Field of Schemes new post Hansen insists SoDo site is best for Seattle arena, nixes public vote

The King County council and Seattle city council have spend the last two days holding hearings on Chris Hansen's SoDo arena proposal, and so far we have learned:

• Former Seattle City Council member Peter Steinbrueck, one of the architects of the downtown stadium district, said it was too small to hold an arena as well without using land set aside for industrial uses.
• Hansen's architects, 360 Architecture, said that was a load of hooey, and that Steinbrueck was assuming a "super-sized" arena such as Orlando's Amway Center, which isn't what Hansen intends to build.
• Port of Seattle officials say that an arena in SoDo would be a "job killer" for them without "massive mitigation" of the traffic that it would bring.
• Hansen says that while no deal has zero risk — "Al Qaeda could have a nuclear attack here, there could be a tsunami that comes over the seawall" — his plan at least gets it to where "there is not a reasonable scenario" in which the city and county wouldn't get its money back.
• Hansen doesn't think the arena plan should be put to a public vote because "government would be dysfunctional if it required a public vote on every single ordinance that was attempting to be passed. That's why we have elected officials." Also, "The public has already voted -- with I-91."
• Hansen said he looked at re-renovating Key Arena instead, but that was too costly.
• Hansen isn't ready to provide more details of his plans, including who all his investors are and where a parking garage might be built.

No hard quesions about the nuances of the complicated finance scheme that I can tell, at least from the intiial reporting. Right now it looks like the main power bloc that's lining up against the arena is the port and its business and labor allies; with much of the questioning focusing on whether Hansen would consider remaining at Key Arena or building a new arena in the Queen Anne district, it looks like this deal could turn on land use questions as much as fiscal ones.

from Field of Schemes http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2012/06/4987_post_36.html