, within fundraising for social housing, with other social and racial justice causes.

And I intend to help with development.

educational platforms, teach anything that the board wishes for me to share and advocate for in education in ways and with soft skill sets that can encourage empathy and encourage mutual advocacy and a shared vision for the social housing within all neighborhoods of the city.

Thank you.

I was going to add, at least within my professional experience.

So I mean, within the United States, generally, we haven't seen this approach on rental housing.

Again, I think mainly that's because of the narrowness of our programs, you know, how policy decisions are made in the use of funds.

We do see this, we have seen this often in home ownership, where we have been looking at mixed income communities.

So when I worked at the city, I was active in the Holly Park project way back in the day.

you know, the HOPE VI projects that really were looking at diversifying neighborhoods with a variety of housing types to good and negative, like everything else.

The one project that I was deeply involved in, this is going to seem somewhat pretentious maybe, but for a long time I worked in Jackson Hole, which probably is the only other place with higher affordability problems than Seattle.

But in Jackson Hole they were focused on home ownership, using a land trust model, and we actually did do a couple projects where we were able to know this is Jackson Hole not Seattle but we were able to use kind of 11 market units to subsidize 33 affordable units.

So, so there is, again the math can work.

depending on where those subsidy sources is.

And that's why, again, on the multifamily side, where we're looking at that permanence for affordable units and stuff, that's where it's going to be really interesting.

Because right now, I don't know of any place where the public policies really support that blend of resources that we're going to try and play around with here.

But on the homeownership side, we do have some good examples to prove that actually does work you know, higher income people have no problems living in neighborhoods with lower income people.

So some of the social issues that bog us down, I mean, we've got really good examples of how that's actually not true, and we don't have to worry about kind of going through that trope anymore.

Just focus on the positives.

Hear, hear.

Colleagues, I guess I'll pass it off if anybody else has questions.

I've got a couple more questions, but I'll open it up.

Okay, so I want to say we have part of the work ahead is to undertake a hiring process this year for a CFO and for a COO.

I wonder if you could talk a little bit about what what you think these positions, sort of qualities these positions should have, what knowledge or experience do you think people should be bringing to the table to be able to lead an organization that has this social housing as a goal?

Mike or Chuck, maybe I'll start with one of you.

Mike, we haven't heard from you yet.

Okay.

I think a big one is going to be willingness to learn.

These are all kind of topics that are not relatively known in the US.

And so we're going to be doing, I think, some digging into different models, different financing options.

I know that there'll be a pretty heavy lift on the passive house education side and all of that entails, you know, openness towards climate adaptation and what that looks like.

So I think that it's really going to be, you know, it's not going to be a, it will be a headstrong person, right?

Someone who knows how to get things done, but also a willingness and openness to learning new things, trying out new ideas, maybe breaking things along the way.

But I think that it is going to be something that is a little bit beyond the mold of what we would typically see.

I can speak next.

Yeah, please.

Yeah, so aside from just having practical, significant experience developing affordable housing, housing in general, I truly believe that the CEO and CFO should have a philosophy of building more than housing in the sense that they should be homes and communities, right?

This is a really special opportunity to set a precedent for social housing in the US.

So I truly believe that the CFO and CEO should look at development, which includes amenities, resources, mixed uses that uplift the livelihood of the residents beyond simply just providing a room.

So if we truly want jurisdictions around the United States to adopt social housing, which I think we all do, because we see it has the potential of being really positive, then I think it's critical that we develop communities, not just housing.

Yeah, thank you for that, Brian.

That's, you know, that is part of the goal here.

And, you know, the project that I keep referring to in Nantes that we saw included, you know, housing for a range of folks at different incomes, but it also included childcare facilities.

It also included a grocery.

It also included a, you know, a neighborhood coffee shop.

And that ability to to really focus on not just units of production, but how we are intentionally creating healthy vibrant neighborhoods is I think going to be a really important.

component of this, because we want to make sure that we're creating spaces where people can have healthy, vibrant lives, not just a place, a roof over their head, which we all know is very important, but in what context.

So this is, I agree, going to be an exciting opportunity.

And I think the leaders of this agency will also need to have that kind of a shared vision.

I want to open it up to our board members if there's anything you want to make sure that we understand about your role about what you hope to see questions that you have about next steps.

Um, I, uh, my professional role is, uh, as in human resources at a local nonprofit that really tries to do as radical as possible HR, um, within this capitalist context.

Um, and in doing that, uh, like we've, I've been in like looking into more and doing research around transformative justice principles, um, in the legislation of this, of the social housing, um, developer, there is this particular thing of trying to make sure that we, that the, the, that the communities have, like, on the anti-carceral end of solutions around conflict.

