City recommends plan for downtown Olympia buildings

The city's planning staff has recommended a compromise proposal that would reduce the area where taller buildings would be allowed on the narrow strip of land between Budd Inlet and Capitol Lake from 5 acres to 4.

It's the latest of three proposals to raise building height limits on the isthmus. The proposals have set off a debate that will be played out when the Olympia Planning Commission has a public hearing June 24.

Much of the debate centers on how views of the state Capitol and Budd Inlet would be changed -- for better or worse, depending on whom you ask.

Differing views

Jeanette Hawkins, project manager for Triway Enterprises, said the five- and seven-story mixed-use buildings proposed by her company would take just a sliver of the view of Budd Inlet from an observer standing at the Temple of Justice on the Capitol Campus.

Hawkins said views would still be maintained through Heritage Park. And she said Triway's proposed buildings, which would include 141 condominiums, would be more attractive to look at than the existing buildings.

"Our goal is to begin the downtown housing district, and in so doing, we'll be creating amenities that will have a direct benefit to downtown revitalization," said Hawkins, a former City Council member.

Former Olympia mayor Bob Jacobs, spokesman for the citizens group Friends of the Waterfront, said Triway's proposal would permit construction of a "wall" of buildings that would block views of the water and the state Capitol dome.

"It's outrageous," he said. "The buildings that they are talking about are larger by a lot than any building currently existing in downtown Olympia."

To permit the taller buildings, Triway has asked the planning commission to recommend raising building height limits from 35 feet to between 65 and 90 feet on nearly 5 acres of the isthmus.

Emotional issue

The Planning Commission will make a recommendation on the height limits to the Olympia City Council sometime after a June 24 public hearing, and the council will make a final decision as early as September.

It's an emotional issue that could bring hundreds of people to The Olympia Center for the public hearing. It has in the past; six years ago, 600 people crammed into The Washington Center for the Performing Arts for a hearing on raising height limits for waterfront buildings.

Hawkins said permitting taller buildings would allow the developer to build the proposed Pearlwater at Larida Passage, which would include 141 condominiums, retail space, offices and about 500 parking spaces in the structure. Condos would sell for $600,000 to $1 million apiece, Hawkins said, bringing residents with money to spend downtown.

Olympia leaders have proclaimed a goal of adding hundreds of units of downtown housing for three decades, to little avail.

Hawkins said there is a market for high-end condos.

"Yes, there is a market or we wouldn't be approaching this," she said.

"This will be a legacy project for Triway and a very important project for the downtown and the Olympia community," Hawkins said.

Other supporters of the project include the citizens group Olympia 2012 and some downtown business owners.

The original plan

But opponents -- including Friends of the Waterfront and the Capitol Campus Design Advisory Committee -- say taller buildings would block views of the Capitol dome and Budd Inlet and deviate from the original plan to ensure such views from the Capitol Campus.

"The legislature and the taxpayers throughout the state have put millions of dollars into Heritage Park … for the purpose of building out the original plan," said state Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Thurston County, a member of the design advisory board. "I've been at the forefront of achieving that money. I know how hard that was."

Jacobs said he opposes all three proposals that would raise height limits on the isthmus.

Friends of the Waterfront has also called for a major public comment process on the vision for the waterfront.

Jacobs said he is most concerned about the view from the Temple of Justice on the Capitol Campus -- where some views of Budd Inlet would be blocked under Triway's proposal -- and the view looking east down the Fourth Avenue bridge.

"There's simply no reason to give it up," he said. "You don't give up your best place."

Jacobs said he's also concerned about buildings shadowing the Heritage Park fountain, traffic and sea level rise. City projections show that much of the isthmus could be under water during periods of flooding in decades to come because of a rise in sea level.

Hawkins said both city and Triway studies show that housing on the corridor would reduce traffic. She dismissed the idea of shadowing of the Heritage Park fountain. And she said there are solutions for sea-level rise.

"The suggestion that we should abandon our downtown to new development because of sea-level rise is absurd," she said. "We need to continue the investment in our downtown, and we will have to protect our downtown from sea-level rise, and it's going to take a lot of partners, and the city has begun to do that."

Compromises

It is between these two extremes -- raising heights on almost the entire isthmus or maintaining the status quo -- that two compromises have emerged.

The latest proposal -- from the city's staff -- is to rezone 3.92 acres of the nearly 5 acres proposed, leaving out the parking lot between Fourth Avenue and the Olympia Yacht Club and the two parcels on the Heritage fountain block. The city owns the building on one of the parcels and plans to acquire the other and demolish the buildings to expand the fountain park.

Jan Weydemeyer, a city senior planner, said the fountain block parcels were envisioned as part of the original plan for the Capitol Campus by Wilder and White, the designers of the campus plan, to provide a view corridor through the fountain block.

She said staff members recommended dropping the parking lot south of the yacht club because the property owners "hadn't expressed an active interest in that parcel." She said leaving those lots out of the plan to raise building heights "does open up the views more."

The plan would require an 8-foot building setback above 35 feet on all sides of new buildings, creating a "wedding cake" effect as the building rises above the street, preserving distant views. Hawkins said the proposal wouldn't change the design for Triway's buildings, which have been designed with terraced setbacks.

The staff plan also would require a development agreement that would require the developer to ensure specific features are included, such as a minimum number of dwelling units, minimum number of parking spaces, the timing of the development and view access.

Yet another compromise proposal has been suggested by Olympia 2012, a citizens group that favors downtown revitalization. Its proposal is to rezone just the Triway project site at the western end of the isthmus and have the city acquire and demolish the Capitol Center building. That would open up more water views than are there today, said Enid Layes, a member of the group's steering committee.

"I'm more concerned about what I'm looking at on the isthmus" now, she said. "What I'm looking at now is blight."

To pay for its plans, Olympia 2012 suggests creating a special district where a fraction of state sales tax collected in the district would go back to it.

Hawkins said she is OK with either compromise; Jacobs likes neither. His group, Friends of the Waterfront, has its own rendering of the isthmus -- with most of the buildings airbrushed off. It would be a park. The heading says, "What we think most people would want ..."

Jacobs said a city-state partnership could come up with the millions of dollars needed to acquire all the land, demolish buildings and turn it into a park.

"We really say that what everybody really wants and has for many years is for the Capitol Center building to be gone and for everything to be green space."

What businesses say

The Olympia Downtown Association isn't taking a side on the building-height issue, President Daniel Furrer said. Olympia businesses are split on the proposals.

Patrick Hub, owner of Olympic Wine Merchant on Fourth Avenue, said he favors the project or one like it. He said the city needs "a sustainable mix" of housing, public space and businesses, and right now it lacks housing.

"Like it or not there's going to be some economically induced change involving the downtown core and the surrounding area," he said.

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