“One of the things that makes Ballard such a great neighborhood is its mix of uses. Obviously we have a great hub urban village, a neighborhood business district, a real interesting industrial area and a thriving residential area,” said Nathan Torgleson, Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Development.

On March 3, the Department of Planning and Development hosted a community meeting to gather input from the public for the future of industrial zones. They proposed policy changes that would preserve industrial and manufacturing areas.

The City hopes to adopt these policies as part of Seattle 2035, the City’s comprehensive plan that determines how the Seattle will grow.

The DPD held the second of three meetings last week in Magnolia. A third meeting will be in George Town.

David Goldberg of the Department of Planning and Development and the Ballard Partnership for Smart Growth (BPFSM), provided a context for the proposals.

BPFSG works with the Ballard Chamber to evaluate and plan growth in Ballard’s Urban Village (downtown core of Ballard). Their Urban Design Frameworks aims to guide development in Ballard.

“The large-scale growth is primarily occurring in the commercial mixed-use areas, and what we are seeing is the development is a very different scale than what Ballard is used to, so we are working with a sub-committee of the (BPFSM) to develop a vision that will help shape growth in the mixed use area,” said Goldberg.

Goldberg said the City looks at land use regulation that shapes growth and design guidelines in Ballard. Also, BPFSG partnered with SDOT to address transportation/infrastructure issues. BPFSM aims to build jobs and transportation by guiding development.

“There is a lot happening here, and we try to be one of the elements that coordinates those efforts,” said Goldberg.

The City has plans to expand transit in Ballard. Goldberg mentioned Sound Transit and light rail. These plans could affect industrial areas, and Goldberg said the City is trying to understand how these plans will affect core areas in Ballard. They plan to pay close attention to border industrial/ mixed commercial zones. The City will release a report later this year.

Tom Hauger, Project Lead with the DPD, has spearheaded the industrial area recovery proposals.

“The basic premise of the plan is that we want to direct most of the growth in jobs and housing units and population in the places that the plan calls Urban Center/ Urban Village. … Ballard is one of these places where we are intending to direct growth.”

The Comprehensive Plan currently aims to promote and protect industrial uses on in Industrial and MC zones. The proposals would increase those protections.

“We want to make sure new uses that come into the area do no interfere with industrial uses, and we retain this land for further industrial uses.”

The City reports businesses operating in Industrial/MC zones provide family-wage jobs. They also create resilience for the regional and city economy and promote international trade. Also, one-third of the City’s B and O sales taxes come from industry.

The City studied vacancy rates in the manufacturing and industrial centers. They discovered that industry businesses are in consistent demand compared to office space/retail uses. They found office and retail rates “volatile.”

The City also studied lease rates in the industrial/mixed-commercial zones. They found out that industry lease rates average $10 per square foot. Retail/office space leases were around $20 to $26 per square foot.

“ A property owner can get a lot more return providing use that is not industrial on their property,” said Hauger.

Also, the City examined local production in Ballard. They determined it has 250 acres of land available for development. The property is privately owned. There are also 590 different industry firms that employ about 7,000 people.

With these trends in mind, the City believes industrial land will erode into non-industrial land use. The policies would limit developers converting property to non-industrial uses.

“It’s not just about preserving industrial land, but also about making sure we create mixed-use areas where the City has already said it makes sense to have mixed-use areas. And that means trying to direct a lot of the office development into the urban centers and urban villages and not have that development (office space) occur in a kind of scatter-shot in places around the city.”

Citizens voiced concerns for policy changes. Some felt the data collected did not include analysis of the economic value of alternative businesses.

“We need a comparison for why industry --- on a financial level --- is economically better than a non-industrial business of the same size operating in an industrial area,” said one attendee.

Crime in industrial zones was another concern. One attendee described industrial areas as after-hour “dead zones” that attract criminal activity.

“I hear what you are saying about those places being dead zones, especially being near residential areas, but that’s an issue with office space, too.”