Dave Cook Delves into Ecology’s Affordable Housing Cleanup Grant Program at MTCA Law Seminar

Senior Principal Geologist Dave Cook, LG, CPG, will be a part of a seminar on Thursday, December 7 focused on the Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA). First adopted by the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) in 1991, MTCA is now in its 33rd year regulating cleanup of contaminated sites in our state.

The site of the future Maddux North building being readied for redevelopment in 2020. The property formerly housed a dry cleaner, which left contamination in the surrounding soils. Cleanup of the site followed regulations per MTCA.

Dave and Ali Furmall, LHG, Brownfield Program Lead at Ecology, will present “Community Investment: Overview of Affordable Housing Cleanup Grant Program and Other Brownfield Program Resources.” Their talk will give an overview of Ecology’s Affordable Housing Cleanup Grant Program, which helps organizations purchase and remediate sites across Washington to build affordable housing.

Since the program’s start in 2016, Dave and Aspect have actively collaborated with Ecology, real estate developers, legal teams, and nonprofit housing groups to get projects funded and properties ready for cleanup. Our work now spans Bellingham, Ellensburg, and several sites in Seattle, including the launch pilot-project Mt. Baker Housing Association’s Maddux development. The project built two buildings with 203 total units on the site of a former dry cleaner and gas station/auto repair shop.

Maddux North, funded in part by the Affordable Housing Cleanup Grant program, welcomed residents in March 2023.

The day-long seminar hosted by Law Seminars International will spotlight other aspects of MTCA, including an overview of the recent updates—the first major updates in over 20 years—covering new decision-making criteria and other requirements that will impact future cleanup projects.

For the full seminar agenda and information how to register, visit the Law Seminars International website.

Estelita’s Library Receives Grant to Move Forward with New Community

May 7-13 is Affordable Housing Week, championed by the Housing Development Consortium to highlight the role affordable housing plays in stabilizing our communities. See a recent affordable housing story below and more of Aspect’s Affordable Housing work here.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell recently announced $13.5 million in grant funding awards though the City of Seattle’s Equitable Development Initiative (EDI) to help community groups among Seattle’s diverse cultural communities purchase properties in neighborhoods where they are at high risk for displacement due to gentrification and redevelopment. The funds are designated “for site acquisition and major capital projects, as well as capacity-building support to organizations that are still developing their plans for permanent spaces in Seattle.”

Among the recipients is Estelita’s Library, a local nonprofit that will receive $2,375,000 to complete purchase of a property to expand their community hub. 

“Estelita’s Library is a social justice library, bookstore, and cultural hub focused on uplifting our most marginalized communities,” said Edwin Lindo, co-founder of Estelita’s Library, in the City’s press release. “It has been serving South Seattle through literature, space for communities to organize and build, and fighting gentrification through culture. With this support, Estelita’s Library will be able to fulfill its commitment to acquire property in Beacon Hill; expand its services, space, and library; and ultimately fulfill its vision and commitment of building affordable housing that is grounded in and uplifts community.” 

Aspect’s environmental team, led by Associate Geologist Ali Cochrane and Principal Geologist Dave Cook, assisted Estelita’s Library with purchase negotiations and environmental due diligence to assess property conditions. Soil and groundwater at the site is contaminated with petroleum from the property’s decades-long use as gas stations and auto repair shops.  

Drill rig installs a monitoring well at the property Estelita’s Library is looking to purchase for their new community space. Aspect will sample these wells to gauge the level and extent of contamination in site groundwater.

Our team helped Estelita’s Library procure over $125k in planning grants from Ecology’s Brownfields Grant program to fund these efforts. We will support them through the upcoming application process for a grant from Ecology’s Affordable Housing Cleanup Grant program, which will fund the planning and design phases of the cleanup in concert with property redevelopment.

Groundbreaking Celebrates the Start of Affordable Housing Along the Bellingham Waterfront

May 7-13 is Affordable Housing Week, championed by the Housing Development Consortium to highlight the role affordable housing plays in stabilizing our communities. See a recent affordable housing story below and more of Aspect’s Affordable Housing work here.

Staff from Aspect’s Bellingham and Seattle offices were on hand for the ceremonial groundbreaking of the first phase of the Millworks development, which will bring affordable housing to the Bellingham waterfront.

