Seattle, Boulder leaders share growth strategies with Downtown Boise Association

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and Boulder, Colo., Deputy Mayor Suzanne Ageton joined Boise Mayor David Bieter at the Downtown Boise Association annual meeting to discuss challenges facing downtown Boise and the city as a whole. Here are some highlights:

On the environment:
“We need to encourage people to live in cities and discourage people from taking 20- to 30-mile commutes,” Nickels said.

Nickels was the driving force behind the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, signed by Bieter, which urges the federal government to adopt Kyoto Protocol policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pledges that signatory cities will change building and land use codes to promote energy efficiency and reduce sprawl, renovate city buildings to make them energy-efficient, and make city vehicle fleets more fuel-efficient.

Nickels said he was prompted to start the agreement by an unseasonably warm winter when Seattle had no ski season. Bieter and Ageton visibly reacted.

On affordable housing:
Seattle residents approved a tax to fund affordable housing in the city, Nickels said. Seattle adopted tax incentives and zoning incentives and reduced parking requirements to help developers build low-cost housing in the city.
Boulder has a goal of making 10 percent of all the housing stock in the city affordable, and adopted an inclusionary zoning policy requiring developers to make 20 percent of their residential units affordable.
It also pays for discounts on housing for city employees who live in the city limits. Boulder has struggled with affordable housing because an influx of second-home buyers is affecting the market, she said.
New building codes in Boise allowing for wood-frame residential units on top of steel and concrete structures have borne fruit, Bieter said, but the city is now looking at inclusionary zoning.

On mass transit:
Seattle sponsored an advisory ballot to see whether citizens would support mass transit paid for with sales tax and motor vehicle taxes, Nickels said. The resulting “yes” vote “made it safe for politicians to talk about transit,” he said.
But that was 10 years ago, and the transit system is slated to open in 2009. It takes an average of 13 years to implement rail transit, he said. “You’ve got to start,” he said. “You’ve got to start.”
Once the Legislature gives Boise the right to put transit to a vote, the city would face a huge hurdle – a two-thirds supermajority requirement, Bieter said. “We don’t cross the street without a two-thirds vote in Idaho,” he said.
“A two-thirds vote is an awfully high bar,” Nickels said. “I’m not sure you could get a two-thirds vote in Seattle that today is Wednesday.”