Land Use Committee 3/6/2024

You ready?

Great.

All right.

Well, good afternoon, everyone.

The March 6th, 2024 meeting of the Land Use Committee will come to order.

It is 2.01 p.m.

I'm Tammy Morales, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Moore.

Sorry, present.

Council Member Rivera.

Present.

Council Member Wu.

Present.

Vice Chair Strauss.

Present.

Chair Morales.

Here.

Five present.

Thank you.

Okay.

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

Hearing no objection, today's agenda is adopted.

Before I start public comment, I did want to let folks know what we've got going on today.

On today's agenda, we have five appointments to the Design Review Commission.

We also have a presentation from the Equitable Development Initiative Division of the Office of Planning and Community Development.

That's a mouthful.

Before we start today, I do want to acknowledge that yesterday the mayor released the draft One Seattle Comprehensive Plan.

The document and the work that we'll undertake this year provides a once-in-a-decade opportunity to address our housing crisis, to increase opportunities for affordable commercial space in our neighborhoods, and to address our climate goals by increasing walkability throughout all of our neighborhoods and so much more.

It's going to be an exciting opportunity for all of our neighbors to weigh in on what they'd like to see in their community.

It's important to acknowledge that OPCD has been engaging neighbors throughout the city since 2022. But with the release of this draft, we kick off a 60-day public comment period.

We do have a robust schedule of engagement opportunities throughout the city, including open houses in every council district.

So I do want to take a moment, I think they will show a slide, but I do want to just take a moment for the viewing public to let folks know that schedule.

Starting March 14th at 6 p.m.

at Loyal Heights Community Center, March 19th at 6 p.m.

at Cleveland High School, March 26th at 6 p.m.

at Nathan Hale High School, April 3rd at 6 p.m., Chief Sealth International High School.

April 16th at 6 p.m., Garfield Community Center.

April 25th at 6 p.m., Eckstein Middle School.

April 30th at 6 here at City Hall in the Bertha Knight Landis Room.

And then there will be a virtual open house planned for 6 p.m.

on May 2nd.

All of this information will be getting shared regularly through each of our council offices and through the city, but just want to make sure that folks are aware that this is coming.

In order for members of the public to have their ideas considered in the final comprehensive plan or to have their concerns addressed in the final EIS, the Environmental Impact Statement, they have to send those comments to the Office of Planning and Community Development.

I know everybody will be eager to share with their council members how they feel, but in order for your comments to be included in the final plan, please send them to engage.oneseattleplan.com.

Well, that's the website you can visit, or you can email oneseattlecomplantatseattle.gov.

And I'd encourage everyone who's got comments to send their comments to OBCD.

Finally, rather than have OPCD come here and brief just the land use committee, we will have the team present at council briefing on Monday so that all of the council members can be briefed on the comprehensive plan.

And that is Monday, March 11th at 2 p.m.

The public can watch live on Seattle Channel and it will also be recorded on Seattle Channel.

And I know the department will have more to say about this when we get to that agenda item.

So with that in mind, we will move to public comment.

I will open the hybrid public comment period.

Comments should relate to items on today's agenda and within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, do we have any folks signed up electronically, virtually?

Currently, we do not.

Okay, and do we have anybody signed up in person?

Yes, we have four in-person commenters.

Okay, so each person will have two minutes to speak.

When you hear the chime, that means you have 10 seconds left, so please begin to wrap up your comments, and we'll move to the next speaker.

Okay, can you please read the first speakers into the record?

The first in-person speaker is Clifford Cawthorn, followed by Donna Bresick.

Excellent.

Thank you, Chair Morales, Vice Chair Moore, and committee members.

It's great to be here today.

First of all, before I begin, I want to thank the staff.

I know this has been a big effort to push this draft update forward.

I just want to say thank you on behalf of Habitat for Humanity, Seattle, King County, the organization I'm here to represent.

And while I applaud the work, I think that we can be a bit bolder in this draft plan.

And as we move forward in this process, I hope to share some more of these thoughts with you, and as we get more information, be able to give you this feedback.

But from my initial viewing of this plan, I would just encourage the council to consider fully utilizing some of the tools the city has at its disposal, pardon me, in order to be able to create affordable housing through added density.

And, for example, that includes allowing fourplexes in some of the most impacted neighborhoods that are dealing with displacement right now in order to be able to add those extra affordable units as well as to create a well-calibrated FAR bonus alongside the other tools we have in order to be able to incentivize affordability throughout the city.

Likewise, I'm also here, as in the past, to just express our support for a Connected Communities pilot.

With what I've seen so far, I think that this zoning pilot will be a nice compliment to what we're seeing in the comprehensive plan.

I look forward to exploring that more with you as time goes on.

As for other tools we have, I would just simply encourage the council to think about adding to our toolbox rather than moving backwards in terms of some of the tools we have to be able to build affordability in this city.

So with that, thank you very much.

Appreciate your work, and I look forward to working with you more.

Next up, we have Donna Breske, followed by Steve Rupicello.

I have six copies.

Hello, my name is Donna Breske.

I'm a civil engineer.

I own Donna Breske & Associates, land use consulting in civil engineering.

I'm an advocate for more housing and applaud Seattle and their efforts in the ADU legislation that happened in 2019. And then also for this upcoming comprehensive plan and the ability to build more housing.

However, just changing the density without addressing how the executive branch employees and management are undermining the effort with unsurmountable public utility upgrades and mandates isn't gonna get you the housing you need.

I've seen firsthand many, many projects that I've designed that developers just give up on because of costly water main extensions and water valves, specifically as Seattle Public Utilities administrative document WTR 410. It requires developers to install valves as a condition of acquiring new water meters.

For 2023, 61 developers received a water availability certificate with a requirement like this.

These are significant valves costing $50,000 upward to $200,000 to install.

There's no engineering reason given, and you can't get water service unless you install it.

There's no Seattle Municipal Code that gives SPU the authority to require valves as a condition of getting a water meter.

There are connection charges and there are installation fees that were passed by the council that are allowed per state law and allowed for the Seattle Municipal Code.

Instead, it states that the reason for these valves is if SPU determines the improvement provides a positive depth.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Breske.

You can submit your full comments if you'd like to email.

I know you have, but if you want to make sure we get that, that'd be great.

Next up, we have Steve Rubicello, followed by David Gloger.

First rule of getting out of a hole is stop digging.

And we have a tree ordinance which tells people how to destroy trees.

You know, maybe you could put some tree huggers, people who actually are arborists making decisions instead of people whose prime motive seems to be developer profit.

We have also a city which is already over zoned.

We have room for a lot more people.

I never hear the number anymore.

It used to be three or four times what we have in the city.

So up zones are not necessary for densification.

I don't know, maybe they help in gentrification, but they're certainly not necessary for densification of the city.

That's happening by itself.

My biggest concern is that Seattle has gone after us tweeners, people who are working class, people who are not tech bros, people who are not in management, So we're seeing the train and the buses going farther and farther for people to make the city go.

And I don't think that many of these programs are affecting that.

You know, you have money for migrants that don't even come to the city of Seattle, yet we're seeing more and more people leave the city of Seattle on economic grounds.

And the classic example is the Central District, which used to be 80% black, not high income.

And most of those people left on strictly economic grounds.

Well, you're seeing the same thing happen in the North End, only it's white people, the same thing, economic grounds.

And some of your programs that expand zoning with the developer paying for it are just subsidies to developers.

And in the north end, there's at least one case where the church wants a parking lot.

Thank you.

Next up and our last in-person speaker is David Kloger.

Hello.

My name is Dave Gloger and I live in District 5. I am here today to talk about Seattle's Tree Protection Ordinance, which was enacted in the spring of 2023. I know that that is not on today's agenda, but I think that it is important for you to understand the ramifications of that ordinance.

Last spring when this ordinance was being discussed, Council Member Strauss and the city touted how this ordinance would protect 175,000 trees.

way more than the old ordinance where it protected 17,000.

Well, it does protect them from private property owners, but it does not protect them from developers.

