Density, housing, legislature, Maybe Metropolis

An Alternative Approach to Creating Affordable Housing: Inside-Out Urbanism
Image of a four-unit apartment building
Sneaky urbanism adds housing inside the existing buildable footprint—and can be a way to expand the footprint in advance of major zoning changes.

By Josh Feit

The city of Seattle was supposed to be done with its 10-year comprehensive plan update more than a year ago, in December 2024. The comp plan is the document that governs local land use and zoning, which means it’s also about where the city will (and won’t) allow more density. As you know, it’s now 2026.

This should give you an idea of how many deadlines we’ve missed. Here we are, 14 months on, and pro-housing advocates are still waiting as the city braces for yet more debates over the specifics of the Neighborhood Center and Urban Center strategy that, sigh, continues to cordon density into tightly constricted areas.

We don’t have the luxury of waiting for the city to take action. It’s time to take matters into our own hands—at least as we wait for the new pro-density council members like Eddie Lin and Dionne Foster to join forces with Alexis Mercedes Rinck and new self-avowed urbanist Mayor Katie Wilson to get the zoning right. In the meantime, I’m hopeful about an emerging method to usher in the dense housing we need citywide to address the affordability and climate crises: Instead of fixating on wholesale land use changes, focus on discrete housing regulations with piecemeal reforms. Devious density.

I’m not advocating for timid tinkering around the edges. I’m thinking of ingenious hacks that are possible within the restrictive height limits, contorted floor area ratio guidelines, and setback requirements that currently define and limit the number of units you can fit into an apartment building. Like rearranging how you pack your suitcase rather than buying a bigger suitcase, affordable housing advocates should change the construction equation inside apartment buildings themselves.

Pro-density progressives in Washington state have already had success with this sneaky inside-out approach. In 2025, they won parking reform, which maximizes the square footage available for housing by lowering building costs and forgoing the need for carports and underground garages. Similarly, in 2023, advocates succeeded in passing the nation’s first-ever single-staircase bill, a reform that frees up space for more units in the same building footprint by getting rid of unnecessary two-staircase mandates.

Another recent bit of tactical urbanism, passed last year, made an exception to mandatory setbacks (the distance a building must be from the street and other lot boundaries) for smart construction methods like mass timber, passive house, and modular construction, as well as for affordable housing units.

In the current legislative session, pro-housing advocates are now on their way to passing elevator reform, which will lower costs for developers, hopefully hastening construction of more units.

As I reported last week: While the elevator industry stripped out a push for universal reform, urbanists are still set to pass a deceptively specific change at the ground level. The legislation will change elevator size guidelines for apartment buildings up to six stories tall, lowering costs and allowing more units. This detail-oriented code change will open the doors to multifamily housing in neighborhoods where the the overall zoning remains antagonistic to this type of renter-friendly development.

Consider this “within-the-envelope”-approach a pro-housing hack against the classic anti-density refrain about “neighborhood character.” (The housing “envelope” is the planning term for the ultimate size allowed for a development after all the setback, density, height, and other parameter guidelines are taken into account.) By adding the potential for more units within buildings that are visually in sync with the surrounding area, pro-housing advocates may reveal what intransigent NIMBYs actually mean when they say “character.”

City Council, immigration, Jails, King County

As City and County Consider Banning New ICE Facilities, Local Jails Are Exempted from Seattle’s Ban
Alexis Mercedes Rinck (l) and Teresa Mosqueda (r)

By Erica C. Barnett

City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck’s proposed legislation to bar new detention centers in Seattle, originally introduced in February, has been delayed and amended to accommodate other council members’ concerns about prohibiting new local jails even temporarily, as the original legislation would have done. The new version of the bill, which would explicitly exempt jails from the moratorium, went up online yesterday.

A brief recap: On February 13, Rinck announced legislation that would ban new detention centers, as well as jails, in the city of Seattle for one year. The bill, announced in tandem with King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda’s similar legislation prohibiting detention centers in unincorporated King County for a year. Both proposals contains an emergency clause to illustrate the urgency of passing the ban; in December, ICE quietly posted a solicitation for contractors to build a new 1,635-bed detention facility in the Seattle area.

