Board may save us from huge Foss towers

Despite a recent decision by the state Department of Ecology to side with Tacoma over higher buildings on the Foss Waterway, the debate is hardly over.

Ecology approved changes to the city’s shoreline plan to allow development of four towers up to 180 feet tall on the Foss. That moves the issue along, but it’s far from a certainty.

Blame – or credit – goes to a complex set of laws, regulations, boards and paths to appeal that govern the state’s shorelines.

I’ll repeat my bias up front – it’s a mistake to allow 18-story buildings on the Foss that will partially block downtown views of Mount Rainier and the bay. We’ll regret it if they are built.

Others – and not just those with a financial interest in the development – think it is exactly what the Sound’s “second city” needs to move into the big leagues. And tens of thousands of dollars and thousands of pages of documents have been devoted to win approval of the project sponsored by Tacoma developers Simon Johnson LLC with the full support of City Hall.

That’s one of the more troubling aspects of the issue. In its regulatory role, the city acts as referee. But since it has a financial interest in property on the Foss, it is also a player. The city gets to pick winners and losers when its own financial interests are at stake.

TrueBlue Inc., the owner of the Perkins Building condos, as well as other downtown building owners and people who enjoy the views are left to defend their rights against both the developer and the regulator.

“The city should never use its police powers to regulate development in such a way as to sacrifice legally protected views of other property owners in order to increase the city’s profit from the purchase and sale of property,” wrote attorney James Handmacher for the Perkins owners.

That’s why Ecology’s decision is disappointing. State law protects public access and use of the shorelines, and Ecology should have defended that.

Instead, the agency approved master plan changes that sell views to private condo buyers who can afford to live in tax-subsidized high-rise units.

Thankfully, then, the master plan is only the first regulatory step. Once building plans are final, the developer must seek shoreline permits. The appeal path for those is not Ecology but the state Shorelines Hearings Board. And in every single case where public views competed with private profit, that board has sided with the public.

The city – and Simon Johnson – argue that current regulations allow 100-foot-tall buildings along most of the property between the Murray Morgan Bridge and the maritime museum near the mouth of the Foss. The new rules let the developer go up to 180 feet in some places but require large gaps between the towers.

That, the city argues, allows views that wouldn’t be available behind 10-story buildings. (It should be noted that the lots are on a section of the Foss that has an 80- to 90-foot bluff behind it. The taller buildings will rise up to the bluff at Fireman’s Park and stand another eight or nine stories.)

The public has an interest in reclaiming the neglected Foss and recouping public investment in land and cleanup there, the city asserts.

But tall buildings right on the shore are counter to state policy and law. In fact, it’s unlikely that the board would allow 100-foot buildings either if they substantially blocked residential and public views – which they most certainly would. Seattle allows only 45-foot heights on the shoreline.

Comments to Ecology spelled this out: “In Seattle, Bellevue, Everett and other Washington cities, the allowable development height steps DOWN toward the shoreline in order to protect shoreline views,” wrote attorney Roger Pearce for TrueBlue.

The slow condo market will delay development. But unless there is a change in legal precedents, it is doubtful that the Foss will see – and we will be forced to see around – 180-foot buildings anytime soon, if ever.

Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657

peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com

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