Banners at the construction site announcing both Phases of the Millworks redevelopment

Millworks is a partnership between the Port of Bellingham, Whatcom Community Foundation, and Mercy Housing Northwest (Mercy). Phase 1 of Mercy’s development includes 83 units of workforce and family rental housing plus a YMCA early learning center. The development should be ready to welcome residents next year.

Mercy Housing Northwest’s project manager Ellen Lohe (left) emceed the groundbreaking event, and Port Commissioner Michael Shepard (right) delivered remarks.

The Millworks development sits on 2.3 acres at the corner of the larger 67-acre Georgia-Pacific West cleanup site. Once home to a pulp and tissue mill, the site has undergone massive cleanup and redevelopment over the last decade, including the City of Bellingham’s popular Waypoint Park. Aspect’s environmental, geotechnical, and stormwater teams have worked extensively within the former mill’s footprint.

The building’s foundation is in place with framing starting, only 4 months after cleanup completion. Photo courtesy of Mercy Housing NW.

For the Millworks project, Aspect completed a pre-design investigation, developed a cleanup action plan, oversaw a formal public comment period, authored the engineering design report, executed an excavation compliance monitoring plan, reviewed construction plans/specs, and provided bid support. We provided oversight on the soil removal project, which also accomplished the substantial grading and site prep needed to start work on the new building. All of this occurred within a highly expedited 12-month schedule to meet Mercy’s funding requirements.

Principal Hydrogeologist Steve Germiat, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony, managed Aspect’s project team, which includes Adam Griffin, Jane Gregg, Matt Eddy, Nikolai Carroll, and Baxter Call. They worked in close coordination with the Port, RMC Architects, and the rest of the Mercy team, as well as the Washington State Department of Ecology, to reach this key milestone.

Whatcom Community Foundation’s planned Phase 2 development will include more affordable housing units and a local food campus featuring a commercial kitchen for use by food trucks and nonprofits like Meals on Wheels. Phase 2 construction is expected to begin in 2025.

Celebrating the Start of New Affordable Housing Projects Around the Puget Sound

Principal Geologist Dave Cook recently attended multifamily real estate development firm GardnerGlobal’s (GC) kickoff celebration for the next stages of the Skyway Towncenter, a new affordable housing project in Skyway—one of King County’s most diverse and most underserved neighborhoods.

Dave raises a glass with attendees at GardnerGlobal’s celebration.

The Skyway Towncenter, which is still in the planning phase, will include both market-rate and affordable housing, some of which will have rent-to-own options. This option creates an opportunity for residents to have not just more housing stability, but to be able to build wealth and truly invest in their community.

Unlocking Needed Housing Projects in Skyway, Seattle’s Central District, and SeaTac

Aspect is working with CEO and Owner of GG Jaebadiah Gardner and consulting partner Loundyne Hare of Hare International, along with environmental attorney Mike Dunning of Perkins Coie to help GG through due diligence, cleanup planning, and procurement of over $1M in cleanup grants from the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Affordable Housing program. The grant will help fund environmental investigation and a portion of the cleanup of solvents spilled from a dry cleaner that once operated at the site. Senior Geologist Ali Cochrane is leading our environmental team as they investigate contamination. Once building design and construction planning starts, Aspect will lead the cleanup design and geotechnical engineering services.

Public outreach has begun related to early phases of transitioning this contaminated property to new use. On October 20, Ali and Dave spoke alongside Jaebadiah Gardner and Loundyne Hare at the Holy Temple Evangelistic Center in Skyway on environmental conditions and the investigations at the Towncenter site. These meetings and engagement with Ecology will continue so that Skyway residents can learn how the cleanup will result in a new residential community.

Attendees review plans to address contamination at the Skyway Towncenter site during a public outreach meeting on October 28th.

Aspect is also working with GC on the Sarah Queen Development, planned as a seven-story mixed-use building near the corner of 23rd Avenue and Union Street in Seattle’s Central District, where half of the units will be for affordable housing. Our geotechnical engineering team, led by Senior Geotechnical Engineer Eric Schellenger, recently started work on design and construction recommendations for the building foundations.

Also at GC’s kickoff celebration were Hamdi Abdulle and Bilan Aden. This mother and daughter team are the Executive Director and Associate Director, respectively, of African Community Housing & Development, (ACHD) a nonprofit that creates housing stability and economic development opportunities for African Diaspora immigrant and refugee communities in King County. Aspect will conduct environmental and geotechnical due diligence for a site ACHD is looking to acquire for a future residential community in SeaTac.

