Mayor applauds City Council action on
disabled parking placards, Pioneer Sq.

SEATTLE - Mayor Greg Nickels today commended the City Council for taking action on two of his proposals: strengthening laws against disabled-parking placard abuse and changing land-use codes around the North lot of Qwest Field.

Disabled Parking

Illegal use of a blue or red disabled parking placard hangtag will result in a $250 parking ticket. The ordinance aims to end the unlawful use of placards that denies disabled individuals accessible parking and hurts patrons' access to local businesses and activities.

The Seattle Police Department reviewed disabled parking hangtags used citywide and uncovered significant problems. Abuses found were placards that were expired, issued to people since deceased, or reported “lost” to the Department of Licensing but still in use. When contacted about possible misuse, 85 percent of drivers were found to be inappropriately using placards.

Under current law, parking enforcement officers can issue tickets only directly to a driver, even in cases where an officer can verify that the placard is invalid, (i.e., expired, reported lost or stolen or permit holder listed as deceased). Officers cannot simply leave a ticket on the vehicle.

Officers will now be able to cite the vehicle involved in a phony placard.

“By providing better enforcement tools, the legislation will ensure more parking spaces are available for disabled patrons with legitimate placards,” said Nickels.

Disabled parking privileges are issued by the Washington State Department of Licensing, provided drivers meet criteria as certified by a physician. A disabled license plate goes with the car registered to the disabled person; the placard is portable and may be used on multiple vehicles as long as the disabled person is in the vehicle while it's being used.

Pioneer Square

Addressing a 30 year goal of the Pioneer Square neighborhood, the City Council today passed legislation that will allow a significant development on the north half of the Qwest Field north parking lot. The legislation allows an increase in permitted height and density, under specified conditions, beyond what has been previously allowed.

King County, the owner of the 3.85 acre parcel to the north of the Weller Street pedestrian bridge, has entered into a purchase and sale agreement with local developer Nitze-Stagen. The legislation passed today provides a development envelope to help make the project economically feasible. The Pioneer Square Preservation Board created new design guidelines for development on the north lot and will serve as the design review entity during design development.

The proposed project could add more than 600 housing units to the roughly 1,000 housing units currently in the neighborhood. The project will:

• contain a mix of affordable and market rate for sale and rental units
• create new community open space
• comply with upper level setback requirements to preserve the iconic views of the King Street Station clock tower while preserving views from Qwest Field
• meet green building requirements
• create an attractive pedestrian and vehicular corridor off of South King Street to break up the mass of the "super block" and provide access to Qwest Field
• site housing on the west side of the parcel and an office component on the east, with retail at street level in both developments.

The legislation provides an extended master use permit time-frame to reflect the importance of the project to the community and the current economic crisis (up to 15 years with approval from director of Department of Planning and Development). It also requires that, if a master use permit has not been applied for by 2014, DPD must deliver to Council a set of recommendations as to what other changes might be necessary to get a project moving.

The North Lot legislation is the first phase of the Livable South Downtown planning effort. To learn more about the overall project, go to: http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/Planning/South_Downtown/Overview/

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Office of the Mayor