And so I'm really excited about this board, like, also looking into transformative justice principles and thinking of ways of how we integrate that and how we, like, infuse that into how this, how each project gets developed, how these communities get formed and cultivated in ongoing ways that are really people-centric, really neighborhood-centric, and really about people.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I have two things to add, if that's all right.

Please.

Yeah, so the first thing is that I really hope that we'll be using a disability justice lens in a lot of the work that we're doing.

Our disabled community members are often the only ones still segregated from regular society.

And as we talk about social housing and integrating folks and having community around us.

I think it's really important that we we think about these ways in which we often leave out our disabled community members.

And then second, I think that erasure often happens with tiny little edits as we move forward until a particular identity or person doesn't exist anymore.

So if we can all stand really strong in making sure that these edits don't leave out people, I think that we'll have something really successful by the end that we can really be proud of for Seattle.

I think we all have a really strong investment in the culture and people of Seattle, which is necessary.

And so I'm just really excited to work with you all.

So thank you.

Thanks for raising that issue.

We'll be hearing from our department of neighborhoods about a landmark project later.

That was 1 of the 1st here.

I think that included a ramp in the construction.

Of this facility, and I do think it's important, especially as we're talking about housing that we remember that there are folks who need to be able to access.

housing.

I will say I have a couple of friends who have moved out of the city because they are in wheelchairs and they can't find a place that they can afford that is also ADA compliant.

And so I do think it's important for us to remember that as we're putting public money into these housing projects, that we make sure we're as inclusive as possible and are required, in fact, to make sure that at least some units are accessible for folks and have that under consideration.

You said something else that I wanted to...

Can I add something here?

Oh, yes, please, Tom.

So housing is a...

hotly contested political subject in this town.

And I really think that one of our real missions here is to be able to bring community support for affordable housing, to actually treat this as a political agenda, not just a technical agenda, but even for funding or for any way getting this off the ground is gonna require us to be really strong advocates for funding.

And that means that we're going to have to really ensure that the possible legislative sources for this funding understand that the people of Seattle are united in advocating for affordable housing and that the market has failed us, utterly failed us to provide the housing that we need.

Everybody in this town knows that regardless of their politics.

So we need to really put the heat on possible funding sources and get them to the table.

Thanks.

Yeah, thank you, Tom.

Katie, you wanted to comment about the CEO and CFO?

Please go ahead.

I already did when I message I wrote.

Pardon me?

I said, I already did in the message that I wrote.

I said, I believe that they should have like lived experience.

Let me look, sorry.

Great, thank you.

I think they should both have lived experience and the willingness to listen.

And I believe that she, I believe they should be able to be in, I can't say the word innovative.

Can't wait to see where this goes.

Like when I say innovative, I mean like, you know, throwing out ideas, helping us help them, basically.

Yeah.

Great, thank you.

Council Member Nelson, you have a question?

Yeah, I'm glad that Tom brought up the funding issue because I think that there is agreement that we need more housing and it's the funding sources that are contested, so that's a really good point.

What I love about this is that there is a range of incomes and what I What I understand is that by having a mix of incomes, then there will be some higher rents to pay for the building.

And that will help instead of having only one tranche of income.

That will generate revenue, but how will some of the first projects get constructed?

Because the city, I understand that the property will be, it's surplus property, that the city will be providing either in land or in, I guess, buildings that aren't being used anymore.

But how will the renovation or the building of the housing be paid for?

Well, I can answer that.

So right now we're getting this agency started.

Once we have the CFO and the CEO on board, that is sort of the first task of this agency now will be to do the fundraising.

to allow for construction, remodeling, acquisition.

As you said, we have something like 43 parcels of land right now that have been designated surplus across the city.

If there are properties on there that could be acquired for preservation, that's obviously an easier thing to do than new construction.

Sometimes.

Yeah.

But there is an understanding that there will be a ramp up time for this agency to hire folks, do the fundraising necessary to create the fund sources to be able to do the work.

And as it engages and is able to do that, we will start to see it bear fruit.

I also want to just add that echo what Katie had said about like the need for the CFO to be innovative around things really like wanting I'd be really interested in having someone who can really think outside the box on things.

I also want somebody who would be down to lean into the opportunities and funding options that the I-135 campaign and How's Our Neighbors suggested during the campaign up until it got voted into law.

There are things I'm looking forward to talk with Chuck and with you, Julie, about where we could be looking that aren't conventional and that aren't dipping into the other ways, the other funding sources that are already allocated to affordable housing in the city.