From left to right, Loundyne Hare, Hamdi Abdulle, Jaebadiah Gardner, and Bilan Aden.

Over 500 Affordable Housing Units Nearing Completion

These projects are starting as Aspect is nearing the end of two major affordable housing projects in south Seattle for Mt. Baker Housing Association (MBHA). Geotechnical special inspections are finished for construction of The Maddux, a two-building development that will add 203 units of affordable housing two blocks from the Mt. Baker Light Rail Station. Our work has included extensive cleanup of contaminants left from a dry cleaners and auto repair shop that once operated on the site and an innovative ground improvement technique to address liquefiable soils that could threaten building stability during an earthquake.

Left: Ground improvements consisting of displacement rigid improvements start at Maddux in Jan. 2021. Right: Maddux nears end of construction in October 2022.

Installation of aggregate piers and auger cast piles has started at Grand Street Commons, just south of the future Judkins Park light rail station near I-90. Construction is underway on three mixed-use buildings with a mix of affordable and market-rate housing and retail. The project is creating 776 new apartments, 360 of which will be affordable units.

A drill rig arrives via crane at Grand Street Commons, October 2022

For more on Aspect’s support for Affordable Housing, visit our Affordable Housing website.

$23 Million for Affordable Housing Funding in Seattle

Lots of happy faces, hugs, and cheers at a recent June press conference as Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund director, Catherine Buell, announced the $23 Million award to Gardner Global for their Central District project; Mt. Baker Housing Association for their Grand Street Commons project; Mt. Baker Housing Village projects; and to El Centro de la Raza for their El Centro Columbia City project.

Over several years, Aspect has partnered with Mt. Baker Housing, Lake Union Partners, and Gardner Global on revitalizing several key brownfield cleanup sites in south Seattle for Affordable Housing goals.

Learn more about Aspect’s affordable housing work here: Affordable Housing — Aspect Consulting

This week, Aspect staff attended an event featuring Jaebadiah Gardner with Gardner Global, David Tan with Mt. Baker Housing Association, Estela Ortega with El Centro de la Raza, as well as Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell.

Reaching a Milestone for an Innovative Seattle Affordable Housing Project

The Maddux is a 200+ unit affordable housing project in Seattle that has been years in the making. After almost five years of work -- the environmental cleanup is essentially complete.

This project, in South Seattle’s Mt. Baker neighborhood, sat unused for decades. The culprit? Petroleum releases from an old gas station and solvent leaks from a former dry cleaner that severely affected soil and groundwater beneath the Site. The contamination issues prevented nearly all potential developers from touching these properties – the cleanup cost and environmental liability, which stretched across many properties, were just too much to manage.

Taking on One of the Most Challenging Sites in the City

Yet, Aspect’ s clients, Mt. Baker Housing Association, along with Perkins Coie, Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), and the City of Seattle saw an opportunity to build a new concept to turn brownfields into cleaned-up affordable housing.

Construction Begun with Move-in Anticipated in 2022

The earthworks, building design and construction team includes: Aspect, Beacon Development Group, Mithun, Coughlin Porter Lundeen and many others.

Some reasons why this project has happened:

  • Affordable Housing need in Seattle is great and this project commits to 200+ units near a walkable light rail station and within a mile of downtown Seattle.

  • Ecology provided “seed money” in support of an innovative idea – why not turn these blighted properties that no one would touch into affordable housing? A win for the environment, a win for the neighborhood, a win for housing, a win for transit and connection to downtown.

  • Ecology took the MBHA/Aspect/Perkins Coie innovative idea and created a new ‘Brownfield’ funding program (the Healthy Housing Program) because of this project to help affordable housing agencies develop prime real estate that has been overlooked.

  • But this isn’t all. The properties could liquefy in an earthquake. So, Aspect and the City of Seattle worked to design and permit a first-of-its-kind ‘earthquake proofing’ foundation system to facilitate economical, and safe, redevelopment of the property.

Construction Begun with Move-in Anticipated for 2022

  • The foundation engineering is ongoing as of Spring 2021.

  • The public will soon see the building “coming out of the ground” with anticipated move-in date in 2022 for families in the area.

