This is a guest post by Forterra, a member of the Washington Association of Land Trusts. WALT and our members have been investing in deeper relationships between land trusts and their communities, through conversations around diversity, equity and inclusion and community conservation. In this interview, Forterra’s Executive Director Gene Duvernoy talks about how working on affordable housing in downtown Seattle fits in with the organization’s conservation mission.
Eyebrows raised this May when we announced the agreement to secure 20% of Midtown Center at 23 & Union, in the heart of Seattle’s Central District, for affordable housing, small business, and space for arts and culture.
Some eyebrows went up in elation. Some in puzzlement.
Forterra is still best known to many for conserving iconic wildlands like the 50,000-acre Teanaway Forest. So, what are we doing in the city?
Earlier this month, our President Gene Duvernoy sat down with Paul Nelson of the South Seattle Emerald to talk about the 23rd & Union project, what it means for creating sustainable cities as we grow, and why we believe so strongly in our work to secure keystone places in our cities.
Here’s an edited, condensed excerpt from that interview, which centered on affordability, a topic that is top-of-mind as we get ready to vote in the upcoming primary election:
Gene Duvernoy: Forterra used to be an organization called the Land Conservancy—and the Seattle King County Land Conservancy before that, and the Land Trust of Seattle and King County before that.
Well, the name changed to recognize and to reflect how we start changing mission and changing geography, so it really keeps pace with that. We’re not a conservation group. I always love to say that. We’re a group that is totally place based and believe that we can get it right here.
We can be a region that’s successful and sustainable. What we then say to ourselves is, “Look, nature and humans—human society—they both operate on top of land. So let’s set the stage, the landscape, in a way they both succeed.”
What land needs to be acquired for habitat, for working farms and forest or for inner cities and portable homes, small businesses and third places? Those keystone properties, let’s get them acquired and deployed correctly for this region’s long-term sustainability.
Paul Nelson: People say it’s done already, Seattle is San Francisco 2.0 and you’re gonna have to live in Renton at the very closest to be able to have housing affordability.
GD: I can bring that old analogy about planting a tree right into the city. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is right today…