The View From Here

With the groundbreaking scheduled for this coming Monday, I’ve been looking into just how the YWCA affordable housing project in the Issaquah Highlands came about.

Turns out its a pretty remarkable story – The Block 9 Deal – involving some determination on behalf of the City of Issaquah, and also a good bit of “back room dealing” (in the words of one city staff member) between the city and master developer Port Blakely in 2004/05. As they emerged from the back room, Port Blakely had agreed to give the city a piece of land worth between $4 and 6 million bucks.

What did they get in return? Well, I’m not sure I’ve been able to get to the bottom of that yet, and no one is talking. All they’re telling me is the city relaxed affordable housing requirements for Blakely elsewhere in the Highlands. Was that worth $6 million? Probably not, so I’m sure there were some other sweeteners in there somewhere. What I do know is that neither mayor Ava Frisinger or administrator Leon Kos at the city were keen to tell me anything, passing the buck back and forth to city staff who didn’t want to say anything either. Councilors of the time have selective memory loss. And the minutes for a couple of meetings of the Urban Village Development Commission  in 2006 are mysteriously missing.

But, perhaps the ends justify the means? The YWCA is planning a really cool development that wouldn’t have been possible if they had to pay for the land, providing housing for families at 30 – 50 percent of median income rather than the 80 – 100 percent of most other affordable housing developments up there.