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The City of Seattle
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A resolution creating an Arts and Cultural District in the Columbia Hillman City neighborhood of Seattle.
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Recitals:
Resolution 31555 created a city-wide program of Arts and Cultural Districts, to be managed by the Office of Arts and Culture.
The Seattle Comprehensive Plan calls for the support of Arts and Cultural Districts as a means to “support arts and cultural uses and the economic benefits they provide,” and encourages the City to “allow regulations and incentives to be adopted specifically for designated cultural districts,” and to “allow adopted guidelines or regulations to modify, exempt, or supersede the standards of the underlying zone to encourage arts and cultural uses.”
According to the 2025 budget report issued by ArtsFund, the creative sector within the ZIP code encompassing Columbia City and Hillman Cirt generated more than $7 million in earned revenue and received just over $8.5 million in contributed revenue, underscoring the substantial economic and community impact of arts and cultural activity in the district.
Arts and entertainment related businesses and organizations add cultural and economic diversity to a city, enhancing the lives of the city’s residents and visitors, and positively impact the city’s economy by generating jobs and revenue.
The City wishes to recognize and protect its culturally rich and arts areas from the displacement that the twin successes of growth and new development often bring.
Columbia and Hillman Cities are home to a wide array of cultural and arts organizations, including SouthEast Effective Development (SEED) and SEEDArts, which organized and hosted the initial District designation conversations, as well as Columbia City Theater, Ark Lodge Cinema, Royal Room, Rainier Arts Center, Igimo Art Station, Southside Commons, Rainier Valley Historical Society, Jazz Night School, Vietnamese Friendship Association, Columbia City Gallery, Royal Esquire Club, Horn of Africa Services, SEEDArts Studios, Collaborator, Black and Tan Hall, and more.
The arts and individuals working for and with the cultural institutions in Columbia and Hillman Cities fear being priced out of the neighborhood. As the two neighborhoods continue to grow, and continue to fill in the gap between them, the neighborhoods believe, and the City concurs, that a program supporting equitable, cultural, affordable development can preserve a sense of place and lessen the displacement that new development often brings.
A group of stakeholders has self-organized and requested formal recognition as an Arts and Cultural District, organized around the following mission: “The mission of the Columbia Hillman Arts and Cultural District is the celebrate and enhance the authentic and culturally diverse soul of the Columbia City and Hillman City neighborhoods through identification with, and the advancement of, arts and culture.” In furtherance of this mission, the Columbia Hillman Arts and Cultural District stakeholders are committed to:
• Activation of the Southeast Seattle creative economy;
• Retention and preservation of existing cultural spaces;
• Inclusion of new arts and cultural space in future development;
• Ensuring the availability of affordable commercial space for arts/cultural businesses and affordable live/work space for artists;
• Arts program and projects with racial and social equity as a primary driver;
• Sustain and protect the cultural landscape that makes our neighborhoods unique; and
• Development of increased youth engagement in the arts.
Therefore,
Be it resolved by the City Council of The City of Seattle, the Mayor concurring:
Section 1. The City of Seattle establishes an Arts and Cultural District in the Columbia and Hillman Cities neighborhoods of Seattle, to be known as The Columbia Hillman Arts and Cultural District.
Section 2. The City of Seattle directs appropriate members of the City’s departmental staff to actively support and work with staff in the Office of Arts and Culture to develop and maintain the District, and to support the health and vitality of the artists, creative businesses, and artists residing in the District.
Section 3. The City of Seattle encourages all residents of Columbia and Hillman Cities, and especially those who own property or businesses within the District, to support, promote, and help maintain artists, arts organizations, and arts events in the District.
Adopted by the City Council and signed in open session in authentication of its adoption on
President of the City Council
Signed in concurrence on .
Katie B. Wilson, Mayor
Attested on .
Scheereen Dedman, City Clerk
Seal