There's so much wrong with #NIMBY opposition to this project in Belltown. A thread. https://twitter.com/STCActionFund/status/1360392737292316673

The GoFundMe page is misleading potential donors. It claims that developers are "looking to build to 180ft in a neighborhood where the limit is 145ft" but fails to note that the project is taking advantage of height bonuses that legally allow the building to exceed 145'. (1/x)

One of the bonuses that is being utilized is described in SMC 23.49.008.F which grants 10 additional feet of height to projects that provide 10 additional 3-bedroom apartments. (2/x)

This bonus incentivizes larger, family-sized units, something the market doesn't naturally provide because the rents don't offset the costs. This bonus exists because people who ACTUALLY care about livability have advocated for code provisions that prioritize families. (3/x)

The other height bonus comes from SMC 23.40.060, which grants 25 additional feet of height to buildings that qualify for the City's @livingbuilding pilot program, ie, a program that holds buildings to one of the most rigorous standards of environmental sustainability. (4/x)

And it's not just the additional 25' of building that is held to this standard, it's the whole building. If you believe the climate crisis is real, you should support measures that incentivize green buildings.

So, by all accounts, this building should be a success story: (5/x)

Seattle incentivizes buildings that are good for families and good for the environment. The residents of Seattle benefit, not the least because these incentives cost us NOTHING other than additional air space above a building in one of the densest neighborhoods in Seattle. (6/x)

But let's be honest, we know this isn't about building height. Only 2 blocks away (at 2nd and Vine) there are many towers taller than the one proposed. Fighting a 180' tall building at Cedar & Western because it is not in keeping with the neighborhood is plainly ludicrous. (7/x)

The NIMBY playbook is to find something, anything, that can delay a project and go after that. Any project that creates some negligible inconvenience (my views! the construction noise! the traffic!) can and will be opposed for even the most trivial of reasons. (8/x)

Outrage over height is just the cover. Scaremongering about greedy out-of-state developers is just misdirection. (9/x)

And so we find ourselves in a place where #NIMBY power and privilege is being wielded to oppose moderate density outside the downtown core... and also moderate density inside the downtown core. (10/x)

The opposition to this building, the Queen Anne Safeway project, and others that aim to build much-needed housing lays bare the morally vacuous core of Seattle #NIMBY ideology: that all development is bad. Because me. (11/x)

@UrbanistOrg @QAGreenways https://bit.ly/2ZktCwZ 

The design review process, in an effort to allow for community input, has created an inflated sense of neighborhood entitlement. Not only do I have an opinion and a voice, I am also harmed when my own narrow interests aren't catered to. (12/x)

The "Seattle Process", which has always been imperfect and inefficient, is clearly beyond broken when its weaponization as a means of perpetual delay has become so routine that people are crowdfunding their legal counsel on GoFundMe. (13/x)

This will be a colossal waste of everyone's time and resources, as all of these pitched battles are. And the sad reality is that this will accomplish exactly the opposite of what is intended: to protect the collective interest of the many from the narrow interests of the few. END