Even the largest trees can be cut down if a developer says the tree inhibits the development.

They can even cut the tree down just for want of adding a pathway.

Just read the ordinance, it's clearly there.

Since this ordinance passed in the spring of 2023, we have seen numerous lots where every tree is cut down.

Today, I would like to share an example how little this ordinance does to protect our urban canopy.

I have a photo of a property at 3003 Northeast 88th in the Wedgwood neighborhood, I believe District 4. On the back of this property is a 50 inch diameter Western red cedar, which has been given the name Aster, and Aster is shown on this picture.

It also shows where the developer girdled the tree with a chainsaw without a permit.

Under the old ordinance, trees like Aster were protected, but the new ordinance provides no such protection.

The developer has produced plans that require cutting the tree down.

However, architects have clearly shown that the buildings on the developer's plans can be moved so that it can be saved.

We can get the same amount of housing and save the tree, but for the developer, Aster is an obstacle.

Please change the ordinance so we can protect.

Thank you.

And that completes our in-person and virtual speakers.

Great.

Thank you, Imani.

I will...

A point of personal privilege, if I may?

Sure.

Just letting the record reflect that it's my understanding that the tree that the public commenter just spoke about was permitted under the old ordinance because that permit had vested under the old ordinance and not the current.

Okay, thank you.

No, we're going to close public comment and move to our agenda.

Thank you very much.

We'll start...

Please, we have a lot of comment from folks, so I understand the frustration and we will engage with you.

after public comment and after the committee, if you'd like, happy to talk with you afterward.

Okay, we're gonna start the committee's item of business.

Will you please, Imani, read items into the record?

For the appointees that are in chambers, I think we've got three and then two are on Zoom, is that right?

It is just, no, just the three.

Okay, yeah, please come on up, make your way.

And Imani, would you please read items one through five into the record?

Agenda items one through five, appointments two, five, seven through two, seven, six, one.

Appointment of Jill Carreri, Molly Spitalnik, Kate Clark, Brian Markham, and Zubin Rao to the Seattle Design Commission for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Terrific, thank you very much.

And thanks to those of you who are able to be here.

And if you could just start by introducing yourselves, that'd be great.

or be happy to.

Michael Jenkins, I'm the executive director of the Seattle Design Commission, and we'll start with Kate Clark.

I'm Kate Clark.

I'm an artist that works in the field of public art and being recommended for the art representative for the council, for the commission.

Good afternoon.

My name is Zubin Rao.

I'm an architect and associate at the Miller Hull Partnership.

I work on a lot of civic buildings, including fire stations and things like that.

And I'm Molly Spitalnik.

I'm an urban designer associate at ZGF Architects.

I'm a former design commissioner as the Get Engaged commissioner, and I'm up for urban design commissioner today.

Great.

Thank you.

And the two other individuals that are joining us, hopefully remote, are Jill Crary, who is currently the chair of the commission, who's seeking reappointment as chair for her second and final term.

and then Brian Markham, who is seeking approval as an engineer for the commission.

And I have some opening comments maybe to help.

We have many new faces on the council today.

I'm really excited to see you in this role on the council and in this committee.

The Seattle Design Commission has been in existence since 1968. All of our commissioners are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council.

The role of the commission is to advise the mayor, the council, and city departments on the design and environmental implications of new capital facilities, projects that seek long-term or permanent use of a right-of-way like a vacation or a sky bridge.

And then for the past 25 years, the commission has had that same role in evaluating and providing input to city departments and mayor and the council on the implications of Sound Transit's investments.

Since 2017, we've been looking at the implications of Sound Transit 3 and the 13 new stations that will impact our neighborhoods.

And we've been happy to take that role on and providing advice to city departments.

So just briefly, Kate is seeking appointment as the artist position.

She leads a firm that I'm sure she can tell you about called Parkology that specializes in public art installations, not only in the Northwest, but around the United States.

She's done very interesting work for the city as well in her role with Seattle Public Utilities and their art plan.

as well as a current proposal that's a combined project with Seattle Public Utilities and the Parks Department to create a new reservoir at Bitter Lake.

Zubin Rao joining as the architect has a very impressive career with Miller Hall leading publicly funded projects.

He recently worked and completed Fire Station 31, which I believe is in District 5. He's also worked on a variety of other civic facilities in Bellevue, Langley, British Columbia, City of Bellevue, and a variety of other facilities and locations around this region.

Molly.

which we're very happy that she can rejoin us in a role as the urban designer for the commission, is an urban designer for ZGF and does a variety of publicly funded projects as well in that role.

And then finally, Brian Markham, who hopefully is joining us, is the lead for the Seattle office of Arup.

Arup is a worldwide engineering and design services consulting firm.

He's a structural engineer that works on a variety of multidisciplinary projects that are primarily focused on art and art museums, performing arts centers, airports, and transit facilities.

A wide range practice that is varied as the arts program that was created at King Street Station to new airports for Mexico City and Abu Dhabi.

You can imagine how pleased we are to not only have these three individuals join the commission, but as well as the appointments, the reappointments for Joe Crary and for Molly Spitalnik.

And I will leave it there.

Thank you.

Well, I wanna give you all an opportunity to speak too.

Kate, maybe we'll start with you and just share a little bit about your interest in joining the commission.

Sure.

Yeah, it's a real honor to have the opportunity to do this.

My background, as I mentioned, is in public art.

And so I first learned about how art interfaces with cities from the perspective of a maker.

When I moved to Seattle and started working on Percent for Art projects, I got involved with the Office of Arts and Culture as a planning artist, as you just mentioned, and had the opportunity also to be on the other side of the table of the Seattle Design Commission when presenting as an artist in residence for the Bitter Lake Reservoir project, the improvement work that's turning...

reservoir also into six acre new park space in the underserved neighborhood of bitter lake and so from the experience that i had of all of the preparation that goes into presenting to the seattle design commission and the really rigorous and important feedback that comes from such a diverse group of thinkers and problem solvers, I've really witnessed the positive impact that the design commission has on planning projects personally.

Just to give a few examples, some of the design commissioners for this project suggested, what if you put photovoltaic panels on the roof of this reservoir?

What if you rearrange the pathways to improve pedestrian movement, how could you bring in more public art into this process?

And so from that side, now I'm excited for the opportunity to be able to also provide brainstorming and feedback into hopefully imbuing more life and excitement into our public spaces that we're all building together.

And can you talk a little bit, I'm looking at your CV, lots of incredible projects.

A lot of them do seem to be connected to the outdoors and to gardens and sort of natural landscapes, but I don't see a background per se in say urban landscaping.

So can you talk about that connection?

Because I think that's really interesting, not just public art and public space, but the natural environment as well.

I have more of a background in urban design than urban landscaping.

When I was going to graduate school, I sort of did a hybrid public art and urban design field of study just because so much of the time public art exists in our neighborhoods and cities and has to interface with you know, sidewalks and parks.

And so just naturally a lot of the problems are being solved by people outside of the arts already.

So I'm really, I love working in team-based approaches, like how it happens in public art commissions.

And so very naturally, that's the way that people work as urban designers or as landscape designers or as engineers.

So that's sort of where I'm coming from this.

Interesting.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any questions for Kate?

No, just thank you for your service.

Thank you.

Zubin?

Yeah, sure.

So like Kate, I have been before the commission on the design team side, most recently for Fire Station 31, and was just really super impressed with all the feedback we got from the commissioners.

It was always very thoughtful, very on point.

They were really able to kind of drill down on the key issues that every project will kind of have a few key issues that everybody kind of knows about.

And they were just very solutions-oriented in kind of giving us advice and providing a fresh set of eyes at how to solve some of these challenges.

And I think just kind of reflecting on, you know, living in Seattle and having been here for about 12 years now and hopefully for many more decades, I just think we have such an incredible building stock in this city of civic buildings.

I think our you know, fire stations, libraries, all of these neighborhood kind of city facilities, I think are very architecturally strong compared to what you see in a lot of places.

And it's not that they're fancy or that they're expensive, it's just that they've kind of resolved those issues and kind of contributed something elegant to the public realm.

