The Puzzling Politics of the Isthmus Controversy

author : Gerald Reilly topic : Olympia City Council | rezone

by Gerald Reilly

A majority of the Olympia City Council appears ready to vote to approve a re-zone of the downtown Isthmus to permit the construction of high-rise luxury condominiums. This column is focused on the politics of the situation more than on the arguments for and against the re-zone. These arguments have been widely discussed. Those in favor believe that developing very expensive housing in this unique and attractive location will be the catalyst for much desired “market rate” housing in Olympia’s downtown. Those opposed believe that the proposal will “wall off “ our waterfront, destroy the views from and to the Capitol Campus, and crush any real chance to turn the Isthmus into a great public park. From my perspective the arguments against the re-zone are, by far, more persuasive. My purpose here, however, is to examine the politics of the issue.

Through all of the controversy, five members of the City Council have fervently supported the proposal. These are Mayor Mah and Councilpersons Machlis, Strub, Kingsbury, and Ottavelli. Sitting stoically through two days of public testimony that was overwhelmingly opposed to the re-zone, receiving a Citizens’ Initiative with over five thousand signatures requiring the city to study the feasibility of creating a Park on the Isthmus, and enduring countless communications from individual voters, these “fervent five” council members have not wavered from their position of support for the re-zone.

During the public hearing, a strong supporter of the proposal remarked that this issue was settled during the last council election in November 2007, when Mayor Mah, and Councilpersons, Strub, and Ottavelli were elected. This was surprising to me, and many others who also voted for these three, to learn that they had allegedly committed to this project in the fall of 2007. Evidently, the speaker, who proudly made this pronouncement, knew what he was talking about. While, I have no quarrel with their freedom to support the proposal, I just wish I had this information at the time I voted for them. Perhaps it is my fault that I did not know.

At the outset of this public process, I had assumed that all members of the Council were ready to look at this re-zone proposal objectively and were willing to receive, and take into serious account, public input. Thus far, it seems that I was mistaken in this assumption.

Unfortunately, the most likely way that this controversy now will unfold appears to be a very long, very expensive, and very divisive legal contest. This will leave the Isthmus in its current sad state, with deteriorating and vacant buildings, for many years into the future. Opponents of the re-zone believe that it will be overturned during the appeal process. Although it is never possible to predict the outcome of a legal contest with certainty, we do know that it will take a long time to reach any final resolution. We also know that the economy has taken a drastic downturn. Many doubted, from the beginning, whether the proposed development was ever viable. It now seems even less likely to be feasible.

This leads to several political questions. Why would elected officials choose to invest their political equity in a proposal that will most likely never happen? How will elected officials, in future elections, answer for their unwillingness to listen to overwhelming public sentiment on such an important issue? Why would elected officials act on the re-zone issue without waiting for the information regarding the Park option that the Initiative driven study will provide?

Even though the process, thus far, seems to be driving towards a foreordained conclusion, we still have a faint hope that our elected officials will listen to the community, realize that the proposed project will likely never happen, wait for the results of the Park study, pause the process, and begin to look for a win/win solution.

Jerry Reilly is Chair of the Isthmus Park Association and a past member and Chair of the Olympia Planning Commission. Comment on this article can be sent to him at jerryreilly@msn.com.