Check out this ‘Story Map’ of the past 5 years of work to date:

From Spokane Railyards to Vital Urban Core: Building the University District

In the past decade alone, the Spokane region has grown by 44,000+ people. The 2nd biggest city in Washington state is seeing an influx of residents and affordable housing is key to meet this need. As one piece to support the growth, “The District” is a 300-unit multifamily development planned for construction in 2021 and adds vital housing and connects Spokane communities.

The future ‘District on the River’ project.

The future ‘District on the River’ project.

Cleaning up a Waterfront Railyard Property

The District project — led by Sagamore Spokane LLC, located in Spokane’s University District — adds 300 units adjacent to the Spokane River. Cleanup actions will be completed prior to redevelopment of this former manufactured gas plant property and railyard area.. Aspect and teaming partners from Perkins Coie, DCI Engineers, Witherspoon Kelley,, and ALSC Architects developed a cleanup approach for the contaminated site allowing for building construction.

A Prospective Purchaser Consent Decree was entered by Sagamore Spokane LLC with the Washington State Department of Ecology for the agreed upon cleanup approach. Aspect and Perkins Coie were instrumental in working with Ecology and the Attorney General’s office to facilitate a pathway for Sagamore to invest in this brownfield redevelopment project.

Adding 300 Units to a New and Walkable University District

The cleanup actions are integrated with the development and will allow for the beneficial reuse of this notable vacant property contaminated by historical manufactured gas plant (MGP) operations. Completion of the cleanup actions will improve protection of human health and the environment, allowing this 300-unit, four-building residential apartment complex, known as the ‘District on the River’, to be completed.

With its prime location near the Spokane River, Ben Burr Trail, Hamilton Street bridge and close by amenities, this is anticipated to be a sought-after livable and walkable area.

Construction Begins on Aspect’s Innovative Affordable Housing Project

Construction is underway in Seattle’s Mt. Baker neighborhood on two buildings that will house over 150 affordable apartments for the Mt. Baker Housing Association (MBHA).

The first building, called Maddux North, is on the site of a former dry cleaners that released significant amounts of contaminants into the neighborhood soils and groundwater. The second, Maddux South, is across South McClellan Street on land with its own history of contamination from use as a gas station and auto repair shop. The costs to clean up these properties and similarly affected ones around the city usually leave the valuable land beyond the reach of nonprofits like MBHA. In the past few years, Aspect has partnered with the Washington State Department of Ecology and legal experts on the Healthy Housing Remediation Program to help organizations navigate regulatory pathways and fund cleanup efforts to get these urban sites ready for redevelopment as housing. You can learn more about this innovative funding model on our Affordable Housing page.

Aspect’s environmental and geotechnical teams will be on site in the coming months at both Maddux North and South to monitor the shoring and pile installations that will make way for the buildings’ foundations and make sure the excavated contaminated soils are being handled properly.



From Historic Sawmill Dump Site to Seattle Workforce Housing

The historic Pioneer Square district—the front porch to Seattle’s downtown waterfront—is the City’s first neighborhood. The area is shaped by its proximity to the waterfront, active seismology, and over 150 years of urban development, infill, and industry– including housing one of Seattle’s first true startups, the Yesler Lumber Mill.

Built in the early 1850s, the Yesler sawmill was a steam-powered sawmill on the shores of the growing downtown Seattle.
Photo Credit: www.historylink.org

These confluence of factors also trigger specific criteria for building in the neighborhood today – taking historical preservation compliance, seismic codes, and a tricky subsurface into account.

In the heart of the neighborhood, at 165 South Washington Street, Aspect is helping Johnson & Carr, LLC guide the development of an eight-story workforce housing project. The site – currently a vacant pit – formerly housed an apartment building bearing directly on weak urban fill and sawdust. That building was damaged in two separate earthquakes – the 1949 (Olympia) earthquake and 2001 (Nisqually) earthquake, leading to it being condemned and demolished.

The project site, currently a vacant pit that’s sat unused for years, awaits design and construction of a new 8-story workforce housing building.

