Feedback from residents, property owners and business owners on proposals to identify a “retail core” in six Seattle neighborhoods is strongly encouraged at upcoming meetings.

In developing this proposal DPD surveyed six neighborhood business districts over the summer—East Madison, Columbia City, Admiral, Lake City, Eastlake and Greenwood. Along with existing neighborhood plans, the survey results will guide where a retail core will be designated in each district.

Inside the designated cores, pedestrian-oriented businesses will be required at street level and less parking will be required for businesses. This will encourage a pedestrian-oriented retail environment that facilitates new business start-up. Outside of the retail core, a wider range of uses will be permitted at street level, including housing and more auto-oriented uses, such as gas stations and car washes.

Designation of retail cores is planned to occur in early 2005 as part of the Neighborhood Business District Strategy (NBDS) proposal. This DPD project builds on the direction provided by the urban village strategy in Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan and makes improvements to regulations for commercial areas outside of downtown.

The goal of NBDS is to help create safer, more vibrant and accessible business districts for shoppers; allow more flexibility and opportunity for business owners; create more housing opportunities; and protect and enhance neighborhood character and amenities for residents. Proposed code amendments include:

• Allowing ground-floor residential spaces at the edges of commercial districts to reduce vacancies, create more active street fronts and focus commercial uses in the neighborhood’s core; this will include a review of pedestrian overlay boundaries for some business districts.
• Defining new street-front standards and design guidelines for ground-floor uses to provide visual interest for pedestrians.
  n Reducing the required amount of residential amenity space to be more consistent with other zones, such as downtown, where amenity space requirements work well.
  
• Encouraging a mix of amenities for residents similar to other zones, including ground-floor open space and balconies, shared indoor spaces, and off-site public open spaces.
  
• Lowering parking requirements based on new demand data, transit accessibility, and City goals to encourage people to consider alternate modes of transportation; lowered parking requirements will also facilitate new business startup and business expansion.
  
• In Urban Centers, allowing market conditions, rather than code requirements, to provide the appropriate amount of parking and to reflect Comprehensive Plan goals and policies, higher levels of transit use and accessibility, and greater emphasis on pedestrian access in those areas.
  
• Creating requirements for short-term parking, to help ensure that customers have a place to park when visiting business districts.