Defining a future skyline

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.

Jeff Trinin, a board member of the Olympia Downtown Association, said the organization hasn't taken a position on the issue, but he likes Triway's proposal for the property.

"This is the way that we're going to get some of the market rate housing that we have longed for, for probably two to three decades," said Trinin, who owns Always Safe and Lock downtown.

But former Mayor Bob Jacobs, who fought the last proposal, said Triway's proposed buildings would steal views from neighbors.

"I expect that there will (be) as there was last time a widespread public opposition to this," said Jacobs, a member of Friends of the Waterfront.

The development would be called Pearlwater at Larida Passage, after the Latin name for the Olympia oyster, which used to be processed in the area. Under a preliminary design, there would be one 90-foot building along Sylvester Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues. A 65-foot building would be built next to it, with the area near Yashiro Street becoming a pedestrian walkway between the buildings. By comparison, the empty Capitol Center office building on Fifth overlooking the lake is 110 feet tall, Hawkins said.

Each of the proposed buildings would contain ground-floor retail and second-story office space, with condos also starting on the second floor. A third-floor inner courtyard would link the buildings. The living and working space would wrap around a hidden parking garage.

The city's low-rise policy has resulted in little residential development near the waterfront; Olympia has seen just about 30 market-rate housing units added in the last 30 years.

Hawkins said "high amenity" views near parks are necessary for a mixed use, high-end condominium project. She noted there's little along the strip now. "It's pretty desolate down there, especially at night."

Jacobs said he doesn't oppose 90-foot buildings away from the water. But this proposal is different.

"It's so close to the water and it so blocks views from the state Capitol," he said. "That visual connection of the state Capitol down Puget Sound" is "extremely important."

Jacobs said people don't want to see another building like the Capitol Center tower, which once housed the state Department of Corrections.

"That nine-story monster that people call ... 'the mistake on the lake' ... was a terrible error back in the '60s," he said. "Virtually everybody wants that gone."

But Hawkins said an analysis of view corridors showed views were actually enhanced by the proposed building. One view that was affected — from the Temple of Justice on the Capitol Campus — lost a small portion of its view of Budd Inlet.

Hawkins thinks a majority of residents support the proposal. She said the reason more people didn't testify for the 2002 height-limit proposal was that opponents got to speak first, and supporters were crowded out.

Even if city leaders decide to raise building heights, it might not be possible until 2009 or later.

The city agreed to consider raising height limits along with seven other proposals to amend its comprehensive plan, a process that will take most of the year and involve public hearings before the Olympia Planning Commission and the City Council. The council could vote on the plan by September.

But state law requires that buildings within 200 feet of the water be no more than 35 feet, unless an amendment is made to shoreline regulations for the area. The state Department of Ecology would take months to review an exception, said Keith Stahley, director of Community Planning and Development.

And changes to building height limits also can be appealed to the state Shoreline Hearings Board, another potential delay.

Olympia government has had a history of keeping waterfront development low to the ground since the nine-story Capitol Center building was approved in the 1960s. Olympia Senior Planner Todd Stamm said.

By about 1982, the height limit was 35 feet and the city's comprehensive plan still requires low-rise development.

"The area between Fourth and Fifth avenues west of Sylvester Street should be encouraged to develop in low-rise projects combining retail and residential uses," the comprehensive plan says in language adopted in 2002. Views of the Capitol and Budd Inlet "should be maintained as much as possible."

Council reaction

Council members were reluctant to discuss the proposal in detail. It is a zoning matter, and public officials typically don't discuss their opinions on such things.

Messmer said she generally supports taller buildings and more density downtown, but isn't ready to say where she stands on Triway's proposal. In any case, she said some waterfront views would be preserved. "We're not talking about having buildings between people and the water. That's not what's proposed on the isthmus."

Mah agreed.

"I think in order to increase density, there's really only one way to go."

Up.

Matt Batcheldor covers the city of Olympia for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-704-6869 or mbatcheldor@theolympian.com.