And I think that design commission is probably a big reason for that.

So I'm just very excited to kind of have the opportunity to contribute to that discourse, and just contribute some of my expertise and experience working on those types of projects.

Thank you.

And Molly, now, can you clarify for me, this is not a reappointment.

You're being appointed to a new commission.

I'm being appointed.

I'm seeking appointment to a different position.

So I served twice as the get engaged commissioner, which is a one year position.

And now I would be stepping into the urban design commissioner position.

Got it.

Okay.

And so tell us a little bit about your interests.

Gladly.

So I originally came similar to Kate and Zubin.

I originally came before the design commission through project work.

So through Pike Pines streetscape and bicycle improvements project where I was working as an urban designer and similarly found that not only were the commissioner comments incredibly helpful in moving forward some of the goals of the project that the project had come up against challenges with, like expanding sidewalks over the bridges over I-5.

They helped us navigate some of these solutions between SDOT and WSDOT.

But also just preparing to come before the design commission causes project teams to really come together and speak about some of the values that the commission puts forward and to really craft a story around how each of our projects meet some of the city goals from the get-go.

And so I found that really valuable coming before the commission.

And then being on the commission, we've been...

reviewing the variety of projects that Michael described, so anything that's impacting the public right-of-way, which is within my practice.

I focus on streetscapes, bicycle improvements, on master planning projects, so on private and public development, as well as private and public funding in my practice.

as well as work on light rail, on stations, and on transit-oriented development.

So the work that I've done in practice on transit-oriented development with Sound Transit really allowed me to feel valuable on our reviews of the West Seattle to Ballard Link extension, which was a big reason that we talked about my continuation so that I can continue to help the Design Commission move through those reviews alongside other city agencies and other city departments.

So I look forward to any questions that you have for me.

Well, thank you.

In addition to being an urban designer, you're also a graduate of the UT School of Architecture, as am I, so go Longhorns.

So I do have a personal interest in one of the volunteer activities that you listed, the Youth Achievement Center, which is in District 2, or will be when it is completed.

Can you talk a little bit about the work that you did for that?

I would love to.

So that is a project that has been very close to my heart since we became involved in it in 2020. Probably one of the most enjoyable design processes of my career.

So it's currently gone through the funding process with the Office of Housing and we're starting to work to speak about moving through construction documentation on that project.

It's truly, for my career, it's the most...

We talk about co-design with communities in my field, and...

This was a process that was ideated by BIPOC youth community members from two organizations, from Creative Justice and Community Passageways.

And they really said, what do we need?

What does our community most need?

They had a youth cipher where they wrote on the wall, what is it that our community is lacking?

And two Sound Transit parcels were what they came to, where they could achieve some of those goals, some of those housing goals for youth experiencing homelessness, housing goals for younger adults who are pursuing education, as well as community spaces and potential services.

They've partnered with a black-owned bank from South Carolina, I believe, and just seeing the way that they've come together, found a block developer to work alongside Africatown Community Land Trust, and really bring that youth vision to fruition.

It's really been a process where the youth community members have worked very directly with us, spent hours coming up with precedent and really telling us what is the look and feel of the space that they want beyond the decision of this is what our community needs from a services perspective.

And so I really look forward to any opportunities for them to partner with city agencies as well.

And there are quite a few youth in that program who are very interested in engagement in political processes as well as serving their community through basically this gift to their community of the things that would have been valuable to them.

It's very exciting.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any questions for our appointees?

I have one question.

Yes, please.

I'm just looking at your select volunteer involvement, and you talked about designing the justice bus, which sounds really interesting.

Could you just explain a little bit more about that?

Yes, so that's with Benefits Law Center, and essentially they provide services to people who are seeking Social Security services, and they focus on serving people who are underhoused or unhoused.

And so I actually worked alongside Erica Bush, who is...

the former urban design commissioner whose position I would be stepping into.

And she and I worked together alongside that community group and with AIA committee on homelessness.

And we helped them design a bus that they could that could serve as a mobile law office for Benefits Law Center.

And so they basically bring those law services to people wherever they are able to have those services, and they've used it in different ways over the years.

I believe that was completed in 2019. Wonderful.

Thank you.

Chair?

Sure.

And Zubin, I saw in your presentations, effective fire station planning for compact sites.

I think the last two words is what caught my attention.

Can you give us highlights from that presentation?

Sure, yeah.

Um, so that was, uh, at a presentation at, um, it was, uh, it's called the FIERO Conference.

It's, uh, a national organization that deals with, uh, issues around firefighting and, in particular, fire station design for that conference.

Um, so we were, uh, me and another Miller Hall colleague were presenting on some of our work, both here and in San Diego, um, planning fire stations for very, very compact sites.

So, you know, the, similar to Fire Station 31, for example.

You know, a station that size, if you go to the national conference, most people would say has to be on a four-acre site or something like that, you know.

So working in tight urban environments, we really kind of showed them a lot of kind of newer ideas and ways of laying out fire stations that don't compromise functionality, but they can fit in much more compact urban infill conditions.

That's excellent.

And then, Molly, since you presented at Sound Transit, I have become a board member at Sound Transit.

I see that you did the 1000 Northeast 45th Street assessment and the TOD inventory.

Any highlights that you want me to leave this meeting with?

Highlights what?

That you want me to take away.

Since I wasn't at those presentations, I wasn't a board member at that time.

Of course.

So in the TOD inventory, I think really our target was looking for some of those opportunities, particularly for Sound Transit to meet their 80-80-80, some real opportunities for affordable housing.

I would say any opportunities where we can help sound transit move toward and they have sought out these opportunities but where they can have some of those community partnerships so like i was saying youth achievement center is one of those that is on on one of those um additional sites and so any opportunities where they can take some of the studies that we completed for them particularly when it's affordable housing and and pursue doing those affordable housing projects with community groups and with community vision, I think is incredible.

And then I also think any opportunities around light rail for us to really think about what are the opportunities for co-development?

What are our opportunities for overbuild over some of those stations?

Or are there areas where we want to see affordable housing immediately adjacent to the stations?

And so often If it's going to be over billed over the stations, it's generally going to be value capture.

So that's generally going to be those market rate developments or office.

But if we want to see affordable housing near light rail stations, those may be adjacent to the stations.

So I would encourage you to just think at a city goals perspective, where do we really want to see affordable housing and where do we want to see those more complex over billed market rate solutions?

And then what do I need to be thinking about to get more affordable childcare in and around light rail stations?

That's a great question.

Partnerships.

I think it's where can the city or agencies partner with Sound Transit to get those potential locations?

And it can get really challenging when you're looking to do affordable housing and childcare just because those affordable housing developers don't necessarily have the financial structures to build out all of that ground floor space for daycare.

So where are there opportunities for partnerships to have daycare in those really key affordable housing locations?

I think that's one of the big ones.

And that's true with childcare.

That's true with retail.

Where are there opportunities where the city or agencies can step in to help make retail, childcare, grocery happen where it might be too big of a burden for a developer to pursue it unless the city says it's required or the city says, here are ways that we can help you do that.

That's excellent.

Thank you.

That's very helpful.

And Kate, thank you for just making our built world a beautiful place to live.

I don't have any questions, just gratitude.

And thank you all for using your volunteer service to serve our city in this way.

And Molly, it's also great to see a Get Engaged member become a full member.

Thank you, Chair.

All right.

I do not see the other two folks on Zoom.

So are we done then, Michael?

I think so.

We're fortunate that Jill has agreed to serve a second term.

And many of you may remember Jill from her role as leading redevelopment at Seattle Center.

Her final project for the city was the Climate Pledge Arena Project.

So you can imagine that we're thrilled that she wants to stick around with us another year, in particular as the role of chair when we're moving into sound transit, evaluating sound transit investments.

So we're pleased with her and Brian stepping up to want to serve on the commission.

It's very helpful for the work of the commission and hopefully the projects that come before us.

Great.

Okay.

Well, in that case, colleagues, if there are no further questions, I'm going to move that the committee recommend confirmation of appointments 257 through 761. Did I get those numbers right?

