Big vote Tuesday for Seattle’s Yesler Terrace
Sep 4, 2012, 7:46 AM | Updated: 8:43 am
A city council vote Tuesday could mark the beginning of the end for Seattle's oldest public housing community Yesler Terrace. (97.3 KIRO FM/Tim Haeck)
(97.3 KIRO FM/Tim Haeck)
A city council vote Tuesday could mark the beginning of the end for Seattle’s oldest public housing community Yesler Terrace.
The 1940s buildings spread over 30 acres just east of downtown are decaying and the city is expected to move ahead on a plan to raze them and rebuild as part of a larger project.
It’s controversial, in part, because the city would sell some of the prized real estate to private developers to build high rise, market-rate condos, apartments and office towers up to a height of 300 feet. Proceeds would help finance re-development of affordable housing.
The city council is expected to approve the plan. Last month, the council’s Yesler Terrace Special committee voted unanimously in favor. The project calls for the relocation of tenants in more than 500 Yesler Terrace homes. They would return in phases of redevelopment.
Some housing activists fear that some of the low-income tenants will never return.
