Seattle City Council and King County Council passed legislation in September that will implement a Landscape Conservation and Local Infrastructure Program (LCLIP) in South Lake Union and Downtown. This program will generate funding for infrastructure improvements by capturing a portion of the increased King County property tax resulting from the increased assessed value of new development, in exchange for implementing a regional Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program. This program will result in increased revenues of approximately $27.5M available to the City to implement infrastructure improvements in the South Lake Union and Downtown areas, and is anticipated to support conservation of approximately 25,000 acres of regional farms and forests.
This legislation was necessary to fully implement recommendations of the South Lake Union rezone that was passed by Council in May 2013. The South Lake Union rezone allowed for substantial new height and floor area which could only be achieved through participation in an incentive zoning program. Under the new rules, developers will be required to provide affordable housing and purchase developments rights from regional farms and forests in order to gain this additional height and floor area. In addition, a small portion of the incentive zoning floor area in Downtown would also be gained through purchase of regional development rights.
For more information about this program, visit our South Lake Union project documents web page: www.seattle.gov/dpd/cityplanning/completeprojectslist/
southlakeunion/documents/