At tomorrow’s city council meeting the City of Des Moines is set to pass a motion vacating a portion of the sidewalk on 7 Ave. S. and S. 226 St. A public hearing will be held during the regularly scheduled council meeting at City Hall tomorrow at 7 p.m.

“Citizens should always be concerned about the vacation of public property originally obtained with their tax money. Also, in this particular case, the vacation appears to be more for the benefit of a private party than for the public good. No one has demonstrated that a useful project cannot be built without public assistance at this location other than the word of the requesting party standing to benefit financially,” said former councilmember and Des Moines resident Dan Sherman.

The project in question is the Adriana Senior Apartments, LLLP, owned by 7th Avenue Investments LLC that would be built at 22525 7th Ave. S. It was first submitted for approval in October of 2014. According to the filings the building would hold around 119 units between 5 floors. The vacation was offered by the city once it was discovered the project would not meet FAR (Floor Area Ratio) standards without additional square footage. By owning the sidewalk the project would meet those standards.

“The value of this sidewalk is greater than the simple real estate calculation proposed in the [meeting packet as it is an essential part of a completed sidewalk system for the downtown having greater value as part of a whole than just a stretch of sidewalk. Additionally, Adriana was granted a reduction in required parking so it will only have one-half parking spot per unit which saves the project money and increases the space they can use for residential units and profit,” explained Sherman.

Last week Sherman submitted a letter to the Highline Times (viewable in the Opinion section of this site) outlining his concerns. The project caught his attention when a neighbor emailed him with her concerns. During a brief interview the Highline Times Sherman expressed concern the reduction in public space would have on freedom of speech and other public signage.

“Changing the sidewalk from public to private ownership reduces the public’s use of this property for speech, assembly, petition, and signage…the value of this loss is not included in any calculation of loss/cost to the city or its citizens,” he explained.

When the Highline Times reached out to Mayor Dave Kaplan for the reasoning behind the city’s vacation of the sidewalk his response was curt and to the point.

“It’s complicated and if you come to the meeting you’ll actually hear all the details about it,” he said.

When asked about the issues that Sherman had brought forth in his letter the Mayor explained that he saw that as only the half the story.

“He’s been fighting increased building heights in downtown. We changed the rules two or three years ago, I think three years ago, allowing for some taller buildings down there. This will be the first significantly tall building in downtown that will be built and he’s fighting it, simple as that. How much of his view this affect I don’t know,” he said before getting off the phone.

The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at City Hall. The agenda packet can be seen here: http://www.desmoinesmail.com/WebPDF/Council/Packets/2015/051415/PH1.pdf , and the permit for the project can be found by typing in the address “22525 7th Avenue S” into the search box at: https://mypermits.desmoineswa.gov/Citizen/Citizen_Home.aspx?R=joYCJyd%2…

*This version has been revised. A previous version of this piece listed Dan Sherman as living in Burien. He is a current resident of Des Moines. We apologize for the mistake and any confusion.