Legally, because of the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, federal law trumps state law—meaning that ICE, putatively operating in compliance with federal law, can violate any or all of the local and state laws blue cities and states put in their way. But laws like regional bans on detention facilities—and other anti-ICE legislation, including an executive order from Mayor Katie Wilson barring ICE from using city property  and a proposal from Mosqueda that will have the same effect for county land—can create friction, Rinck said.

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“We still will have a law on the books, and if they try to challenge our decision, we will see them in court over this,” Rinck said. “It does force a conversation.”

Both bills are based on local land use regulations. They argue that any new detention center could have major impacts on “water, sewage and wastewater, transportation and parking, public safety, and public health” and that a moratorium would provide time to create permanent legislation on detention centers.

“Here at the county, we have explicit authority in our statute to ensure that land is being used in the public’s interest,” Mosqueda said. “Any detention center in King County is going to not only disrupt the local community, but it goes counter to King County’s interests in making sure that we’re promoting safety and well-being.”

Both bills are classified as “emergency” legislation, allowing them to move forward without the usual committee process. On both councils, emergency legislation requires seven of nine votes to pass—which gets us back to why Rinck’s proposal exempts jails from the one-year moratorium while Mosqueda’s does not.

According to multiple city council sources, at least two council members indicated that they would vote against Rinck’s proposal if jails were included in the ban, even though King County has no current plans to build a new jail in Seattle, or anywhere, in the near future. Banning new jails for a year could create an impression that centrist council members who will be up for election next year, including Maritza Rivera and Bob Kettle, are soft on crime.

Rinck can afford to lose two votes, but not three, and several other council members’ votes can be unpredictable when it comes to legislation perceived as “progressive,” as any legislation proposed by Rinck, one of the council’s most progressive members, inevitably is.

Kettle, the chair of the council’s public safety committee, did not respond to questions PubliCola sent on Monday.

Mosqueda said on Tuesday morning that no one on the council had raised an issue about the inclusion of new jails in the ban, noting that her legislation does explicitly allow renovations at Echo Glen, a youth detention center in unincorporated eastern King County.

Rinck’s legislation will be up for a full council vote on March 10. She said the bill will “buy some time” for the city if ICE does propose building a detention facility here. “I think this is worth fighting over,” she said.

erica@publicola.com

housing, labor, Mayor Wilson, Police

This Week on PubliCola: March 1, 2026

Staff call for civil rights office shakeup, CARE chief says police contract hobbles her team’s ability to respond to crises, state elevator reform bill advances, and much more.

Monday, February 23

Staff Call for Removal of Civil Rights Office Director, Citing “Discrimination, Harassment, Retaliation, and Mismanagement”

Through their union, PROTEC17, staff at the city’s civil rights office have asked Mayor Katie Wilson to remove and replace their boss, Derrick Wheeler-Smith, saying he sent misogynistic texts to staffers, ignored LGBTQ+ rights inside and outside the office, and dismissed their efforts to focus on non-Black racial minorities, including Asian Americans facing xenophobia during COVID and Latino residents under threat of ICE detention.

Tuesday, February 24

Police Contract Has Prevented Unarmed Crisis Responders From Doing their Jobs, CARE Chief Says

Amy Barden, head of the city’s Community Assisted Response and Engagement Team, talked candidly at a council meeting this week about how a police union contract has made it impossible for the team of social workers to respond to most behavioral health crisis calls. Police Chief Shon Barnes, sitting next to Barden, jumped in several times to defend police, saying he didn’t want them “relegated” to responding to just some kinds of calls. The CARE Team was created specifically to respond to crises that don’t require, and may be exacerbated by, the presence of armed officers.

