The City of Seattle has the most amazing planning for neighborhood business districts

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Downtown Seattle still has parking structures. But they have an incredible amount of bus service as well. And the streets aren't overwhelmed with cars, probably because parking in a structure can cost $4/hour or more.

At the National Main Street Conference yesterday, I attended an incredible presentation about how Seattle has revised its commercial business district zoning regulations. They have a much different approach than does DC in how the regulations are effected.

DC does have neighborhood business district regulations (see the Neighborhood Commercial Overlay District section of DC's Zoning Regulations) but they do not get into the kind of fine-grained detailed planning compared to Seattle. Furthermore, Seattle is mapping its retail districts and will be more specific about pedestrian-oriented uses being directed to the primary pedestrian places within a commercial district.

Seattle has not required parking for new construction (and use changes) in Downtown for 20 years.

They are now extending this to transit stations and designated urban centers at a scale sstep below that of Downtown.

Check out:

1. Overview Page, Seattle Neighborhood Business District Strategy
1. Neighborhood Business District Strategy Document
2. Summary (in visual form), Commercial Code 2006 Amendments: Neighborhood Business District Strategy

As part of this, Seattle introduced the "Seattle Green Factor" to better deal (in a more fine-grained fashion) with environmental, runoff, landscaping, and open space requirements for individual sites. Note that on the Department of Planning webpage on the Green Factor, they list 10 workshops they are holding to help property owners understand and implement the process.

PLUS, Seattle has a far more extensive design review process than does DC. Projects of a certain size have design review requirements whether or not the buildings are in historic districts. The Planning Department webpage on the process describes design review as "a forum for citizens, developers, and the City to design new development.

Check out this document, This is Design Review in Seattle, for an overview of the process. And these pages:
- Guidelines for Multifamily and Commercial Buildings
- Guidelines for Downtown Development
- Neighborhood-Specific Design Guidelines

for the actual guidelines.

Also check out this brochure which explains what notice placards mean to neighbors. And the signs are much larger, and written in much plainer language, compared to DC.

On Second Avenue, Seattle.