Contrary to popular opinion, "densification" is not a panacea. Generally the architects and advocates advancing the notion of high-density are also in favor of relaxing parking restrictions and waiving building codes that require things like closets and bathrooms. There's a guy in my neighborhood who's getting everyone up in arms because he's going to put in an organic grocery store but he can't "make it work financially" unless he's allowed to waive density standards. How does he want to do this? By building up, of course. So what's wrong with that?

He wants to go up 19 stories.

Building code limits the City to 40 feet above grade, which is enough for 3-story buildings, which is what surrounds the site at the moment (which is full of multi-family mixed-use which has no problem meeting the standards). But if he can go up 19 stories, he can get views of Lake Washington and sell penthouses for $150/sqft.

Forgotten in all this is it's the character of the extant neighborhood that attracted everyone to it, and the extant neighborhood doesn't include eight stories of shared living dorms with no parking. More than that, this is California, where property values have been deliberately sky-high since 1978.

Incidentally, here's your densification. $2100 for a 500sqft studio, homey. But hey. See if you can do better.