Why Doesn't Seattle Enforce SMC 25.05.675.G?

SMC 25.05.675.G makes it clear that DCI has regulatory power, and in fact, the responsibility, to modify the height, bulk and scale of a proposal beyond the limits set forth in the residential development standards. The City does not have to allow full build out per the prescriptive requirements of the development regulations. The Seattle Code says, in black and white, that the City's land use regulations cannot anticipate or address all substantial adverse impacts resulting from incongruous height, bulk and scale. SMC 25.05.675.G.  Similarly, it says that the mapping of the City's zoning designations cannot always provide a reasonable transition in height, bulk and scale between development in adjacent zones. As a result, DCI has express regulatory authority to condition or deny a project to mitigate the adverse impacts of substantially incompatible height, bulk and scale. Mitigating measures may include but are not limited to limiting the height of the development, modifying the bulk of the development, re-positioning the development on the site; and requiring setbacks above and beyond what the code allows to offset the appearance of incompatible height, bulk and scale. For example, it is already obvious that the 5th and Virginia project will have significant adverse impacts to its immediate neighbor and the surrounding area associated with the height, bulk, and scale of the building. Fairness and justice demands that those impacts should be mitigated as the code allows be done.