Chalk one up for the little guy: In his fight against the shopping mall planned at the site of today's Seattle Goodwill Store on South Dearborn Street, neighborhood activist Bill Bradburd won two small but important concessions before the Seattle City Council last week. One is that he got the council to accept all the testimony on traffic and air quality that he and other opponents of the project made before the city hearing examiner last fall when they appealed.
The other is getting the Dearborn Street Coalition for a Livable Neighborhood removed as a party to the appeal. Bradburd once served as a Jackson Place liaison for the coalition, which gave up fighting the 10-acre mall and its 565 units of housing last September after the developer agreed to provide 200 affordable units, union jobs, and other community benefits.
On Jan. 28, the Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee is scheduled to take up rezoning the site from 65 to 85 feet -- a crucial element of the plan that Bradburd is hoping councilmembers will vote down.