* Land Use intent

Seattle Land Use Code - Subchapter II - Conditional Uses 23.44.018 -

General provisions (C) provides: “A conditional use may be approved, conditioned or denied based on. . . . whether the use will be materially detrimental to the public welfare or injurious to property in the zone or vicinity in which the property is located.”

And (D) provides: “In authorizing a conditional use, the Director or Council may mitigate adverse negative impacts by imposing requirements or conditions deemed necessary for the protection of other properties in the zone or vicinity in which the property is located.”

Seattle 2035 - Citywide Planning “. . . .We use this Comprehensive Plan to manage growth in a way that benefits all of the city’s residents. . .”

Citywide Land Use Policies

LU 2.1 Allow or prohibit uses in each zone based on the zone’s intended function as described in this Land Use element and on the expected impacts of a use on other properties in the zone and the surrounding area. . . .

LU 2.2 Include provisions to potentially allow as conditional uses those activities that may be beneficial to an area but that also require additional measures to avoid potential impacts those activities could have on sensitive environments or on other permitted uses.

LU 2.4 Limit nonresidential uses in residential zones to those necessary or highly compatible with the function of residential neighborhoods.

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LU 2.1: First, briefly, the intended function of the SF-5000 zone into which UPrep is proposing to encroach is not primarily to support an educational institution but to support a residential neighborhood. With access to housing already a major issue for the city, removing the possibility of adding single-family housing is lost if the project is allowed. The expected impacts of this project are numerous and negative, as enumerated in the many comments already submitted.

LU 2.2: This addresses conditional use for activities that may be beneficial to an area. A benefit of a neighborhood educational institution is neighborhood access. If there are any students in this neighborhood that attend UPrep, that number will be statistically insignificant. Most, if not all, of the students who attend U Prep come from outside of this neighborhood. Thus, the benefit of access is null. If there are other benefits, we are hard-pressed to find them. '

Yet there are a laundry list of negative impacts to this neighborhood should UPrep be granted Conditional Use, even if the most stringent of conditions are applied. Many comments have addressed these negative impacts: increased traffic on residential streets; exacerbation of an already problematic neighborhood parking situation with only token parking being planned into the project; increased noise; increased pollution from increased vehicular traffic; increased litter; and increased safety concerns. These issues have been extensively covered in submitted comments. We will also lose structures that are important to the character of this neighborhood.

The NE Seattle Tool Library is a resource not only to the immediate neighborhood but to surrounding neighborhoods as well. It is a non-profit and is run on a donation basis. Thus, no one is denied access based on ability to pay. When the Tool Library was burglarized and lost $10,000+ worth of tools and equipment, the city of Seattle pledged $5000 to help rebuild and with tool/equipment and dollar donations from the community, it became fully functional again (http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/city-pledges-5k-torebuild-seattle-tool-library-after-robbery-2/). The loss of this community resource will be acutely felt.

There is a thriving vegetable garden adjacent to the Friends Church on the north side that grows food for North Helpline Emergency Services and Food Bank managed and cared for by Sustainable NE Seattle. Again, another loss that will be acutely felt. The Friends Church, which will also be demolished, is a cherished landmark for the neighborhood. While it may not have official landmark status, it is an important historical building in its own right. In addition, the church, the Tool Library, and the accessory church building are the same scale as the surrounding buildings, with setbacks consistent with those required of residential structures. It is disingenuous at best to claim that the proposed nearly 40,000 sq. ft. educational institution is compatible with and respects the scale of the neighborhood residential structures. Adjacent and neighboring residences range from 840 sq. ft. to 1930 sq. ft.

LU 2.4: At present, U Prep is situated east of 25th Avenue NE, which is a principal N-S arterial. It provides primary commuter access not only from the Ravenna/Wedgwood/Lake City neighborhoods but from Woodinville/Bothell and points in between to both UW and the Link Light rail station at Husky Stadium. With Temple Beth Am, the current UPrep site is somewhat removed physically from the neighborhood, although its negative impacts are not. Now they are proposing to jump that principal arterial (which existence was used as the primary reason UPrep was exempt from the dispersion requirement in the past when expanding their institution) and encroach into a residential neighborhood.

Allowing this would be in direct contradiction to the condition stated in this section that permits conditional uses under this circumstance: Uses that are necessary or highly compatible with the residential neighborhood.

UPrep has NOT made, nor can be said to have, a legitimate case to support this.