Reasserting the Place of Nature in Seattle’s Urban Creeks - Politics of Urban Runoff: Nature, Technology, and the Sustainable City - page 149

the watershed. The Thornton Creek watershed is the largest in Seattle at
11.8 square miles and the creek has numerous tributaries that fl ow past
some seven hundred backyards and more than fi fteen parks and natural
areas, with a total impervious surface coverage of 59 percent. 90
The controversy at Northgate Mall's southern parking lot began in the
late 1980s, when then-mall owner DeBartolo Corporation proposed to
double the size of the mall by adding a million square feet of new retail
space. Neighborhood groups were adamantly opposed to the expansion,
citing a glut of automobile traffi c that would clog local streets, and gath-
ered more than a thousand signatures to petition the city council to block
the proposed expansion. The council passed a moratorium on develop-
ment until the Northgate General Development Plan was completed 1993.
The plan identifi ed the area as an urban center where development was
expected, but specifi ed that future changes should involve the creation
of a walkable urban center, a departure from the existing automobile-
dominated character of the mall and its satellite businesses. 91 Seattle voters
reinforced this vision in 1999 and 2000 by approving over $13 million in
bonds for a community center, library, and park on Fifth Avenue on the
eastern border of the mall.
Mall redevelopment plans were put on hold for several years until
1998, when the new mall owner, Simon Properties, again proposed a plan
to double the size of the mall, with 1.1 million square feet of mixed-use
development, including a hotel, a thirty-screen cinema, and additional
retail stores. 92 The redevelopment plans targeted the south parking lot, a
space occasionally used for RV shows, tent sales, and overfl ow parking,
as the primary site for new development. The city council approved a
development plan, and neighborhood residents again protested that the
redevelopment would increase traffi c in the area. They also argued that
the new development would confl ict with the goals of the 1993 Northgate
General Development Plan as well as forego any opportunity to restore
the buried portion of Thornton Creek that ran beneath the south parking
lot. They cited the impending ESA listing of Pacifi c Northwest salmon
populations as justifi cation for daylighting the creek. 93
To resolve the dispute, then-Mayor Schell and the city council hired
a mediator in 1999 to fi nd common ground between the battling stake-
holders: the mall owner, the municipal government, and environmental
and community activists. After hearing arguments from all parties, the
mediator determined that the parties were so entrenched in their positions
that a compromise solution was impossible. Meanwhile, the fi ght over
the development plans continued, with a new arm of the Thornton Creek