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you very much.

It's been moved and seconded to recommend confirmation of the appointments.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Rivera?

Aye.

Council Member Wu?

Yes.

Vice Chair Strauss?

Yes.

Chair Morales?

Yes.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Great, the motion carries and the committee recommendation that council confirm these appointments will be sent to the March 12th city council meeting.

Thank you very much for being here and for your willingness to continue serving the city of Seattle.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Speaking of what the city can do to make sure that we have more housing and childcare and grocery and ground floor opportunities, our next presenters can go ahead and make your way up.

Imani, will you please read item six into the record?

Agenda item six, introduction to the equitable development initiative for briefing and discussion.

Great, thank you.

So while our EDI folks are making their way up, I did ask them to come and provide some history and some context for the committee.

The Equitable Development Initiative has been an important tool for the city to address the gap that community-based organizations have in accessing capital, accessing the technical expertise they need for leading their own development projects, and getting some pre-development help so they can drive the kind of development that their communities are asking for.

I'm happy to have folks here to share presentations.

Colleagues, you should have received it.

It is kind of a long presentation, so I'm gonna ask that we hold comments and questions until the end and just make note of the slide number that you would like to discuss.

Are we settling in?

Okay, I think there was one adjustment to the presentation.

So there's, is there something different than what we have?

Okay.

We will go ahead and get started in respect of your time.

And just please go ahead and introduce so much chair Morales for this opportunity to present on the ECHO development initiative.

And also thank you to all of the council members for your time this afternoon.

I want to first start by introducing myself.

My name is Amy Nguyen.

I'm actually new into my role with the Office of Planning and Community Development.

I started as the Deputy Director just in January.

And I think perhaps what is so exciting and why I'm so thrilled to be with you here today is I'm sure you're all inundated this week with comprehensive plan.

And also, thank you, Chair, I heard you gave a good tee up for the Comprehensive Plan open houses.

But our office is more than Comprehensive Plan.

So I want you to shift your brain here a little bit and really wanna underscore so much under the leadership of Director Corandango, how we understand and see our Equal Development Initiative.

It's more than a division for us.

It is a core function of our office and it is a core It is fundamentally how we understand to deliver on community development.

We have a mission within our office.

It is to lead collaborative planning, it's to advance equitable development, and most importantly, build great places.

Our EDI program, it is our action and implementation.

It is how we are able to be accountable and committed.

We talk about EDI as how we center communities most vulnerable to displacement.

What you're gonna see today from this phenomenal staff is who are those communities?

What does it look like in how EDI fits into the discussions of growth?

What is equitable growth?

And again, reminding you, how do we build those great places?

And I love the questions you asked Council Member Strauss, because it is so much of how we think around that ground floor activation.

And I am probably the most important thing about this intro is I wanna introduce you to our phenomenal brand new ECHO Development Initiative Division Director, Jenna Franklin, sitting here to my right.

Wow, it's been a long road.

We've been asked before, why have you not hired an EDI division director yet?

It has been a role that's been vacant for some time, and it's because Rico has a very distinct vision, and we really took that time to ensure that we had the leader that was ready to evolve EDI, not only from the fantastic work that it has already been able to do, but really that EDI 2.0.

So with that, Jenna, just to give you a little taste of her also very impressive resume, joining our office just in late 2023, November.

Her leadership, she's a native Seattleite.

She's focused nearly a quarter decade on local public service, focused on bringing communities and public agencies together.

This is about focusing on inclusive civic processes, equity and social justice.

Jenna's contributed to community partnerships and capacity building, particularly supporting resilience in communities of color.

To name, you might actually have worked with her before.

She has worked within our city as the Director of External Affairs for the Human Services Department.

She's also served in capacities at Seattle Public Utilities and the Office of the Hearing Examiner.

Also brings to us a large amount of experience with Sound Transit in King County Metro.

With that, I'm going to turn it over to Jenna, who's going to be our, and the team who are the stars of today's presentation.

Thank you.

Yeah, there's a green light.

You should make sure the green light and hold it right close to your mouth so we can actually hear you.

Great, thank you.

Thank you, Amy.

And thank you, council members.

We appreciate your invitation to talk about equitable development and equitable development as it takes place in Seattle.

I also wanna acknowledge the EDI team.

They really are so dedicated.

Two of our EDI team members are here with me today, Julia Pasciuto and Michael Vomson.

They will be participating in sharing some of the history and impact of EDI as we move through our presentation.

So for context, for those less familiar watching at home as well, what is equitable development?

We really think at its base, it's growth with equity.

And it is a positive development strategy that seeks to foster inclusive participation by community members that mitigates or reduces the likelihood of displacement and preserves culture It preserves connection and belonging and ensures that our communities are diverse and are thriving because of that diversity.

It seeks to uplift people's humanity and acknowledge the important role that we all play in creating a Seattle where we want to live, where people want to visit, and where opportunity is abundant for everyone.

So we have a little error on this slide with formatting, but I'll move through it.

What is the consequence of not doing equitable development, and why do we foster it?

It enhances social capital.

It brings people together and allows community to partner and create solutions that actually benefit the entire city and solve for specific needs that are related to intergenerational lack of opportunity and underinvestment.

When we under-resource communities, it has profound and lasting impact.

We see those come forward with need for increased human services.

We see those come forward with difficulty attaining housing security, we see those come forward with lack of diverse economy where people are in ownership of their places and spaces and providing culturally attuned services.

It also affirms our commitment to inclusive growth and anti-displacement that brings forward the benefits of culture and diversity, that allows us to create a vibrant and thriving economy that brings people to our city, attracts investment, and we are also able to ensure that communities are...

totally integrated and engaged in planning for a future where they can thrive and contribute to the well-being of everyone.

For many communities, it's also a matter of life and death.

And I know that sounds dramatic, but I want to underscore that in public health research, something called the weathering effect acknowledges the immediate and long-term impacts that are experienced by communities who are marginalized and experience the chronic stressors of that marginalization.

That leads to reduced life expectancy, chronic illness, disease, public health, suffers immensely under this phenomenon of weathering.

So if we fail to address through active strategies the well-being of community, we will see that compound over time, and people's lives are reduced.

Life expectancy actually goes down.

Also intersectionality, the multitude of identities that people carry compound this.

The more identities you hold, the more subject to the various stressors you are, and so we will see in communities where that intersectionality is ever present, greater, greater disparity.

It's important to also talk about how we got here.

Seattle does have a history of exclusion and discrimination.

This is clear when we look back to the native communities like the Duwamish who are forcibly displaced and forbidden from residing in Seattle.

We experienced Chinese riots and acts of exclusion, and in the 1940s, over 2,000 Japanese Americans were interned.

That led to a tremendous loss of property and community fracturing.

The intergenerational impact of that is still being felt.

And when you look to racially restrictive covenants and redlining experienced in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, all the way through the 70s, we can see that communities were pushed into specific areas that were then also identified as less desirable places to live.

The reality is we have to take an active role in addressing that.

So there are many benefits to equitable development.

Empowering community resources builds capacity and empowers the growth and leadership of people to direct their own future and provide culturally tuned services and programming.

We're able to ensure a more prosperous economy and foster job creation through equitable development, both because the investments we're making employ community organizations, but also the developments that are created create a trained and skilled job market, or pardon me, workforce for the job market for delivering these projects.

Also, entrepreneurship and economic diversity, both within communities of color and small and medium sized businesses, is providing a foundation for a more robust and secure local economy.

When we foster equitable development, we also see that income disparity or income equity is improved.

Disparity goes down.

This empowers marginalized communities to reduce the disparities they experience because they have increased economic security, they are able to build intergenerational wealth, and they increase their immediate purchasing power.

In addition, the community-led stability and resilience that is a component of equitable development, and you can see this in one of our projects in Lake City, where not only is the development delivering a resilience hub, but it also improves the local infrastructure, which makes the community overall safer and more resilient for everyone.

