Seattle City Council At-Large Position 8

The 2021 General Election is November 2nd. Historic Seattle is conducting a candidates survey of those running for Mayor of Seattle and Seattle City Council At-Large Positions 8 and 9. Responses to each question were limited to 200 words or less. We are posting responses as we receive them and will continue to do so through early November. Here are the responses for City Council At-Large Position 8.

Seattle City Council At-Large Position 8

Teresa Mosqueda and Kenneth Wilson

Teresa Mosqueda

The following responses were submitted by Team Teresa on October 8, 2021.

What’s your favorite historic place in Seattle and why do you think it’s important?

I think one of my favorite historic places is the iconic Waterfront where we have extremely vital business, tourism, port commerce, and will soon have an absolutely stunning bike route. Earlier this summer, I held a fundraising event where more than 30 riders joined by bike on a route from West Seattle to Ballard that passed through the waterfront. The views from the waterfront were amazing and showed how this historic site in our city has continued to shine despite the many changes it’s undergone. It continues to be a fun, energetic location of our city that you can walk, bike, or roll through!

As the City of Seattle prepares to update its Comprehensive Plan, what role does historic preservation play in planning and land use beyond designating landmarks and historic districts?

Historic preservation goes beyond designating landmarks and historic districts, preservation includes protecting and expanding upon good-paying jobs and affordable housing in these areas. As the City prepares to update its Comprehensive Plan, we must prioritize affordable housing, inclusiveness, income diversity, and density to preserve these lands while creating economic and social opportunities that revitalize and maintain these areas. Historic preservation goes hand in hand with the equitable development in these areas which is one of my priorities as a city council member.

There is a significant relationship between historic buildings and affordable housing (including naturally occurring affordable housing) that has existed in Seattle for more than a century. They are the fundamental building blocks of most of the city’s neighborhoods. What programs or incentives would you create to promote the preservation of affordable housing in conjunction with rehabilitating historic buildings?

I have added funding to the Office of Housing through Jumpstart progressive revenue to increase our city’s strategic housing acquisition funding for multifamily buildings and apartments, including naturally occurring affordable housing, to ensure a diverse range of affordable housing options and to remove these parcels from the competitive market. I am working on incentivizing and allowing middle-housing options that include small apartment buildings, stakes lofts, duplexes, and other co-housing options that can be bought or rented in these areas. I have supported small homeowners in keeping their homes by improving weatherization and preservation grants. I am also working on preserving affordable housing by helping to rehabilitate historic buildings for strengthening Seattle’s culture and affordable housing options.

BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities need greater investment in preservation of the places and spaces that are significant to them, and this can be directly tied to growing generational wealth. How would you work to identify potential strategies and implement them?

I am proud of the JumpStart progressive revenue tax that brings over $235 million a year for investments in housing and homelessness (⅔ of revenue) and economic resilience, green new deal and equitable development investments. The portion of revenue earmarked for economic resilience and equitable development can be deployed to preserve and progress significant places and spaces for Seattle’s BIPOC community. Preserving and revitalizing these spaces have been a priority of mine, and the Seattle Rescue Plan has made investments in community spaces, plazas, and storefronts to be economic hubs as Seattle recovers from the COVID crisis. Investing in our BIPOC communities is critical to growing generational wealth in marginalized communities and prioritizing their health, safety, and well-being. As budget chair, I included over $60 million for black-led organizations and representatives of communities of color to invest upstream through Participatory Budgeting. These investments include community-driven responses to address violence, housing insecurity, income security, and more. I am committed to implementing more community-led responses to invest in and preserve significant spaces for our BIPOC communities and fully supporting them.

A comprehensive, city-wide survey and inventory of Seattle neighborhoods does not exist (though some neighborhoods have been surveyed and inventoried in the past few decades). Many large municipalities in the United States have funded city-wide surveys and inventories to identify and document historic and cultural resources, and Seattle needs one that is primarily focused on BIPOC communities whose stories have been historically marginalized or just not told. Do you agree that this needs to happen now and how would you support this effort?