The Complexity of Seattle’s Original Sawmill Dumpsite

This project site is directly influenced by the past in several ways. It was originally a tidal marsh, used over a century ago, among other things, as a dumping ground for sawdust from the Yesler Mill. This means current project design must grapple with up to 25 feet of sawdust fill in the subsurface. As white settlers filled the surrounding waterfront during the Klondike Gold Rush era, the former tidelands were swallowed up by all manner of new buildings and roads in the haste to infill the neighborhood (as seen on the figure below).In addition, several seismic sources contribute to the seismic risk at the site, including the Seattle Fault Zone which is less than 2 miles away, and the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which can trigger a magnitude 9 earthquake. The seismology, historical uses of the project area, and decades and decades of man-made development have only added to the complexity of building here.

The project site was the dumping ground for sawdust from the nearby Yesler mill. The map on the right shows how much the downtown Seattle shoreline has changed in the last 150 years.

Next Steps: Geotechnical, Seismic, and Engineering Problem Solving

To set the stage for building design and construction in this complicated subsurface, Aspect is conducting several geotechnical and environmental evaluations to develop design recommendations to solve the challenges posed by the historical fill and sawdust at the site. Our detailed evaluations include:

  • Conducting a site-specific seismic response analysis which includes determining dynamic properties of the sawdust to model its behavior under seismic loads

  • Conducting deep foundation design to transfer building loads to underlying competent soils

  • Evaluating and mitigating risk associated with environmental issues which are ubiquitous with the historic fill throughout the Pioneer Square area.

The Vision: Realizing More Affordable Workforce Housing for the Community

These evaluations will be critical to shepherd the development through the City of Seattle’s permitting process and help create more workforce housing in the area. Workforce housing aims to provide a more affordable rental option within high real estate cost areas for workers essential to the local economy, such as service workers, police officers, fire fighters, teachers, nurses, and medical personnel.

When completed, Pioneer Square will gain a new eight-story building with street-level commercial space below seven stories of residential workforce housing.

Seattle Commits $110 Million to Create Almost 2,000 Affordable Homes

The City of Seattle will make the largest award in the City’s history to invest $110 Million for 1,944 new affordable homes. This announcement continues the recent affordable housing funding the City has made over the last several years.

This is great news for the region as well as the group of sponsoring organizations that are leading the projects. Organizations like Mt. Baker Housing Association (MBHA) and the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) are instrumental in developing and promoting access to housing for the community. To help them reach their development goals to create more local housing options, Aspect is currently providing environmental cleanup, regulatory negotiation, and public outreach support to MBHA and SCIDpda on several affordable housing projects in Seattle.

The ongoing Maddux development provides 150+ affordable housing units close to transit in the Mt. Baker neighborhood. The City of Seattle’s recent investment news will help create close to 2,000 affordable homes like this across the region.

Our work with MBHA includes three projects in the Mt. Baker and Rainier Beach neighborhoods. We’re also helping SCIDpda, along with Lake Union Partners and Capitol Hill Housing, on the 3-block Goodwill site in the International District.

Learn more about Aspect’s work to help our partners transform and restore urban sites into affordable housing communities here: http://www.aspectconsulting.com/affordablehousing

Dave Cook Discusses Consent Decrees, Cleanup and Ecology’s Healthy Housing Program for Contaminated Sites at the WA Brownfields Conference on May 30, 2019

On May 30, Aspect’s Dave Cook will co-present on affordable housing development from the environmental consulting perspective at the Washington State Brownfields Conference in Spokane.

Brownfield properties represent opportunity. Dave will talk about innovative ways to turn blighted property into affordable/work force housing. Aspect’s first-of-its-kind work on the Mt Baker Housing Association’s Gateway project in the Mt Baker/Rainier Valley neighborhood in Seattle has become an example of what is possible. Mt Baker Housing Association (MBHA), as a non-profit, took on a significantly contaminated site to redevelop as affordable housing where the cost of the cleanup is more than the value of the five properties combined. Dave will join Scott O’Dowd of Ecology, Conor Hansen of MBHA and Mike Dunning of Perkins Coie to describe how these properties were purchased, investigated, liability managed, and the cleanup financed—all keys that made this pioneering project successful and sparking the State’s new Healthy Housing program .

