March

18, 2015

To:
Mayor Murray, Seattle City Council Members, and the City


Attorney Pete Holmes.
From:
City Builders
Re:
Parks Proposal in Roosevelt

We are writing about the announcement on March 13, 2015 of the Citys plan to
seize a portion of the Sisley properties on the west side of 14th Ave NE between NE
65th and 66th Streets and create a new public park. The following issues are
important to acknowledge and have, we believe, widespread consensus:

The properties are currently a blight and an eyesore to the community,
Your efforts to secure this land for community purposes are laudable, and
demonstrate innovative vision and a willingness to take bold action,
We recognize and support the community process and hard work of
numerous community members, advocates, Sound Transit and City
employees that led to the zoning designation of these parcels of NC2P-65,
and
We acknowledge the investment of the City in Sound Transits Link Light Rail
station and the positive effects that investment will have on the Roosevelt
neighborhood as well as the impacts of additional residents, and
Affordable housing is a Public Good of which the City unquestionably needs
vastly more,
Other progressive jurisdictions (e.g. Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Helsinki, Vienna)
use long term leases and land trusts to remove land from the speculative
market and provide permanently affordable housing to their citizens,
We acknowledge the nexus between social justice and climate change, and
remind the recipients of this letter of the City of Seattles commitment to be
carbon neutral by 2050 and that buildings emit approximately 26% of
Seattles carbon emissions, and
We recognize that the Passive House (Passivhaus) standard of energy
conservation is an internationally proven, widely adapted approach to
reducing energy used in the heating and cooling of buildings by 90%, as well
as providing a more durable, comfortable and healthier building than
conventional construction with marginal increase in initial capital cost,

THEREFORE, WE THE UNDERSIGNED, PROPOSE AND ENDORSE THAT,

1) The City allocate the parcels in question to affordable housing, in perpetuity, for
families earning less than 50 percent of Area Median Income (AMI) through either a
long-term (99-year) lease or the establishment of a land trust, and
2) The City designate that the parcels shall be used to create Seattles first
multifamily Passivhaus building, developed by one of Seattles non-profit housing
corporations, selected by a public competition, and
3) The Right-of-Way of 14th Ave NE between NE 65th and 66th Streets be vacated
and a new innovative green multiuse public open space created on that land,
designed in conjunction with and in support of the proposed multi-family
developments to the west and east.

Sincerely,
City Builders1

Charlie Cunniff
Ben Schiendelman
Dan Bertolet
Joel Sisolak
David Neiman
David Moser
Matt Gangemi
Paul Byron Crane
Rob Harrison
Roger Valdez
Owen Pickford
Josh Mahar
Zachary Pullin
Keri Fowles Williams
Rae Anne Rushing
Erik Schwab
Zach Shaner
Kim Mulligan
Jon Clarke
Will Green
Ed Hodapp
Michael Maddux
Patti Southard
Ben Ahrens
Craig Ratchford
Nick Etheredge
Joe Wolf
David Sucher
Michael Eliason
Dale Jonathan
Ryan Carson
Bryan Fiedorczyk
Craig Ratchford
Alex Steffen
Katherine Fountain Mackinnon
Ellen Kissman
Chris Arkills
Justus Stewart
Alison Van Gorp
Meghan Pinch
Matt Hutchins
Jared Banks
Martha Rose
Brian Robinson
Alexander Broner
Dave OHern
Scott Cooper
Hayden Robinson
Vic Opperman
Donn De Vore
Matthew Combe
Robert Cruickshank







1 City Builders is a meet up group and Facebook group of people that share a common interest in

housing, land use, and policy that makes our city a better, more sustainable place to live, work, and
play. These are supporters as of March 19, but signature gathering on social media and elsewhere is
ongoing.