This is important because many marginalized communities are less able to withstand and recover from catastrophic events, whether that is COVID, whether that is an earthquake, these are real factors that affect people's lives over the immediate term and across generations.

Health and well-being is also benefited by equitable development, both through inclusion because when people work together, they build understanding, but also because the social cohesion and trust that happens as a result of the collaboration builds a vision for a shared future that is now becoming a reality.

The city has responded to these needs through the Equitable Development Initiative.

It plays a crucial role in making catalytic investments.

EDI is about bringing community envisioned and led solutions to reality.

It is about partnership and ensuring that communities subject to displacement risks are able to mitigate those risks through their own vision and action.

We do not want to perpetuate systems whereby race, place, or other factors of intersectionality community members are excluded from the benefits of our economy and where they are made to feel that Seattle does not offer a future for them.

Our equitable development initiative is guided by our implementation plan, which we refer to as the EDIP, and we'll talk a little bit more about that, a financial investment strategy, and our very important Equitable Development Initiative Community Advisory Board.

And in 2024, as we look forward, we plan to engage in what we call EDI 2.0.

It is a community visioning and strategic planning process.

We are guided by documents that were developed in 2016 and have brought us great success with implementing EDI.

But we also know so much has changed across COVID and other things.

And so we want to update our guidance and make sure that they're still reflective of community needs and priorities into the future.

And Julia is going to talk a little bit about the community's role in leading our work.

Good afternoon.

I think I'd be remiss in not noting the important roles of community-based coalitions in the creation of the Equitable Development Implementation Plan.

The two coalitions listed here, South Communities Organizing for Racial and Regional Equity and the Race and Social Equity Task Force are comprised of organizations from across neighborhoods that experience redlining and disinvestments have created the conditions for displacement.

And I think it's timely in the conversations forthcoming around the comprehensive plan.

The EDIP really came out of the recognition through the 2035 comprehensive plan and the growth and equity analysis that no matter how we grow, we were going to enhance displacement pressures across communities that are at a higher risk of displacement.

And so, yeah, I think it's timely that we're briefing you today as the comprehensive plan is coming out because EDI really emerged as a mitigation strategy to that anticipated displacement.

So looking back to EDI, as it got started in 2016, our EDIP was published.

And then by October, we had funding from the sale of the Civic Square property in place.

We launched EDI with five initial projects stemming from that funding, and it was an interdepartmental effort and community remained involved throughout.

In 2017, the Interim Advisory Board Investment Committee and Implementation Group were formed, and our EDI subcandidate approved release of an additional $5.5 million for our open competitive RFP process to come.

And we also had the State of Equity Report in Seattle.

So just for some additional understanding of what the EDIP directs us to do and why some of the things we've shared today are important.

The community's work in developing the implementation plan centered the need for an equitable city, where we're working specifically to eliminate institutionalized racism.

This is tied to our race equity and social justice work.

It's very integrated in that.

And we were directed to create an equitable development framework, and we'll talk a little bit more about that.

At its core, this is all about defining and driving systemic change.

Our primary purpose is to develop and implement equitable development projects in collaboration with the community.

And that requires an implementation structure and the support of the leadership of marginalized communities because they are experts in their own needs.

And so we've worked both with our board and with grantees past and current to talk about how we can continue to provide the right kind of technical assistance, facilitate relationship building, and also really ensure that where they're hitting challenges in their projects, we're helping them overcome those.

So the Equitable Development Framework is focused on strong people and strong communities.

What you see here are the core drivers of equity that were identified in the framework.

And these still come through in our application processes every year and in the goals and objectives shared by our board and community members.

These are really anchors that guide how we consider criteria setting and making awards on an annual basis as well.

And we'll walk you through how we do that.

We have some significant categories of funding to note.

Community capacity building.

This is working directly with the organizations as they understand how to take on an equitable development project and then build their internal capacity to do so.

Site acquisitions.

Physically, that is a parcel or an assemblage of parcels.

And then advancing projects through their development phases into reality so that the public benefits associated with them can be enjoyed by everyone.

Again, you see the anchors for an equitable Seattle.

We also are...

move forward through both one-time funding and now through ongoing funding.

Our primary sources of ongoing funding are the Jumpstart Payroll Tax, the Short-Term Rental Tax Fund, and the Community Development Block Grant.

And repayment of awards is repayment in kind.

It's in the form of considerations via public benefits, services, and programming.

And we actually receive a two-fold return for the city's investment.

both through the deed and covenant that secures the investment, as well as the services provided.

For those who are not as familiar with the various funding sources, we received 9% for the Equitable Development Initiative from the payroll expense tax, and that is provided that general fund revenues are at least $1.15 billion.

We receive a considerable amount also from the short-term rental tax.

And for those who are less aware, that is a tax on short-term rentals for stays over 30 days.

And EDI, or pardon me, the Office of Planning and Community Development and then EDI are allocated the first $5 million of that.

And so those are two primary sources.

The third being the Community Development Block Grant.

That's about $450-ish million.

This is really a program that is designed for ground floor activation, as many of our other investments are.

Sorry, Jenna, I just want to clarify $450,000.

Pardon me, thank you, thank you.

If it was $450 million, we'd be...

We'd be in an even better position.

Pardon me.

So like many of our sources of funding and our allocation types, we are looking to create ground floor activation.

And so I wanted to highlight that because that was mentioned earlier.

What does an equitable development project bring to the community?

It brings activation of the community space at the ground floor level.

It brings the opportunity to provide human services, social services, childcare, and community places and spaces that bring people into connection and foster inclusion and belonging.

It's incredibly important.

These are culturally relevant and attuned services.

They are uniquely designed and envisioned by the community in response to express needs.

And so all of these forms of funding also share in that they are designed to be done together with community as very intentional component of them all.

So what does the funding process on an annual basis look like?

We announce the RFP.

We typically do one to two cycles, and that depends on the mix of needs and funding requirements.

That could be whether or not we receive an additional allocation of funds.

And then in that case, we might split the funding process to two cycles.

We develop core criteria.

This works with the EDIP as well as a community review panel and the Equitable Development and Implementation, pardon me, Equitable Development Advisory Board.

And then the application period commences.

We do quite a bit of outreach, education, engagement to make it a low barrier accessible process.

And then as people submit their proposals, we're also organizing internally, breaking the reviewers into groups and preparing to actually review all of the applications, addressing any conflicts of interest that we have concerns around to ensure that it is a fair and competitive process aligned with the criteria.

So we'll move through the review process.

Recommendations will come out of that based on all of the various criteria.

And those come from the review panel to OPCD.

We are then taking those recommendations, ensuring that they align with all of our requirements and working internally with the city to finalize them and make a selection of awardees.

We provide those awardees with a notification or intent to award.

We talk to them about the requirements for receiving and utilizing their funding and move into the contracting phase and implementation.

Once they receive their award, they have a defined period of time to advance the components of their deliverables associated to their contract.

And we work with them along the way, both in coaching and monitoring and technical assistance to ensure that they can do that as successfully as possible.

Michael, our fund manager, is going to talk to you about the awards on an annual basis looking back to 2017. Thanks, Jenna.

So this is a very high-level roll-up of kind of how the overall EDI fund has been performing and sort of its growth over time.

And it somewhat tracks, as you can imagine, the addition of the permanent funding sources.

So, you know, the short term rental tax started to bring a boost in what we can do.

And then you can see a great increase in the last two years as the payroll expense tax started to be collected and dispersed.

I wouldn't there are a couple of places like in 2021 where you're seeing some very big one time expenditures from the Mercer Mega Block sales.

So you know that throws off some of this in terms of a steady trend but that's the basically what you're seeing is these new permanent and dedicated funding sources coming online one of the things that we want to mention in this is part of the overall plan for edi has always been to sort of walk alongside and in partnership with the community organizations so Some of these awards frequently, the same organization is getting funded multiple times over years for capacity or to help with an initial problem and then coming in at the back end later to close out the funding streams for that project because EDI is one of the only funding streams that really does some of the non-residential work.

So we need to be able to close gaps as well.

