Olympia eyes terminating major development agreement. Here’s what we know
Olympia’s Land Use & Environment Committee unanimously approved plans to terminate the Briggs urban village development agreement to be forwarded to the City Council for review.
Terminating the plan would ultimately allow more homes to be built in the neighborhood, and increase density through more middle housing development such as accessory dwelling units.
Senior Planner Jackson Ewing reviewed the plans with the committee on Dec. 18. The neighborhood is located on the city’s southeast side at the intersection of Henderson Boulevard and Yelm Highway. Ewing said the area is approximately 127 acres with 75 acres of open space. It was annexed into the city in 1999, and the development plan for it was adopted in 2003.
Ewing said the original development agreement was worked through between the city and the Briggs family, and it included a cap of 810 units in Briggs Village. The neighborhood includes a mix of apartments and single-family homes.
“The Master Plan was designed to support this amount of units, as well as a significant amount more of commercial and office space,” Ewing said.
He said there are elements of the development agreement that are no longer valid. And he said the developer has requested the agreement be terminated to boost housing.
Owner and developer Gordie Gill of Briggs Re-Development One LLC did not immediately respond to The Olympian’s request for comment.
Asked when the council will consider terminating the agreement, Ewing didn’t have a specific date, but told The Olympian the council would review the matter in the new year.
The neighborhood has hit its unit cap. None of the homes are technically allowed to construct an ADU if they want to, despite new city code, Ewing told the committee, and there’s confusing language around what units count toward the 810 max and which ones do not.
Ewing said the pros of terminating the urban village agreement include increased housing density, which he said supports the required commercial and grocery space in the neighborhood.
“This is furthering our climate goals, with transit, bike lanes, all of that in place to support folks living in this area compared to other undeveloped parts of the city where we do not have the infrastructure such as sewer and water,” he said.
Ewing said terminating the agreement, and therefore boosting density in the area, will hopefully support more commercial development in the neighborhood and at LBA Park, and boost residential development in other areas.
He said without the agreement in place, future changes to the neighborhood would be done through a master plan amendment. He said he wanted to make it clear that there will still be a “robust public process” for changes made to the master plan. That would include a notification process, a SEPA process and a public hearing with the hearing examiner, and more.
Ewing said the committee has already made a number of recommendations to the City Council for how to address the commercial ghost town in Briggs Village. The developer has already built some commercial space, but doesn’t have tenants yet for many of the storefronts. The developer hasn’t yet built a grocery store, but plans for the development call for one.
The committee’s recommendations include setting a new minimum commercial square footage and retaining the maximum commercial square footage limit, increasing the allowed number of stories for commercial structures facing the town square from three to four stories, and removing the requirement of a child care center.
Recommendations from the public
Olympia resident Brian Fowler said during public comment that he had a couple of amendments to the new urban village plan for the City Council to consider. He said there should be stronger language in the plan that includes open space and critical areas in the overall acreage measurement used to calculate the amount of commercial space needed.
Another change that doesn’t sit right with Fowler is the recommendation to reduce the grocery store size from 12,000 square feet to 9,200 square feet. He said the city should stick with the 12,000 square-foot size, but if the developer can find a grocery store tenant that will work within 9,200 square feet, to move forward with them.
“So in other words, this would set the minimum back to 12,000 square feet, but allow him to flex down to 9,200 square feet if he actually delivers on getting a grocery store tenant by a contract,” he said.
Mike McCormick, another resident who spoke, said he can’t think of a better place to allow more housing in the Olympia area than in Briggs Village. He said from his perspective, it’s the perfect place.
“We know that getting more housing for all sectors of our community is one of the highest priorities we have right now,” he said. “The infrastructure is in place. The Briggs Village is reasonably well serviced by transit, and there’s vacant land that can be developed. I think this is a great proposal.”
He said he thinks it’s time to get rid of building restrictions that are more than 30 years old and “clearly restrict our ability to develop in a way we want.”
Briggs Village resident Andrew Peterson said his family moved into the neighborhood over a decade ago with “high hopes about the promise of the community.”
Peterson said the city has no duty to reduce the obligations set in the development plan, even if the developer is requesting it.
“The City of Olympia has no duty to reduce these obligations or maximize his profits, especially in such a way that would harm the people that live here,” Peterson said.
He said he supported Fowler’s proposal to keep the minimum grocery store size at 12,000 square feet “unless there is a written commitment from a grocer to occupy a space of no less than 9,200 square feet.”
Meegan Cronk, owner of Humble Cow Ice Cream in Briggs Village, said she also used to live in the development but now lives down the street. She said she feels strongly that the city needs to carry out the promises laid out in the original development plan.
“There’s a plan, and we bought our homes and opened our business according to that plan, and in a climate right now where there’s so much distrust, and especially in government, that I just think that Olympia needs to just follow through with our plan, and just continue to establish trust with the people who make decisions for their lives dependent on those plans,” Cronk said.
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