And yeah, again, and then what Tom said about it being a political issue that city budgets are political.

And I'm looking forward to us really like talking about how we make our city budget look more like the ways that really support communities and people.

So, yeah.

When you say city budget, what are you talking about?

Because we are paying, there are startup funds.

Did I miss something?

Well, so there, we just received 200,000 from the state.

The legislation that was passed does require that the city provide funding for staffing and in-kind.

And so that will be the conversation that we have in the next budget cycle.

And yeah, is that your question?

Well, is that what you were referring to when you said city budget?

That it being a political, like a moral statement?

City budget being a moral statement?

I'm just, we'll continue offline.

Yeah, so we will be having a discussion during this budget cycle about including the funding for some operations for this agency.

Right, yeah, that was required, I understand that.

Yeah, okay.

Can I add a comment here?

Yeah, I'm gonna, yes, please.

So I think in a way, yeah, I think in a way Council Member Nelson has done us a favor by sort of bringing up the elephant in the room.

We have funding, we can get funding for our initial startup costs for the board for some of the things that we want to do, but nonetheless, getting actually the initial units built uh, preserved, managed, whatever is going to be a serious task.

And I think that, um, although we certainly should use whatever, uh, whatever influence we have to get legislative funding.

I think the possibility exists that we may in fact, have to look outside those boxes and, uh, possibly even run some form of, uh, initiative.

That's obviously not the job of this board.

That's more of a community aspect, but I think we need to be honest and to realize that the first buildings are going to be a seriously heavy lift and not pretend that's not going to be a difficult funding opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tom, yep.

May I also say that to piggyback on what Tom has said and what you have also brought up, that I believe that we should be transparent and educational with the public and we should inform them and assure their fears that this will not take away from other public funding and other public housing and other resources for housing justice, that this will be an independently sustainable solution.

for the public and education and outreach is the way to go for that and we need to be transparent and inform the public and do so in a kind manner.

Well said, thank you.

Well, and so the first official board meeting will be held.

We haven't settled on a date yet, but it does have to be held before May 30th.

And that meeting will be open to the public.

And that will be sort of the first chance for this board to begin to engage with one another and to start making some decisions about what your first steps will be regarding hiring.

So, okay, well, I want to thank you all for being here.

Thank you for agreeing to serve on something new and exciting and maybe a little bit challenging, but looking forward to working with all of you and to really seeing this, seeing this bear fruit so that we can serve our neighbors in a new way.

Thanks so much for being here.

Okay, Devin, will you please read the next item into the agenda?

Yes, I'll read Agenda Items 14 and 15. Thank you.

Agenda Items 14 and 15, Council Bills 120554 and 120555, Ordinances Relating to Historic Preservation, Imposing Controls upon the Fairfax and the University of Washington Faculty Club, Landmarks Designated by the Landmarks Preservation Board for Briefing, Discussion, and Possible Vote.

Terrific.

Thank you very much.

And we have Erin Daugherty here from Department of Neighborhoods to walk us through these two pieces of legislation.

Erin, please go ahead.

Good morning.

Thank you for having me.

So I'm joined today by property owners as well.

I see Susan and Elizabeth from the Fairfax and Julie from the University of Washington.

And I'll ask Council Member Morales, would you like for me to present them together, back to back, or would you like to stop after each one to do questions?

Let's do them one at a time.

Okay, let's do that.

And I will share my screen.

Okay, are you able to see that.

Okay.

Okay, so.

Was as we come each time.

We bring the designation standards with us as a point of reference.

We won't go through and read them, but these are the six standards that the Landmarks Board considers when they evaluate a landmark.

But the property must be at least 25 years old.

It must meet one of the six standards, and it must have the ability to convey that significance or have integrity to convey that significance.

So we will start with the Fairfax.

This ordinance is to codify the controls and incentives agreement signed by the property owners and the city historic preservation officer.

The landmark nomination was made by the Fairfax Homeowners Association, and I'm joined today by Elizabeth Wales and Susan Beardsley.

see on your screen.

And Susan was also one of the main authors of the nomination working in collaboration with Historic Seattle.

She may have been joined by some of her neighbors and she can tell us more about that later if we'd like to know.

But the Fairfax is located at 1508 10th Avenue East It was designated by the Landmarks Preservation Board on June 16, 2021, under standards D and E.

The features of the landmark include the site, the exterior of the building, and the main interior stairway.

The building was completed in 1923. The Fairfax is in North Capitol Hill across the street from St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral and the former St. Nicholas School.