I'll also just leave with another piece of information just to kind of give you a sense of the overall scale of what we're looking at is, you know, in 2018, we looked at, we had about 35 applicants who were asking for about just less than $16 million from the, you know, the program.

Last year, we had 105 applications asking for $140 million.

In addition to the funding coming online, we're seeing even greater growth in the kind of need that community organizations are expressing to us whenever we open up the RFPs.

So I think that illustrates that the need far exceeds the funding.

And the consequence of reducing funding for these projects, it can be catastrophic.

Not only can it disrupt the momentum of the projects, but it can put the organizations at risk.

Our funding brings in legitimacy, attracts other funders.

And these projects are leveraging community organizations who are seeking to activate ground floors and often provide affordable housing on top.

It leverages their internal operational structures, their budgets.

And so withdrawing or constricting our funding really puts them in a difficult position where they may not be able to fill those gaps.

So we have three slides for you here that show the geographic distribution of projects funded in North Central, part of Seattle, what you see here and this map shows you the high risk of displacement and low risk of displacement areas.

We focus on high risk of displacement areas and communities and so what you're seeing on this particular map is where we funded projects in the North and Central Zone.

in the south and southwest, and then citywide for projects that are still identifying a specific location.

You can see the distributions of projects here.

And then moving to the south of the city, south part of Seattle and the Rainier Valley in particular, here's where These are, as you can see, the heat map shows a wide array of geographic and demographic need.

And so these maps also look at the indicators by communities such as race, income, et cetera.

So that's part of what's blended into this analysis of risk of displacement.

So here's what we are funding in the Rainier Valley.

Julie is gonna talk about one of our projects, Art Noir, and then we'll move through some other projects just to give you a sense of the range of projects and the types of benefits they bring.

Thank you.

So the first project we're highlighting is Art Noir, which is a black arts and cultural retail and gallery space at 23rd and Union, kind of reclaiming the historic, the center of historic black commerce in the Central District.

And I'm going to let the video speak for itself, because I think it shows exactly what they do.

But I did want to name that The current formation of Art Noir in this particular condo in the ground floor of a market rate housing project was also in deep partnership with the Cultural Space Agency, who you may be becoming familiar with as well.

We see them as a partner in our work.

They completed their acquisition in December of last year.

They were already in operation before that.

And so it's really nice to be able to point to an example in operation of the type of work that we do.

Hold on.

Stand by, we will get the volume for this figured out.

And if we can't get the audio to work.

Thanks, Imani.

All right, we'll try again.

When Vivian offered us this opportunity, and he called me, and he said, I said, well, what are we waiting for?

Are you kidding me?

That's the neighborhood, man.

Being from the Central District, having grown up here, being nurtured by this community, it is of the utmost importance, in my view, that...

Pardon?

What?

Unmuted.

And represented well, and represented beautifully, and creatively.

What we've done is provided a space for African descent artists to put their material up on a wall for some of them for the first time.

Some of them have never, ever had an opportunity to be at a gallery.

We'll see people, you know, young and old, walk past the gallery, look inside, and then come back with a big smile because what they're seeing is what they thought they saw, images that look like themselves.

So what we do and the place that's being provided is very, very important to, I think, the community at large, but definitely specifically the artists Afrocentric community.

This is a place that you can come and know that you don't have to fight for what you're worth.

I think it's important to shift the narrative of having to knock on doors and beg to be at tables that we're not invited to and just create the tables.

Let's build the tables.

Let's build the spaces and actually provide the opportunities for us to get where we want to be.

One of the biggest joys that I think all of us that work in this space experience is just what happens when people walk in the door.

They see reflections of this amazing art.

And then just to be able to spend time in this space that feels good to them in a community that some people have felt pushed out of is really rewarding to all of us.

The central area is our home.

It belongs to us.

And so this is our opportunity to create a home in the way that we want it to be.

Thanks.

We've got a couple projects to highlight for you.

The next one is Rainier Valley Midwives.

I can get to the next screen.

There we go.

And they originally came to us in 2019 seeking capacity building funding, then came back for pre-development as they started imagining what the permanent space that they could build.

And then we eventually awarded them funding for acquisition.

I believe they closed in 2021, 2022?

And they acquired two adjacent single family homes in Columbia City and are working diligently to transition them into a birth center.

And I think it's important to note that our investment has also opened up other funding opportunities.

They were able to receive a federal legislative allocation from Senator Patty Murray's office.

And again, they're currently working to bring it up to the health code, including accessibility improvements.

And I think naming that having a permanent place with culturally relevant healthcare has a direct connection to health outcomes for birthing people, just to give you a sense of the range of the type of investments that we're able to make.

The next project to highlight is the Rainier Beach Action Coalition's Food Innovation District.

RBAC was able to purchase a site right across from the Rainier Beach Light Rail Station, so it's a great TOD site.

We worked with Forterra and them to complete the purchase of the site.

And the goal really, RBAC has did a lot of work with the community to develop the neighborhood plan and some of the goals for the Food Innovation District.

And so this project is critical to seeing that community vision move throughout.

And they're currently working with us on some initial stabilization of the existing building because they found that they had a lot of programming that they could do right away while they work on the overall redesign.

So we're working with them on getting more programming space available in the short term and also queuing them up for success when they ultimately redevelop the site to complete the full community vision they have.

The next project here, and I'm hoping you all have had a chance to go see the Duwamish Matron on the side and take a visit.

It's an amazing project down in Pioneer Square.

The Chief Seattle Club completed the All Project a few years ago, and this is a great example of the EDI programming partnering with Office of Housing and other residential funders to join our funding streams together.

So while the Office of Housing did a great job pulling together the funding for the permanent supportive housing units on top to address homelessness in the urban native community, EDI was able to support both the rebuilding of some of the Chief Seattle Club office space to make them more efficient for their case managers, help Seattle Indian Health Board, create a clinic in the basement area, as well as ensure that there was space for the All All Cafe.

And if you haven't had the bison tacos, you should have the bison tacos.

And the last project, and also super excited about this one, we've been the Friends of Little Saigon and the Landmark Project has been one of the original EDI projects working with us since the inception of the program.

It's a great example of sometimes how long it takes working with community to find the right location.

They did a phenomenal job of analyzing potential properties in Little Saigon, looking for opportunities, and just last year were finally able to acquire and now they're moving into the full capital campaign to raise the rest of the money to complete the vision, which will be quite a bit of housing, hopefully, as well as service space for their offices and night market and maybe some other sort of cultural space for the Vietnamese community in Little Saigon.

So work ahead for EDI.

We're working with our board on an ordinance update and new member appointments.

We're currently recruiting for three openings.

And we will then move into some of our interdepartmental support and collaboration.

I know you're all aware of the equitable development zoning, connected communities implementation work, and we really want to also help with matchmaking for our community development partners.

We also work with Human Services Department, the Office of Housing, and other city departments to address the interdepartmental efficiencies that can leverage our projects forward.

We will go through our annual award process and leverage many of the engagements there into our strategic planning effort.

So we also have our just management of our active grantee projects.

And then the strategic planning, we will go through a visioning process and then identify all of the elements of the plan and move through those steps.

We also have our division operation and planning improvements.

These are structural and governance improvements, employee development as our projects gain complexity.

We want to make sure the skills of our team match and are able to support the projects moving forward and make sure our grantees are successful.

And then we have general things around contracting, budget management.

And so these are just some of the operational functions that the small portion of our budget that's allocated to soft cost support.

I think the last thing I want to share in closing is that commitments under EDI are really an active expression of our RSJI work.

We are taking a very direct role in partnering with community to ensure that the commitments we've made under RSJI are happening and they are more than rhetoric.

I think we also want to make sure that we understand that there are real consequences for every benefit we could name, and I can go through them all and we may discuss them as we move into discussion.

The reverse is true when we withdraw and retract these investments.

So it will be felt if we move away, both in people's hearts, but also in the outcomes community members experience.

And we thank you for your time and interest.

Thank you very much for that thorough look back and explanation of some of the projects that you've been working on and why they're so important.