Contact Dave (206.838.5837 and dcook@aspectconsulting.com), or learn more about prospective purchaser consent decrees, funding, and redeveloping contaminated land for affordable housing at https://www.aspectconsulting.com/affordablehousing


From Brownfields to 500 Units of Affordable Housing – Aspect in the News

The Daily Journal of Commerce takes a look inside Mt. Baker Housing Association’s pioneering affordable housing work in South Seattle. Aspect, overseeing the environmental effort for the MBHA team, continues to drive the idea of brownfield sites as unique opportunities for affordable housing – including the 160+ unit Maddux project and the 350+ unit Grand Street Commons project.

READ HERE

Learn more: www.aspectconsulting.com/affordablehousing

Innovative Affordable Housing Solutions Continue in South Seattle

The Seattle City Council recently approved the 2nd Redevelopment Opportunity Zone (ROZ) in Seattle’s history for the 700-unit Grand Street Commons housing development near the future Judkins Park light-rail station. The ROZ designation means that this innovative $20 Million private/non-profit partnership (Lake Union Partners and Mt. Baker Housing, respectively) now has direct access to state funds to build a 700-unit development—with about half of those units earmarked for affordable housing. These 350 future units, together with the 160 units planned at The Maddux (the City’s first ROZ zone near the Mt. Baker light-rail station), brings 500+ ROZ-designated affordable housing units coming online in the next five years in South Seattle.

The 700-unit Grand Street Commons is a unique private/public partnership, where approximately half the units will be affordable housing. The cleanup for this brownfield site is being led by Aspect and funded by a new approach to access money specifically for affordable housing projects.

Aspect, with law firm Perkins Coie, has helped Mt. Baker Housing pioneer this ROZ model to unlock state-backed grant funding in a first-of-its-kind model. Recognizing this success, the state introduced the Healthy Housing Program this fall– earmarked specifically for affordable housing developers looking at restoring land at brownfield sites.

Learn more about new approaches to restore land and find solutions for our affordable housing crisis here: www.aspectconsulting.com/affordablehousing.

Washington State Helps Turn Brownfields into Affordable Housing

See Washington State Department of Ecology’s new article covering the state’s new Healthy Housing Remediation Program for restoring contaminated land to promote affordable housing. Mt. Baker Housing’s 160-unit project in South Seattle — which Aspect is leading the cleanup for — was the inspiration for this program.

Read more here.

Learn more here: https://www.aspectconsulting.com/affordablehousing

Dave Cook to Discuss Reclaiming Brownfields for Affordable Housing at Housing Development Consortium Event

On September 18, join Aspect’s Dave Cook and Perkins Coie’s Mike Dunning as they share their experience developing innovative ways to reclaim brownfields for affordable housing. Dave and Mike will be joined by representatives from project partner agencies Mt. Baker Housing Association and the Washington State Department of Ecology in discussing Mt Baker Housing’s The Maddux – a two-building development with 144 apartments affordable to people earning up to 60 percent of the area median income. This project was made possible by implementing innovative cleanup solutions and identifying creative funding mechanisms. Learn More Here.

Washington's Healthy Housing Program Helps Fund Cleanup for Affordable Housing

Today, the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce (DJC) published a great overview of the new Washington State Healthy Housing Program and the inspiration for the program - Mt. Baker Housing's $55 million Maddux project. Check it out.

Does your firm want help turning brownfields into affordable units?

Ecology wants to offer grants to get brownfields cleaned up and reused, and is seeking applications from developers until Saturday.

By BENJAMIN MINNICK
Journal Construction Editor

There are thousands of blighted properties across the state that could be redeveloped to create more affordable housing, but contamination on these sites has mostly kept developers at bay.

Now the state and its consultants are testing a way to get more of these sites developed. The Healthy Housing Remediation Program provides grants to help affordable housing developers build on brownfields.

The departments of Ecology and Commerce created the program. To gauge interest, they are seeking applications from developers until Saturday. The list of firms that respond will be used to develop Ecology's 2019–21 cleanup budget plan and to demonstrate funding needs for the Legislature to consider during the 2019 session.

Dave Cook of Aspect Consulting, one of the consulting firms, said affordable housing developers face high property costs, water rights issues and Growth Management Act restraints. He said this program will help fund remedial investigation studies and site cleanup to make blighted properties more attractive to developers.

The program was inspired by Mt. Baker Housing's $55 million Maddux project, which is slated for a site on South McClellan Street, east of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and near the Mount Baker light rail station.

Maddux will have two buildings with 144 apartments that are affordable to people earning up to 60 percent of the area median income. Nearly half of the units will be “family-size,” with two- and three-bedroom layouts.