I agree that this should happen now as part of Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan to implement a city-wide survey and inventory of Seattle neighborhoods. An inventory and mapping project for our city’s BIPOC community must be supported with funding from the council. Yes this needs to happen now and we can support this effort by funding through the land use and neighborhoods committee.

The cultural spaces which many people feel define Seattle are increasingly at risk of redevelopment. The global pandemic has made many of these places even more vulnerable. Do you feel that it is important to preserve these places, and how can we accomplish this?

I believe that preserving Seattle’s defining cultural spaces is important for the economic and social recovery of Seattle from the COVID pandemic. People come to visit Seattle for our cultural spaces such as the Seattle Art Museum for its beautiful art and Art Deco building and preserving these spaces is vital to our economic recovery. I support funding direct-cash assistance to small businesses through JumpStart along with state and federal dollars to support these spaces. Turning our public spaces, parks, and streets into economic hubs is crucial to uplifting these landmarks and eliminating the threat of redevelopment.

There are hundreds of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings in Seattle. Seismically retrofitting these historic buildings is a green investment, but more importantly an investment in community and public safety—saving housing, offices, restaurant, retail, health care, cultural venues, and places of worship. Do you see this need, and how do you plan to support it?

Seismically retrofitting our buildings is a critical investment in the community and public safety as Seattle is at risk of earthquakes. Ensuring that all of our buildings are secured against future earthquakes is key to preserving our historical buildings as well as a green investment in our local infrastructure. Funding for a project like this can come from JumpStart revenue for economic resilience and equitable development. This Green New Deal investment will create new industrial jobs that will support our existing housing and cultural options that will strengthen our city.

 

Kenneth Wilson

The following responses were submitted by Ken for Council 8 on October 15, 2021.

What’s your favorite historic place in Seattle and why do you think it’s important?

My favorite historic place is the iconic King Street station.  This beautiful gateway for trains is welcoming and also provides a commanding nostalgic tie to our past history, transportation, and the significance of the Seattle region.  It is also an important demonstration of the value returned back to the community over the decades for its original investment in impressive architecture and infrastructure.

As the City of Seattle prepares to update its Comprehensive Plan, what role does historic preservation play in planning and land use beyond designating landmarks and historic districts?

Historic preservation creates economic value for tourism and great City amenities that we can enjoy for generations.  Preservation also has extensive environmental benefits by creating less impacts to the adjacent environment and local surroundings, while providing enormous sustainability benefits because of the carbon footprint costs already paid (new steel, concrete, rebar, and other building materials are major users of our energy and resources).  My past infrastructure works have included cultural and historic considerations following Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitaiton as well as Section 4(f) of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation act to obtain Certificate of Appropriateness (COA), and I understand the importance of historic preservation.  Historic considerations were included in my feasibility studies for the Montlake Bridge rail adjustment and sidewalk widening as well as in my 220-foot Meadowbrook Bridge Historic Preservation located at the edge of the City of Snoqualmie that garnered a Washington State Outstanding Achievement in Historic Preservation award.

There is a significant relationship between historic buildings and affordable housing (including naturally occurring affordable housing) that has existed in Seattle for more than a century. They are the fundamental building blocks of most of the city’s neighborhoods. What programs or incentives would you create to promote the preservation of affordable housing in conjunction with rehabilitating historic buildings?

Older and historic buildings have typically created more affordable pricing within the City for both office and living space rentals compared to new construction.  These properties are also located with the best access to City amenities and transportation because of their period of construction and their integral connection as the City developed around them.  Historic buildings on Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Downtown for housing usage has consisted of relatively large properties that may be permitted by the City to function as boarding house rental type facilities to create less expensive and more affordable shared City housing.  Rehabilitation of historic properties requires added considerations and permitting, even if not designated for landmark status or on the National Register of Historic Places.  Therefore to minimize added permitting preservation costs and reduce project risks, free support of SDCI professionals that consistently work and are trained with historic properties could be provided to developers design teams as an added incentive to assure historic projects did not waste time and money in pitfalls and include the benefit of reduced design team/permit costs.

BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities need greater investment in preservation of the places and spaces that are significant to them, and this can be directly tied to growing generational wealth. How would you work to identify potential strategies and implement them?

I will work on strategies that preserve neighborhoods from overdevelopment and protect against influences triggered by upzoning.  Under the upzoning condition, a single family purchasers must compete directly with developers that are intent upon selling three to seven units (as occurs in my Wallingford Neighborhood) meaning that a single family purchaser can never compete on price since the developer divides the paid cost by three to seven for the number of units sold and can pay more.  Therefore upzone prevents new adjacent BIPOC owners from entering the market.  Those already in their homes are slowly driven out under pressure from developers and the dramatic increase in taxes with assessed values based upon developed “highest and best use” instead of past historic valuations.  Secondly, I will employing not only existing senior relief programs, but also add new income based programs where the owner demonstrates their income on federal 1040 and receives added reduction in property taxes due to protect existing BIPOC property owners from being priced out of their homes by the effects of property tax increases.  Third, I would act to incentivized ownership strategies by providing direct reduced cost loans to BIPOC families looking to purchase and become homeowners.

A comprehensive, city-wide survey and inventory of Seattle neighborhoods does not exist (though some neighborhoods have been surveyed and inventoried in the past few decades). Many large municipalities in the United States have funded city-wide surveys and inventories to identify and document historic and cultural resources, and Seattle needs one that is primarily focused on BIPOC communities whose stories have been historically marginalized or just not told. Do you agree that this needs to happen now and how would you support this effort?

Yes, I agree there is value to our community in understanding and creating an inventory of Seattle’s historic and cultural resources City wide.  Such inventory can also have the benefit of creating added tourism and improved understanding of our great City.  As part of this important inventory additional reporting would be created and included to further educate all of the black, indigenous, and people of color’s historic and cultural community connections and contributions made in the City’s wide inventory.  I would support this inventory effort by working to budget and provide added trained professionals under SDCI that are experienced with historic properties so that they could be utilized to both provide free permit support/design assistance regarding rehabilitation of historic properties and also work to create the valuable Citywide community inventory.

The cultural spaces which many people feel define Seattle are increasingly at risk of redevelopment. The global pandemic has made many of these places even more vulnerable. Do you feel that it is important to preserve these places, and how can we accomplish this?

Yes, it is important to preserve these historic places and I agree that they are typically more vulnerable to redevelopment.  I will would work to incentivize retention and rehabilitation of historic properties, by providing free cultural and historic permit assistance (which can be costly and extensive to receive COA and follow the Secretary of the Interior Guides) for all historic property rehabilitations through SDCI as detailed above.  However, we can and should further support these important works by: 1) allowing historic property rehabilitations to “jump the line” in permit timing so that they can be permitted and constructed before all other new construction type projects; and 2) provide reduced permit fees for historic properties preservation understanding that these projects have extensive cultural and historic value to the entire Seattle community, not just the current owner and therefore the community should welcome the opportunity to sponsor necessary costs to retain them.

There are hundreds of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings in the Seattle. Seismically retrofitting these historic buildings is a green investment, but more importantly an investment in community and public safety—saving housing, offices, restaurant, retail, health care, cultural venues, and places of worship. Do you see this need, and how do you plan to support it?

Yes, unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings are at extremely high risk of major damage and likely collapse during our area’s design seismic event and given fault conditions.  I am a licensed professional and structural engineer (PE SE) with a Master of Science degree in civil engineering (MSCE) more than 28 years of experience and so understand this better than most.  Preventing collapse is fundamentally important to our community and to the private and public property owners of URM buildings.  I also agree with the value created in preservation of existing buildings because of the large carbon footprint already spent and likely reduced rehabilitation impacts.  Preservation of our historic and culturally significant properties is valuable and should be a shared responsibility of both the owner and the community as I detail above.  However, it is not clear that these buildings are a City of Seattle green investment.  The City should approach any proposal covering “all URM” buildings with extreme caution and should instead work only on a case by case basis.  I do not support an unnecessarily broad investment of our community’s limited resources on URM structures.