In council member Strauss's committee this morning, we heard from the tribal relations and the indigenous advisory council folks in the city about the importance of acknowledging the impact of racist policies on native communities.

We heard about the importance of community self determination.

And this initiative is one example of how our city has responded to requests from native communities, communities of color, refugees, and others who have been impacted by policies that don't serve them.

So this is an important work.

It is the city's response to much of what we've heard from different neighbors who need us to be tacking a different direction and really support the kind of development that they are asking for.

And these have really allowed the kind of self-determination to happen in real ways by supporting the kind of development that these neighbors are asking for, like the Aulal Housing Project and coffee shop that I think some of our committee members went to just this morning.

that was created by Chief Seattle Club.

I really appreciate the video that you showed.

I wrote down what Jasmine said, which is that this is important, particularly in her case, in the black community, so that we don't beg to be at tables that we're not invited to, we just build our own table.

That's what this is about.

And I think it's really important that we do what we can to acknowledge the city's role in creating these circumstances and acknowledge the city's obligation and responsibility to helping solve them.

So thank you for everything that you're doing.

My first question, I think Michael already answered, but can you talk a little bit about the average amount of requests that you get every year relative to the requests that actually come in?

And then I want to clarify, it looked to me like for 2024, There was something like $25 million available from all your funding sources, but there was a page on here that said that this year we awarded 13 million.

So if you could also talk about the disparity there or if there's a second round anticipated.

Sure.

I think the 13 million would have been the final round that we did last year.

Okay.

So, and then the 25 million is what is currently in the adopted budget that council passed November.

So that's, you know, pending revision, what we're anticipating.

And then you said for last year, something like 140.

Yeah, and that wasn't on the slides, but that's, you know, we ran two different funding rounds last year and the total amount that was requested from the projects was 140, a little over 140 million between the two of them.

And then we were able to award the amount, you know, a full budgeted amount of 20, about 23.

I think it is important, and you talked about this already, about part of the impetus for this initiative almost 10 years ago was to help organizations get the support they needed for that ground floor construction.

Because when we're building housing projects, particularly if we're talking about affordable housing, there is money from the Office of Housing for the housing floors, but there isn't money and OH money can't be used for the ground floor construction.

And very often, these are intended to provide particular services for neighbors, for child care, social services, all the things you mentioned.

Part of what we are trying to do with the Connected Communities pilot that we've also been talking about in this committee is create that pathway to equitable development to incentivize investment in more communities with that affordable commercial space.

And so like EDI, this is about supporting the partnerships between community and more traditional developers.

but the connected communities pilot is about doing that through incentives, not through the kind of direct funding that the EDI project does.

But can you talk about either way, how this relates to the kind of inclusive livable neighborhoods that we have as a goal for the city and that we've at least started to see in the comp plan that was released, which I will admit I have not fully read yet.

Yeah, so I think it's very important to acknowledge that all of the tools are important tools, and more tools are even better than what we have now.

Because as Michael noted, the need far exceeds what we're able to do, and also the complexity of the need requires the application of different tools.

That said, we have a number of things, connected communities, equitable development zoning, some of the partnerships we have with human services and other departments that allow us to effectuate shifts in different ways.

And so through some of these tools, we can change the way in which certain areas of the city are zoning to reduce, pardon me, are zoned to reduce the risk associated with conceiving a project and moving it through permitting.

We're also able to ensure that the type of cultural vibrancy and diversity that we know creates more stable conditions for people, both on a public health and human scale, but also for our city economically are occurring.

So these are strategies when we think about community and economic development that are really at the core of what kind of security do we want to invest in now that creates a more secure future for everyone.

And I think it's very important to think about the blending of tools and also the public-private partnerships that we can use to even take that a step further.

I would be remiss if I also didn't want to just make another plug as comprehensive plan is one play, a massive place in which we hold that vision for the city.

This slide is referencing that indigenous planning, but also within our office, there's been so much conversation even today just around transit oriented development and the catalytic transportation infrastructure investments underway.

EDI is at the forefront of our innovation.

We have a grant through the Federal Transit Administration to think about equitable transit-oriented development.

And where is that going?

I think a really great place to name this is EDI working lockstep with community.

We need to also be forward thinking around how we set our EDI grantees, future EDI grantees, to leverage in those growth opportunities for the city as we think about the horizon of what really light rail means for this city.

Thank you.

Council Member Wu.

Thank you for that very comprehensive presentation.

Just really quick, very minor thing, slide four, ID, it's CID.

I always get 10 emails every single time something like this happens within council.

But I have a question regarding, I know the need is great and you do amazing work.

What are the parameters for funding?

Like what criteria goes into who gets chosen for funding?

I'm gonna invite Michael and Julia also to talk to this.

It's tailored to each year because each year we're also building on past investments and identifying gaps.

That said, within the Equitable Development Implementation Plan and Framework, some of the criteria related to community, the depth and breadth of community relationship and connection, the degree of which the projects can realize public benefits such as services and programs and preserve cultural heritage sites, culture and community and prevent displacement are some of the big ones.

Sure, and it's a great and it's a really big question, right?

I mean, the fundamental is the EDI implementation plan sets the guidelines for what our criteria are, and then we've been implementing it ever since.

And part of the reason we're enthusiastic about EDI 2.0 is to sort of get a new implementation plan that updates some of that based on what we've been learning about how the program goes and how it implements over the last couple of years.

So certainly, you know, those six equity drivers that were presented on a slide, Finding a way to have criteria that is race neutral but also cognizant of the history of the city and all of the policies that we've highlighted at the beginning is really important in order to have a program that targets the communities that most have suffered disinvestment and then need to receive the additional investment.

Everybody struggled with the question of what is community and certainly what is authentic community.

And so, you know, our criteria looks at things like depth of relationship and what is the relationship between the organization that's proposing a project and the community that they're claiming to serve and is, you know, can they sort of demonstrate that there's alignment there?

You know, and some of those things are very hard to, you know, really pin down, which is part of the reason why it's so important for us to have community members who are sort of experts in the field being the ones developing the recommendations on funding is to, you know, get the collective wisdom of folks who are impacted by the work and impacted by the policies and the programs really helping us develop recommendations of which projects should move forward, especially given that every year we have way more, you know, projects that are great projects than we have the resources to be able to support.

Following that, how is the outreach and engagement being done for getting these proposals?

Is it an application process?

Sure, yeah.

I mean, it's a formal request for proposals, and folks have to submit applications to us.

And depending on the year, we've done more or less active cultivation.

Every year, we also have a long conversation with our advisory board saying, like, how can we incorporate your priorities?

This is what we're learning.

What do you think should be some of the focus?

And they've been highlighting a lot over the last couple of years sort of the tension between Providing an opportunity for new projects to get support versus making sure that we're able to sustain investments with projects that we're already funding and we're already working with so that they don't drop off the cliff and we don't sort of have projects piling up.

So that's sort of been one of the central tensions over the last couple of years within the program is sort of finding that balance and making sure that we're RECRUITING NEW FOLKS AND, YOU KNOW, A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, WE IDENTIFIED WITH THE BOARD SOME SPECIFIC DEMOGRAPHICS AND GEOGRAPHIC AREAS THAT WE, YOU KNOW, WE WERE SEEING FROM OUR APPLICANT POOL DIDN'T HAVE THE KIND OF APPLICATIONS THAT WE WOULD SORT OF EXPECT FROM OTHER AREAS AND TRIED TO DO SOME VERY SPECIFIC TARGETED OUTREACH AROUND THAT, AND WE HAD THAT DISCUSSION WITH OUR ADVISORY BOARD TO MAKE SURE THAT THEY WERE SEEING THE SAME THINGS THAT WE WERE.

SO THOSE ARE SORT OF SOME EXAMPLES, you know, based on the number of applications we're getting in, the word seems to be out there pretty well.

Thank you.

Did you have a question?

Council Member Rivera?

Thank you, Council Member Morales, and thank you, OPCD, for coming to give this presentation.

Michael, I just wanted to ask a follow-up question on something you said.

So these projects don't get initial funding.

