In his kitchen at Cedar’s of Lebanon Restaurant, owner John Khalil expects more customers, but fears growth and high property values will someday shove him out of his monthly lease.
He’s saying what many of us have saying…that the wealth of cities is in the land, and we don’t even have to dig for it. As Tyrone Beason pointed out a few years ago, Seattle is in the midst of a new Gold Rush but the people getting fleeced aren’t going to the Klondike. They are staying here.”We wanted workers…but we got people instead.”
City zoning reflects the push from small business to “Save the Ave.” All blocks surrounding U District Station are upzoned to allow buildings 240 or 320 feet tall — except University Way itself, which remains capped at 65 feet.
Current construction projects include eight tower cranes. A tiny-house village will move into a Sound Transit surplus construction lot along 45th, until bigger plans hatch. The U District added 2,173 new housing units since 2015, with 2,480 more permitted or under construction.
This is good but 2,000 units over 6 years seems little slow: the additional 2,500 over that time wouldn’t be all that impressive, tbh. A ground rent that reflected a higher and better use than what’s there now might drive development a little harder. Those “bigger plans” could be farther along. These transit stations have been under construction for years and a good business reporter would have pulled all the tax records for all the land that has changed hands around those three stations since ground was broken. The higher sales prices reflect value created by the people who live and work around those stations, all of which should flow back to the community through a ground rent.