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Plans for Northgate's South Lot: Up in the Air or Up the Creek?
By Roberta Cruger
A river runs through it? Northgate's South parking lot. Sara Longley photo. |
Strolling across Northgate's south parking lot, shoppers pass over what used to Thornton Creek and what many hope will be a new urban center and park. "Residents of nearby retirement homes remember a time when they caught frogs and fished the creek," says Reverend John Braun of the Olympic View Community Church.
That was a half century ago, before the country's first suburban shopping mall turned Seattle city limits into a retail hub. Fifty years later, Braun has hosted "Understanding Northgate" workshops for the five communities in the Northgate area--Licton Springs, Victory Heights, Haller Lake, Pinehurst and Maple Leaf--discussing proposed improvements from the City of Seattle's 1993 Comprehensive Plan.
"Is this neighborhood just a wide stop by the side of the road?" asks Jan Brucker, head of the Citizen s for a Liveable Northgate. "Is the kind of place we're proud to show out-of-town guests? It could be." These questions are the driving force behind community activists' shared vision for a civic core to live, work and play in--with a daylighted creek, community center and library on an open park space--an oasis replacing the paved over south lot and dense commercial expansion.
"It's become a sea of concrete," says Garth Ferber, a resident of Pinehurst and head of its community council. Originally attracted to the greenery in his neighborhood just northeast of the mall, he chalks up his opinion of the "ugly" stores nearby to personal aesthetics.
The old mall may not have kept up its looks over the years, but it's still a destination for many shoppers and residents take advantage of the locale. "It's where I shop first," says Molly Burke, a neighborhood activist who found walking to amenities and facilities appealing when she moved to Victory Heights 28 years ago. While she concedes some prefer the trendier shops at University Village or Alderwood Mall, she still brings teens to the boisterous and bustling food courts to hang out. She wishes there were other, more pleasant, meeting places at Northgate.
Though Ginger Boyle, an attorney who lives near Northgate and works in Maple Leaf, shops at the mall "as little as possible," she appreciates the convenience of banking and businesses close-by, occasionally joining the mall walkers on rainy days. Her primary complaint is the noise on the south lot during RV sales, carnivals and construction. "A change would be welcome," she says.
However, the fate of the redevelopment of this tract of land has struggled in a three-year battle with government agencies, corporate interests, advocates and residents finding it difficult to find consensus and the right means to an end.
Northgate owner Simon Properties Group is actively pursuing new buyers for the south lot since Security Properties dropped out of the project this year. The developer requested an extension on the bid, contingent on avoiding litigation, but it was denied.
"Developers have skirted the mandate of citizens groups for pedestrian-friendly plazas, at every chance, says Ferber. "If the city got behind it, something great could happen."
One of the most vocal citizens groups has been the Thornton Creek Legal Defense Fund (TCLDF), which spearheads the daylighting of the stream corridor. The issue is a hot one, since the creek, once in the open, is now buried under the South lot. This creates issues downstream with neighborhood flooding and storm water problems. Based on that, TCLDF president Janet Way has gotten a court order to mandate an environmental impact statement from any potential developer. In discussions with the city, she says, "We are being patient and reasonable. But it behooves them to take action. I hope the city gets into public ownership."
Mayor Greg Nickels appears more supportive of the daylighting plans than former Mayor Paul Schell, who, according to Way, set up procedural roadblocks. In principle, no one disagrees that the potential benefit to the community is great, or that these plans would provide a much-needed enhancement to the Northgate area. The problem seems to concern funding and budget problems.
According to Sarah Nelson, a staffer in City Councilmember Richard Conlin's office, there is still no resolution to this complex issue. Since a new buyer for the property has not been found, she says, "It's hard to chart future progress, but the City is hopeful about a valuable plan for the neighborhood--there's nothing new and there's nothing devastating."
"It takes awhile to realize the value of this idea, and it's hard to get bureaucracies and belief systems to evolve," Way says.
There may be little room for open spaces in the shadow of Northgate Mall as Simon Properties realizes its 20-year expansion plans with a hotel, garage, multiplex cinema and bookstore. And though the south lot project remains in a holding pattern before the next move, Burke sees a future Northgate with natural spaces, green buildings, educational kiosks, and swimming salmon again. "There's passion for this issue in the neighborhood," she says, adding her mantra: "I know it will happen."
In the meantime, the Northgate branch library, scheduled to open in 2004, is exploring a possible alternative location on the site of the old Bon Tire store on Ninth Avenue. Another community group is working on a Fifth Avenue Streetscape plan to make the area more pedestrian-friendly. King County recently bought 3.9 acres of the south lot for more Park-and-Ride spaces to serve the transit stop. And Maple Leaf residents are actively organizing fundraising for a P-Patch on one of last parcels of unpaved land.
Ferber holds onto residents' shared vision for this area, quoting the cartoon critter Pogo: "We are now confronted by insurmountable opportunity."
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