They get funding, and then they get ongoing funding then.

Am I understanding that correctly?

Yeah, I mean, one of the first things that we sort of experimented with as a program is the idea that if you're gonna do capacity building, you should probably be doing multiple years of funding with an organization to sort of stick with them.

And what we've sort of found pretty quickly was sort of city budget and allocation processes don't lend themselves very well to that.

So everyone has to apply every year to sort of renew their funding.

Um, and then it really, like, what they're asking for really depends.

There are some folks who come in and they say, you know, we need capacity building, we're just getting started, we need to do some visioning, or we don't have full-time staff, and we would really like some because this is a lot, this is, we're taking on something that's a lot, but there's no one else doing this work in community, and if we don't do it, um, there's no one else there.

Other organizations come in and they're like, we've got a pretty big project, we need, you know, $700,000 to close all the financing and start construction.

We have some folks who say, You know, we're caught in this system where we can't get funding from anybody else because we don't have land, but in order to get land from them, we have to do all this design work, and we can't pay for that design work because we can't get the grant because we don't have the land, and they're stuck in this cart and horse problem.

And so a lot of times, some of our funding asks or our funding goals are just, how do you get that organization stuck from the system that other funders in this area play?

us trying to understand the circumstances that they're in as an individual organization and how we can structure an investment that best supports them.

So do you work with them to be self-sustaining?

Is that part of the model?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, part of the reason that the capacity building is designed to run alongside the capital investments is the idea that if it's going to be operable for a long period of time, the organization actually has to be strong.

And so that money is designed to be particularly flexible to support things like, you know, fundraising activities or, you know...

Accounting infrastructure and things like that that they're going to need over the long term to be able to pull off something like this and then be able to ensure that the Implementation is there and our contracts are structured that even after the funds are awarded and the project is built That we have we have some relationship with them for several years afterwards to make sure that they are stable and if they run into trouble that we have contractual mechanisms to both support them and also protect the city's investment and

Do you have any current projects that are self-sustaining at that level?

Oh, I mean, like She's Seattle Club is a great example, right?

So we're no longer providing funding for certain projects.

So I will actually admit there is so much here.

I'm going to reach out to Director Kirindongo to get a more in-depth and more time because I have so many questions I won't...

ask all of them here.

They're just too many.

Each one of these slides actually, you know, there are multiple questions I had based on each one of these slides because there's so much here.

So I'll just put on the record that I'll ask for that so that we can get our questions answered.

Because I do think on the funding side as well, I'm a little unclear.

There were a lot of numbers going back and forth that didn't seem to reflect the final.

So I want to make sure that I understand what the actual funding sources are and how much is coming from each thing, EDI versus...

not related to the EDI piece, the jumpstart money, et cetera.

Because it seems like what I heard you say was funding was coming from different sources, not just the jumpstart EDI money.

Yeah, typically these projects are, well, I mean, housing projects themselves have all interesting capital stack no matter what you're talking about.

And this funding is intended to help support either the pre-development or the capacity building or the ground floor construction because the Office of Housing Money can't be used for that.

Not a housing developer myself, but that's my understanding.

Yeah, Jenna.

And I will add one of the points I think that might clarify confusion is because projects have often multiple project partners, we have more partners and organizations that receive funding than we have specific projects.

And then we have the three primary sources of ongoing funding that we are allocating to the awards for the projects.

And then just to add another layer of complexity, within the blend of funding and the projects and the project partners, we have the projects that receive fundings across years, and then also, you know, We're working with other departments, so on occasion, we'll have projects that are much more suitable to be administered by another department, in which case, similar to what's going on with participatory budgeting that gets transferred over to us from SOCR, we may transfer projects.

So sometimes the numbers...

um you might catch something in the numbers where it will catch your attention and we'll be happy to come and explain anything like that and it is it is difficult and complicated which is one of the reasons why we think the partnership component of the work is so important as hard as as it is to explain it and and share what the value of edi is it's harder for the community organizations to figure out the landscape of development And we do need to diversify that landscape if we want to solve for the issues in front of the city in terms of housing and ownership and rooted in well communities.

And so we would welcome the opportunity to talk at any length of EDI.

Thank you.

Actually, one final question.

So are there housing projects coming out of any of these EDI projects, meaning do any of these projects lead to housing units?

And do you have a sense of, I mean, I imagine you do, but I know we didn't ask you ahead of time.

So if you don't know, you can let me know later, but how much, how many units are being developed for instance?

yeah so our we i would say we foster housing but we are not the direct driver in terms of that is not not the core intent of edi however we welcome the opportunity of community to look at their own needs and tell us ways in which they can bring their project together often that does involve community organizations or community development non-profit development partners partnering with housing developers to create housing because it is such a huge need and it's a part of the services that they want to ensure extended to the community however that is not a requirement of our projects we love when it happens though because we believe that everyone should have a place to live where they can trust that they are well cared for and a part of the fabric of the community it's not a requirement though council members thank you chair deputy director win i really appreciated what you had to say about

giving organizations the opportunity to leverage their dollars.

Because when I look at mandatory housing affordability in lieu fees, rather than performing on site, we all want more affordable housing in the neighborhoods that development is occurring, which is why it is a desire to have in-unit affordable units.

But I think what is lost in the conversation so often is that those MHA in lieu fees are leveraged by state, county, federal dollars, and so one dollar becomes three.

And so I just appreciate that there is a thought there within EDI to do the same thing.

I did notice on your breakout on the chart that United Indians of All Tribes was funded, Daybreak Star Center.

Is that what I saw on the map?

Could you speak to that?

I don't know who it is.

Sure.

Daybreak Star has actually received two different awards from us.

So they, I think, got another one last year.

Their project is doing capital needs, like a lot of deferred maintenance on the Daybreak Star Center.

And so they received funding in 2018 with their initial award, completed that scope of work, and then we just recently issued them another award, I think of about a million dollars, to start the next phase of work.

So that's ongoing with them, and they're doing a great job so far.

That's great because I know, I'm glad that they are a candidate within your program.

I had one, oh, just another thank you, sorry, about All All House.

Chair was correct.

Council Member Kettle and I went down to the All All Cafe this afternoon, and it was really nice to see that you helped support that.

He got the buffalo, the buffalo taco?

Bison tacos.

I only eat fish.

So I got the cornbread.

It was quite delicious.

So thank you for your work.

I tell no lies about food.

Yeah.

I look forward to more.

Councilmember Wu, I see your hand.

Is that a new hand or you have another question?

Oh, I have an additional question.

I'm so sorry.

This one's a very quick one.

Is there somewhere I could find out more information about each of your projects?

There's a lot of really interesting organizations there.

And so I was wondering if there's something online that I could look at.

Yes, when you visit the Office of Planning and Community Development website, there's a tab at the top called Ongoing Initiatives.

It'll bring you to the EDI page.

And there we have a short synopsis of our list of projects, talking about the project name, but then also about the intent of the projects.

We also would welcome the opportunity to bring any of our projects that are of interest, bring those grantees back so they can talk about their own work, which I think is just incredible, the amount of work that they take on and the learning curve that they meet.

So we would welcome that opportunity as well.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

We will see about making sure we find a committee to schedule that.

Okay, any other questions?

I'm not seeing any.

Thank you all so much for coming, for sharing your important work and I look forward to hearing more, particularly about the grantees.

Thanks so much.

Okay, colleagues, before we wrap up, I do want to call your attention to a memo that you received from central staff member Lish Whitson.

I think that went out this morning.

It does outline the connected communities bill as well as some issues for your consideration.

So please do let him know by this Friday if you're contemplating amendments.

He can help answer any questions you have about the bill or its implications and is happy to help.

Well, I'm sure you'll be happy, Lish, I'm speaking on your behalf, but happy to help draft amendments based on any changes that you might be contemplating.

You don't have to come with a fully baked idea yet.

He can talk you through that and make sure it's achieving your goals.

Okay, the next Land Use Committee meets on Wednesday, March 20th at 2 p.m.

If there is no further business, this meeting is adjourned.

Thanks very much everyone.