Three-and-a-half years have passed since Seattle politicians approved a much-studied and much-debated plan to redevelop the last 34 acres of Fort Lawton in the Magnolia neighborhood into affordable housing and park space.
But the only thing growing today at the abandoned U.S. Army installation next to windswept Discovery Park is bright-green moss, which carpets some of the pavement around the site’s boarded-up brick and concrete buildings.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has yet to sign off on Seattle’s application for the site, which the military declared surplus back in 2005, because the city is still working on details for the $90 million project and has yet to meet HUD’s requirements, according to HUD and the city.
When that may happen is unclear. The project’s expected timeline has slipped and the city has published no new timeline.
Mayor Bruce Harrell recently directed an interdepartmental team to “comprehensively assess the needs of the property as we evaluate the logistical next steps and financial necessities of the redevelopment project,” Harrell spokesperson Jamie Housen said last week, citing the “unique challenges posed by the site’s aging and incomplete infrastructure.”
The COVID-19 pandemic “demanded sustained attention and resources over the past few years and had a widespread impact on many public projects across all levels of government,” added Nathan Haugen, a spokesperson for the city’s Office of Housing, which is leading the Fort Lawton project. Seattle’s plan calls for almost 240 units of affordable housing.
In the background, a pair of legal challenges against the plan remain active, including a lawsuit by the Friends of Discovery Park that claims the project would disturb a nearby colony of great blue herons.
Meanwhile, Seattle is obligated under a lease agreement with the Army to maintain the site. That cost taxpayers more than $585,000 last year, including expenses for utilities, security, graffiti removal and repairs.
Frustrating?
“Oh God, it is. It seems like we’ve been doing this forever,” said Carol Burton, a Magnolia Community Council board trustee and Heron Habitat Helpers volunteer who supports the city’s plan, disagreeing with those who contend the project would harm the neighborhood or the birds.
Former King County Executive Ron Sims, who served as deputy secretary of HUD from 2009 to 2011, is bewildered by the situation, because the Fort Lawton site is ideal for redevelopment and because the project likely jibes with HUD’s aims under President Joe Biden, he said.
“This is a lethargy that’s inexplicable,” Sims said. “You just need to get this done. You can’t wait for another generation of families to get this done.”
Latest plan
Inaction at the site is nothing new. Retained by the military when the rest of Fort Lawton became Discovery Park in 1973 and vacated by the Army Reserve in 2012, the property has acquired a ghostly atmosphere. A plan for mixed-income housing and park space that won city approval in 2008 was blocked in court, then stalled after the Great Recession.
But the latest plan — studied in 2017 and 2018 and advanced by then-Mayor Jenny Durkan in 2019 — appeared to have momentum as Seattle faced a population boom, a housing shortage and a homelessness emergency.
Though opponents argued the property be wholly integrated into Discovery Park or become a camp or school, the City Council sided with proponents who cast the plan as an opportunity to combat soaring rents and home prices.
The 2019 plan calls for the site’s existing buildings to be replaced by 85 studio units for formerly homeless seniors, 100 affordable rental apartments and 52 affordable for-sale homes. Three nonprofits — the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, Catholic Housing Services and Habitat for Humanity — would develop the housing using city, state and federal funds.
The city’s plan assumes most of the property would be transferred by HUD and the Department of the Interior at no cost, with some acres conveyed by the Army through a negotiated sale.
The majority of the site’s acres would be devoted to the environment and recreation, including grassy and wooded spaces and new athletic fields.
United Indians is rooted at Discovery Park, operating a cultural center created after Native activists staged a nonviolent takeover of Fort Lawton in 1970.
The City Council, which included Harrell at the time, voted unanimously to approve the plan in June 2019, and Seattle sent its homeless housing application to HUD in August 2019. The stated expectation was that the site would be conveyed in 2020, allowing construction to start as soon as 2021.
That didn’t happen.
Project details
HUD spokesperson Vanessa Krueger said the agency is working with the city to meet the requirements of the Base Realignment and Closure Process, “including identifying and assembling the necessary financing to allow construction to begin” on housing for people experiencing homelessness.
“The city has advised HUD that it is working on assembling its financing from multiple sources,” Krueger said in a statement.