Mt. Baker Housing will use $6.2 million in state funds to clean up contamination from a gas station and dry cleaner. The nonprofit signed an agreement last year with Ecology that lays out the cleanup plan, and Ecology provided $400,000 for initial studies.

“We've been in the Mount Baker neighborhood a long time and these five properties always intrigued us — but we knew conventional options to develop the site were limited,” said Conor Hansen, director of real estate at Mt. Baker Housing, in a news release. “Once we learned about the opportunity to work with the Department of Ecology and play a part in creating a new innovative model, we believed this site would be the perfect candidate to clean up, develop and activate a prominent intersection that will serve as a catalyst for the neighborhood and provide much-needed affordable housing near light rail.”

In early 2017, the city designated the five properties as a Redevelopment Opportunity Zone, which allows state funds to flow directly to Mt. Baker Housing for remediation.

The parcels total about a half-acre.

Mt. Baker Housing aims to select a general contractor shortly, and break ground in late 2019 and open in early 2021. Other team members are architect Mithun, development consultant Beacon Development Group and acquisition lender Impact Capital.

Cook said it will be two months before all the data is available about the site contamination, but it's “very contaminated.”

Aspect and law firm Perkins Coie led the environmental team for Mt. Baker Housing, and worked with Ecology on the pilot program.

Cook said Aspect and Perkins Coie can help interested developers with the pilot program's application process.

 

Washington State’s First Affordable Housing Fund for Contaminated Sites: Applications Due June 30th

The Washington State Departments of Ecology and Commerce have created an innovative new program that will provide grants to affordable housing developers seeking to redevelop contaminated properties and increase the state’s housing stock.

The Healthy Housing Remediation Program will provide grant funds to nonprofit and private housing organizations to evaluate, investigate, and clean up contaminated properties to support the development of affordable housing. It was created by the Washington State Legislature during the 2018 session and will be funded in the 2019 session.

The program builds upon the successful partnership between Ecology and the Mt. Baker Housing Association on the Gateway Project in Seattle. Mt. Baker Housing’s Gateway Project will redevelop several contaminated properties for affordable housing near transit hubs in Seattle’s Rainier Valley. Aspect and law firm Perkins Coie — with lead counsel Mike Dunning — serve as Mt. Baker Housing’s environmental team on the Gateway Project. Perkins Coie and Aspect have worked directly with Ecology and Mt. Baker Housing to build this unique concept.

Ecology and Commerce started soliciting applications for the program on June 1 and the application period closes June 30. Perkins Coie and Aspect can help interested organizations complete and send in their applications. This needs to happen as soon as possible to meet the June 30 deadline.

If you have any questions about the Healthy Housing Remediation Program or about redeveloping contaminated properties for housing, please contact Dave Cook at 206.838.5837 and at dcook@aspectconsulting.com or Mike Dunning at 206.359.3464 and at mdunning@perkinscoie.com.

Before and after conceptual image of Mt. Baker Gateway Project  in South Seattle – one of the affordable housing cleanup sites that the Healthy Housing program is inspired from.

Dave Cook Presents on Affordable Housing to Upper Kittitas County

On April 25, Aspect’s Dave Cook will be giving a lunch presentation on affordable housing development from the environmental consulting perspective to the Rotary Club of Upper Kittitas County at Suncadia Lodge.

Dave’s presentation will discuss how blighted, contaminated property doesn’t have to be a deal-breaker for redevelopment.  In fact, some brownfields property is actually being sought as a way to turn blighted property into affordable/work force housing.  Aspect’s first-of-its-kind work on the Mt Baker Housing Association’s Gateway project in the Mt Baker/Rainier Valley neighborhood in Seattle has become an example of what is possible.  Mt Baker Housing non-profit took on a significantly contaminated site to redevelop as affordable housing where the cost of the cleanup is more than the value of the five properties combined. 

How are we doing this?  Through environmental risk management via a Prospective Purchaser Consent Decree, cleanup evaluation through site characterization and Rough Order of Magnitude cost estimating, and unique funding via a Redevelopment Opportunity Zone (allowing funding from the State Dept of Ecology and Commerce), while also seeking other funds through a traditional path of accessing potentially liable parties (like big oil companies and old insurance policies).  This project is becoming recognized throughout Washington state and is a model for possible allocation of State cleanup funds to pilot this concept in other areas. 

