Defining a future skyline

Building height limits in Olympia

By Matt Batcheldor | The Olympian • Published February 03, 2008

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OLYMPIA — Nearly six years ago, 600 concerned people packed into The Washington Center for the Performing Arts for a City Council hearing on raising height limits for waterfront buildings.

Of the people who signed a list expressing interest, 279 opposed raising heights; 27 supported it.

"It is not the backyard of a few hundred people; it is the front yard of 200,000 people," Olympia resident Armando Barzola told the council at the time.

The council compromised: Buildings in a five-block area on Columbia Street could be 65 feet or 75 feet tall but height limits wouldn't change on a strip of land east of the Fourth and Fifth Avenue bridges between Budd Inlet and Capitol Lake.

The controversy is about to resume.

Developer Triway Enterprises has unveiled a plan to build two mixed-use buildings — one 7 stories, the other 5 stories — with 141 condominiums on the same strip of land. The company has asked the council to raise building height limits on up to 5 acres.

Under the proposal, buildings within 200 feet of the shore could be 65 feet (5 or 6 stories), up from today's restriction of 35 feet (2 or 3 stories). Buildings more than 200 feet from the shoreline could be 90 feet tall (7 or 8 stories) — including some of the 2.3-acre area Triway wants to build on.

"This will be a defining moment for the city," Mayor Doug Mah said of the decision on the proposal, which the council could make by September after months of public input. He did not state an opinion on the Triway proposal but said downtown must have taller buildings to increase density and prevent urban sprawl. Councilwoman Karen Messmer agreed.

Triway Project Manager Jeanette Hawkins, a former city councilwoman, said having multi-story buildings is necessary to allow for the "high end" housing units it wants to build in the area, including the site of the Housing Authority of Thurston County and former site of the Thurston County Health Department.

More residents living downtown will pump money into the economy, helping retailers and making the area more secure, she said.