Seattle’s 2019 plan projected the studios would cost $28 million, the apartments $40 million, the for-sale homes $18 million and the fields $5 to $7 million. It listed anticipated funding sources for each, including a city housing fund, a state housing fund, tax credits, a HUD homeownership program and the Seattle Park District. It said the project would be “implemented over an estimated eight years,” with a 2026 completion date.
“Project construction will begin after property conveyance, zoning reclassification and other approvals, likely in 2021. Actual buildout will depend on funding availability,” the plan said.
The Office of Housing declined to grant an interview. In an email, Haugen said the city’s plan “did not identify financing” in 2019.
“As the city continues its work towards completing the transfer of the Fort Lawton property, next steps will include assessing the scope of development needs and identifying funding sources,” Haugen wrote.
Housen, the Harrell spokesperson, said the mayor supports affordable housing options and accessible, mixed-income neighborhoods, calling the Fort Lawton project “an opportunity to advance those priorities.”
The plan’s basics are set and won’t change before the property is transferred, Housen said. But a fiscal note in 2019 didn’t account for all potential costs at the site, so Harrell’s team, which began meeting Oct. 1, “is updating estimates and options for infrastructure improvements (power, water, wastewater, stormwater drainage, transportation), especially in light of recent inflation, supply chain issues, rising interest rates, etc.,” Housen said.
The interdepartmental team includes more than 45 staffers and will also review the Fort Lawton project’s timeline, Haugen added.
“We look forward to working with the city to get this project, that has been delayed too long, moving again,” Michael Tulee, executive director at United Indians, said in a written statement, noting Native Americans and Alaska Natives in Seattle are disproportionately affected by homelessness. “The time is now.”
Catholic Housing Services is waiting for an update from the city, director Flo Beaumon said. So is Habitat for Humanity, a spokesperson said.
Lawsuits, timing
Legal challenges are not impeding the Fort Lawton project, according to HUD and the city, though two lawsuits have yet to be resolved.
Elizabeth Campbell, a Magnolia resident who helped block the city’s 2008 plan, could see her current case dismissed soon. Campbell has lacked legal representation since 2020 and no longer has much interest in “running interference” for neighbors, she said.
“I have less opposition than I had before,” Campbell said. “Life has gone on.”
The city filed a motion to dismiss her case in June. There was no subsequent activity until last week, after The Seattle Times inquired. U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King signed an order Dec. 1 directing Campbell to respond.
The Friends of Discovery Park case is on pause while a Freedom of Information Act request is underway, City Attorney Ann Davison’s office said.
David Bricklin, a lawyer for the Friends, said public records indicate HUD has expressed concerns about a lack of specificity in Seattle’s homeless-housing plan and sought assurances about follow-through. Bricklin shared a June 2022 letter from a HUD official to Seattle Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington.
“The outstanding issue … relates to the timing for making the homeless housing available. This has been a repeated and consistent concern,” the HUD official wrote, describing the city’s six-year estimate for infrastructure work and housing construction as not timely enough.
The city didn’t submit a separate application to HUD until February 2021 for the part of the site where the for-sale homes are planned, the letter noted.
The Friends lawsuit alleges the project at the Fort Lawton site would “imperil” the herons that nest at Commodore Park and that use Kiwanis Memorial Park Preserve and Discovery Park. Beyond that, the Friends want the entire site to be replanted, arguing Seattle won’t get another such chance to battle climate change by expanding its largest park.
“Park land is our city’s most valuable asset,” Friends board member Joyce Erickson said, also characterizing the plan as too expensive.
Rather than build new housing at Fort Lawton, Seattle should use its dollars to buy apartment buildings and convert them into affordable housing, as the city has done on Capitol Hill recently, she said.
Seattle’s Audubon Society chapter chose not to support the Friends lawsuit and stands by a 2020 statement that called housing at Fort Lawton “the right thing to do,” community director Glenn Nelson said. Burton, the Magnolia Community Council trustee and volunteer heron monitor, also disagrees with the lawsuit, saying the colony will be okay.
City Councilmember Andrew Lewis, whose District 7 includes Magnolia, is “completely committed” to the Fort Lawton plan, with no scope reductions, he said, noting the council has earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars for such projects. Buying buildings can make sense, but the city must continue to fund the construction of new housing, Lewis said. The city’s Fort Lawton plan reserves more acres for green space than housing, he added.
“That doesn’t get talked about enough,” Lewis said. “I just encourage anyone who cares about green space to stop trying to obstruct this project.”