The four-story residential building exhibits the Gothic Revival style, and the staggered form of the building was designed in response to the bend in the road on 10th Avenue East.

The building is understated, but when you look closely, you'll see the design motifs of the pointed Gothic arch and others reflected in the cornice frieze, the leaded glazing of the doors, the cast iron railing of the exterior stair, and the simple opening of the stair alcove.

The vertical pilasters are turned at an angle and used to add relief and scale to the facades and also reflect this geometry.

They terminate above the parapet in these fine decorative capitals.

All of these intact original elements illustrate the building has a high level of architectural integrity.

The Fairfax was the work of James E. Blackwell.

He was both the developer and architect, and I will read a bit here from the nomination application.

Mr. Blackwell began his professional career as a civil engineer and ended it as one of the most productive architects in the Pacific Northwest.

His body of work is typologically diverse and runs the gamut in both style and purpose.

His work is present in Piner Square, along the waterfront, in downtown, on Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Queen Anne.

He designed everything from dry docks and warehouses to apartment buildings and private residences.

One of his commercial buildings in downtown, the Schaefer Building, located at 6th and Pine, was also designated as a Seattle landmark in 1985. So Susan and Elizabeth, if you have anything you'd like to add, please feel free to do that.

Not at this time, but we're happy to answer any questions I can think of one thing, having listened with great interest at the prior item on your list, council members, this building for its entire lifetime, I think it's safe to say, has been filled with middle class folks and residents.

And much of this older stock is, in fact, the place where middle class people still can afford a unit.

And I just want to bring that up because we're not only preserving, we think, or helping to preserve this beautiful building, but we're also hoping to preserve middle class apartments.

Thank you.

Can you talk a little bit about the apartments?

How many units are in there?

There are 14 units.

Okay.

That's great.

Well, it's lovely and I'd love to take a tour of the inside, see some of these interior features.

Thank you both for being here.

I don't have any questions.

I will see if my colleagues have any questions.

I am not seeing any.

Erin, if I could just ask you to talk a little bit for the viewing public, what does it mean that these particular features of the building are controlled?

Sure.

So the the ordinance that is being considered by the council is codifying language that's in a controls and incentives agreement, and that controls agreement has a whole list of procedures to follow when making changes to the designated features of the landmark.

So let's say the owners wanted to, the building is currently painted.

Let's say they wanted to change the color, which is changing the appearance of the building.

They would seek a certificate of approval through the landmarks board.

It's basically getting a permit, a review process.

So the, The agreement that we have with the owners will allow them to do certain types of work on the designated features without any review at all.

And a lot of that can be in-kind maintenance and repair, restoration work, or minor things that don't change the character of the building.

Other things that they can seek applications administratively, and they're done by the staff.

And these are kind of a whole host of things that are kind of smaller scale and don't have wouldn't have big impacts, but the staff would still use the same criteria that the board uses when they evaluate these.

And then other things that might be made that might be major issues, like they might contemplate adding a penthouse floor or something.

And that's the type of work that the board would participate in a certificate of approval.

So.

We try and come up with a whole list, a whole menu of different types of things and anticipate what those are.

And the goal is to give the property owners and the board some flexibility to not have to do everything in this public meeting, but while balancing it with maintaining the character of the building.

Perfect.

Okay.

Well, if there are no other questions, then I move, colleagues, that the committee recommends, whoops, I just messed up my script, that the committee recommend approval.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, wait, we're voting on this separately.

Okay, okay, so let's, so I'm moving that we, Council Bill 120554. I have a second, thank you very much.

Okay, will the clerk please read the roll?

Council Member Lewis?

Council Member Nelson?

Aye.

Vice Chair Sawant?

Chair Morales?

Yes.

I'm going to give Vice Chair Sawant another go.

Yes.

Did we lose her?

No.

Vice Chair Sawant, if you are trying to speak, you are on mute.

Okay, well, let's move to the next bill.

We cannot vote if Council Member Sawant is not here.

So let's, we will try again in a moment, but let's move to the next piece and I will see what we can do here.

Erin, can you move to the next piece of legislation, please?

So this Controls and Incentives Agreement was signed by the owners and the City Historic Preservation Officer.

The landmark nomination was made by the University of Washington, and I'm joined today by Julie Blakeslee of UDEM.

The authors of the nomination were local architectural historians Susan Boyle and David Peterson.

This is the University of Washington Faculty Center or club, but we know it today, simply as UW club.

It's located at 4020 East Stevens Way Northeast.

This was designated by the Landmarks Preservation Board on December 15, 2021 under standards C, D, E, and F.

