Client: Downtown Seattle Association

Location
500 Union Street, Suite 300, Seattle, Wash. 98101

Overview
The Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) is a membership organization that champions a healthy, vibrant urban core. DSA manages the Metropolitan Improvement District, which implements maintenance, safety, marketing and business development programs for 225 square blocks of Downtown Seattle. DSA also manages the Urban Mobility Group, a resource for Downtown businesses to develop commute packages and transportation benefits for employees. DSA works toward the revitalization and development of Downtown Seattle into a thriving, world-class destination and business center.
Term: 2005 – Present

Challenge
The Mayor of Seattle had presented a plan to revise downtown zoning and regulations, thereby hoping to repeal the building height cap imposed on new downtown construction in 1989.  DSA wholeheartedly supported the Mayor’s vision of a vibrant downtown, but passage depended on a vote by the City Council, which had presented its own revised version of the Mayor’s plan for the downtown zoning code.  DSA felt that the Council’s revisions to the Executive’s proposal, taken cumulatively, were unnecessarily prohibitive and would prove disastrous for the future growth of downtown Seattle.

Solution
Nyhus public relations director Kym Allen led an intensive advocacy campaign to accept the DSA-supported Mayor’s proposal to amend the downtown code to allow for taller and more slender buildings.  To counter the City Council’s revised plan, the Nyhus public affairs team worked closely with a diverse group of DSA members, including developers, low-income housing providers, architects, economists, retailers, arts groups, downtown residents, urban planners, labor groups, tourism boards, environmental organizations, non-profits and government officials.  Nyhus provided extensive strategic counsel on the array of complex issues surrounding the code revision, including urban growth and suburban sprawl, affordable housing, labor, retail support and the City tax base, as well as actual building construction issues such as tower spacing and height, podium size, environmental building standards (LEED certification) and below-grade parking.  Nyhus participated in regular DSA team meetings, creating a comprehensive media plan, developing timelines for its execution and assigning specific tasks to various DSA team members.  In addition, Nyhus coordinated dozens of meetings with City Council members and other community influencers.  Nyhus also developed public statements and testimony for DSA members, drafted government communications and coordinated meetings with the Seattle P-I Editorial Board, which wrote favorable editorials for DSA’s campaign.

Results
The DSA-supported proposal for revised downtown zoning and regulations was passed by the City Council on April 3, with the majority of the DSA-supported provisions intact.  DSA and its members considered the campaign to be an overwhelming success, and the valued work done by the Nyhus team has led to several new public relations and public affairs clients for the firm.

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