Who are the scientists in your neighborhood?

Aspect outreach connects younger residents with cleanup and redevelopment work at Mt. Baker Housing Association

On a recent cloudy afternoon, about 15 kids gathered on a corner in Seattle’s Mount Baker neighborhood to peer down a hole. The hole isn’t just any hole, it’s a groundwater monitoring well—one of 35 that Aspect is using to measure groundwater contamination levels in the area. The kids, ranging from second grade through high school, are residents of six nearby apartment buildings managed by the Mt. Baker Housing Association (MBHA). This field trip was led by Aspect’s Principal Geologist Dave Cook and Senior Geologist Jessica Smith, who have been sharing their environmental work on an innovative MBHA redevelopment project with some of the neighborhood’s younger residents through an ongoing series of visits that helps kids understand the science that will help shape the future of their neighborhood.

Located two blocks from the Mount Baker light rail station, the cleanup site has sat unused for years due to solvent-contamination from a dry cleaner and gasoline-contamination from a former gas station. Aspect is supporting a first-of-its-kind partnership between the MBHA, the City of Seattle, and the Washington State Department of Ecology that will use state funds to help cover some of the costs for environmental evaluation and cleanup. With significant help from an Ecology Public Partnership Grant, MBHA plans to redevelop the five parcels of land with two new residential buildings to meet the City’s critical need for more affordable housing.

Stepping out of the Typical Cleanup Process to Invite Community into the Project

Outreach and collaboration with the area’s residents, businesses, and other stakeholders is a key part of the project. Dave and Jessica’s work puts community, education, and science into action by speaking directly to a segment of the population not usually directly engaged in these types of projects. The kids get to meet the scientists and engineers working in their neighborhood and gets to find out what’s happening, and what’s going to happen, in their own backyard.

Dave and Jessica collaborated with MBHA’s Resident Services Coordinator Sameth Mell and intern Cristina Pinho to engage with the younger members of the Mount Baker community. “After 26 years of quietly cleaning up and recycling land for better uses, I thought it was time to break out of the standard consulting role and focus on the community in a more direct way,” Dave said. “I’ve always enjoyed educating people about what we do. The science is really cool, it’s practical, very visual, and I figured kids would be totally into geology and engineering. What kid doesn’t like playing with dirt, sampling water and learning about mysteries below ground?”

An Outdoor Classroom to See the Underground Up Close

On this recent visit, Dave and Jessica met the kids inside over pizza for introductions before heading out to the corner in front of the building, where Staff Geologist Na Hyung Choi was already busy gathering samples at one of the groundwater monitoring wells. She filled sample containers with groundwater located about 15 feet below the ground surface and answered questions while Jessica and Dave explained more about her work.

Jessica said, “For me, the best part of being involved in the community outreach is being able to introduce kids to the practical aspects of science and engineering to get them excited about STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math]. As we were watching Na Hyung obtain the groundwater samples, one of the fourth-grade girls asked me if she could be a Geologist or an Engineer when she grows up, to which I enthusiastically replied, ‘Of course!’ Facilitating that curiosity and excitement in these kids is what this is all about.”

Back inside, Dave and Jessica presented a video of how the well they’d just been looking at was created, showing how the hole was drilled and the soil that was unearthed from the drill. Jessica also gave a tangible explanation of just what groundwater is. Marbles in a glass represented the dirt, with a little water poured in to help them visualize how groundwater lives between the soil grains.  A bright green straw inserted into the glass stood in for the groundwater monitoring well that was installed into the soil to suck out the water.

Ongoing Outreach as Work Heads Toward 150 Units of New Housing

This visit was the second one Dave and Jessica have made since beginning their field work in mid-November. They plan to return often as the project continues, to share results from the samples Na Hyung was taking and what that data tells them about how the contaminants are behaving underground. From these data, Dave, Jessica and Ecology will develop the best plan to clean up the contaminated soil and groundwater so that construction can begin.

Cleanup and redevelopment on the MBHA project is slated to begin in 2019. Once complete, there will be an estimated 150 units of new affordable housing on the parcels. The kids Dave and Jessica have been checking in with will be able to tell their new neighbors, “Hey, I know what used to be underneath your building!”