The features of the landmark include the site, the courtyards, the exterior of the building, and the open interior volume and plan layout of the upper floor.

This was completed in 1960. So this property, the building and site design were a collaboration of notable local architects Paul Kirk and Victor Steinbrook and landscape architect Garrett Ekbo.

It is an iconic example of Northwest modernism in Seattle, and it is situated on the east edge of the university's central campus.

The concrete and steel structure are an assembly of white cubic forms with large bands of glazing, primarily oriented to the east.

The building is sited on a steep slope, and the main pedestrian entry on the top side with parking below.

You access the building's upper floor from a freestanding ramp structure that bridges over the perimeter courtyard of the lower level.

Feels like it's a floating ramp.

The main upper floor is an open plan with communal and service spaces organized around a large courtyard that is open to the sky.

But due to the large expanses of interior glazing, floor to ceiling glass, it all feels very interconnected, and the interior and exterior spaces are visually blended together.

The main gathering spaces all are oriented eastward to enjoy views to the water and mountains.

The structure is also a visual landmark itself.

and appears to cantilever out of the hillside, especially when viewed from afar or down below on Motley Boulevard.

The effect is achieved by the upper floor projecting 40 feet beyond the lower level, supported only by the slender steel columns you see in the photo.

And for anyone who's had an opportunity to visit or attend an event in this place, it is always a memorable experience.

So Julie, I don't know if you have any thoughts to add.

I just wanted to say thank you for considering this special building that we have on campus.

And that has been a fond building for many of the students, faculty, and staff that have been on the campus.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Colleagues, are there any questions for Julie or Erin?

Okay.

Devin, will you please call the roll?

Oh, can I please have a second?

Sorry.

Second.

Thank you.

Will you please call the roll on...

Let's try doing both of these now.

Council Bill 120554 and 120555. Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Council Member, Vice Chair Sawant?

Chair Morales?

Yes.

Madam Clerk, Linda, are you on?

I see Council Member Sawant's name, but I am not hearing from her.

And so,

Chair Morales, I was just speaking to a million.

She's trying to contact Ted to see what's going on, but we can't take the vote without quorum.

So if you can sit tight just for a little bit, we're trying to find out what's going on.

I apologize.

Okay, thank you very much.

I apologize, folks.

We do not We may not have a quorum right now, in which case we can't take this vote.

So apologies.

I will filibuster for a moment and see.

Erin or Julie, why don't you tell us a little bit about how this faculty club is used?

Can I say something?

Yes, please.

I just want to say thank you very much for including the back photo of the structure that's on that steep slope because I got my graduate degree at UW.

Back then it was called the Faculty Club.

Anyway, I never knew it was such a beautiful building because the entrances, I will not use any adjective.

I just didn't realize how gorgeous it is from behind.

Yeah, the sort of grandeur of it is hidden.

You have to kind of go in and experience and see it from the outside.

Oh yeah, the view from inside is amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was built in 1960, and it always had the use as a membership club for faculty.

During the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition, there was a building on the site prior to it, and that was called the Uhu House, which was really because of a a lumberman's fraternal association during the exposition.

And then afterwards it was used as a faculty club.

That building had some troubles and it was replaced back, it was removed back in the fifties.

And then there was a desire to build a new faculty club here.

In the lower level, in the 60s during this time, kind of interesting about the architects, one whom had a disability and so was very interested in having access and doing that very gracefully, really an early example of universal access, not stairs in the front and a ramp on the side, but the whole entrance being a ramp.

The upper story, actually, it has been, historically, it was the women's level, had a women's restroom, and then downstairs was a men's restroom and kind of a bar.

And in that bar, the wood paneling on the interior is from the old Hoo-Hoo House lumber.

Now we have gender neutral bathrooms so that anyone can use any bathroom on either level.

Julie, I'm sorry.

I'm going to have to, I'm realizing that we actually need to recess until we have a quorum.

So I'm going to, I'm going to call this meeting into recess and we will come back when we actually have a quorum.

So please stand by and I hope we are able to rejoin you very quickly.

you

you

of landmark legislation before us.

Let's do it again.

I'm going to move that we, the committee recommend passage of Council Bill 120554 and 120555. Can I have a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Lewis.

Council Member Nelson.

Aye.

Vice Chair Sawant?

Yes.

Chair Morales?

Yes.

Three in favor.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the committee recommendation that the council approve these two pieces of legislation will be sent to the May 9th, 2023 council meeting.

This does conclude the April 28th, 2023 meeting of the Neighborhoods, Education, Civil Rights and Culture Committee.

Thank you very much for being here, everyone.

We are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.