Wednesday, February 25

After PubliCola Story Details Discrimination Claims, Civil Rights Office Director Accuses Deputy Mayor of Threats and “Defamation”

In response to our story on Monday, Seattle Office for Civil Rights Director Derrick Wheeler-Smith sent an email to city leaders and reporters (though not PubliCola) accusing Deputy Mayor Brian Surratt of sending “a few disgruntled staff” our way in order to defame him. Surratt was not a source, much less “the source,” for our story.

Friday, February 27

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SPD’s National Recruitment Push Includes Police Chief’s Alma Mater

Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes sent recruitment teams to several small HBCUs in the South, including his alma mater, Elizabeth City State University, and spent $25,000 of the city’s money to sponsor a basketball tournament for the conference of schools. Most of the colleges in the conference have around 2,000 students or fewer; SPD said the value of the sponsorship can’t be measured in the number of direct recruits.

Chief Attended Tiny Desk Concert with Security In Tow

Late last year, while in town on SPD business, Barnes attended a concert at NPR’s studios, bringing his two security guards with him to the show. SPD has not told us how much it cost to provide Barnes with security at the event.

Elevator Followup: Reform Bill Watered Down

Josh Feit reported that a state bill to allow developers to build apartment buildings with smaller elevators is moving forward, but no longer includes a provision that would have directed the state to support harmonizing national and international elevator size standards. The rest of the world allows smaller elevators, making it more affordable to build accessible apartments.

Former City Department Director Broke Election Law

The state Public Disclosure Commission ruled that the former director of the Seattle Office of Economic Development violated election law when he used the city’s Teams system to solicit the personal email addresses of department heads on behalf of Bruce Harrell’s campaign, but declined to fine the ex-OED director.

City IT Director Resigns

In another department-level shakeup, city IT Department director Rob Lloyd announced his resignation; his last day will be March 27.

LGBTQ Advocates Call for Removal of Civil Rights Director

The Friends of Denny Blaine, a group of LGBTQ+ advocates who organized after learning that Harrell was working with a wealthy homeowner to shut down the longstanding nude beach on Lake Washington, called for Wheeler-Smith’s resignation this week in response to PubliCola’s reporting on what the group called the “repeated dismissal and minimization of LGBTQ+ civil rights issues within the department.”

In Rare Tragedy, Man Dies Inside Rainier Beach Library Branch

A 41-year-old man died from chronic alcohol use inside the Rainier Beach branch of the Seattle Public Library last week after staff and paramedics tried to resuscitate him. It’s extremely rare for a person to die inside a library branch, and staff who were present have access to counseling and can transfer to other branches if necessary.

Seattle Nice: Are These Three Local Controversies All About Union Power?

On the podcast this week, we discussed three local stories that all have links to local unions: The organized backlash to Mayor Wilson’s decision to replace the head of Seattle City Light; CARE Team Chief Barden’s frustration over the police guild’s contract; and the efforts by SOCR staff to get Wilson to remove Wheeler-Smith, which, according to employees, came together after a survey by their union made staffers realize they weren’t alone.

Mayor Wilson, Seattle Nice

Seattle Nice: Are These Three Local Controversies All About Union Power?

By Erica C. Barnett

This week’s podcast, as I promised last week, featured just me, Sandeep, and David, and guys: It got LIVELY.

First, we talked about some behind-the-scenes scuttlebutt that the Seattle Times missed in its coverage of local union backlash to Mayor Katie Wilson’s ouster of Dawn Lindell as the CEO of Seattle City Light. Thousands of IBEW77 union members signed a petition demanding Wilson rehire Lindell in what the Times described as widespread employee “concern by her decision to fire the utility’s previous CEO and her initial pick for her replacement.” Meanwhile, the MLK Labor Council, a union of unions, passed a resolution demanding more transparency into the process of hiring Lindell’s replacement.

But there’s more to the story—according to multiple sources in the city, an IBEW (and former MLK Labor Council) leader lobbied Wilson hard to oust Lindell and appoint her as Lindelll’s replacement; after that didn’t happen, according to internal city sources, the unions started their full-court press against Wilson. Both IBEW77 and the MLK Labor Council endorsed former mayor Bruce Harrell.

In another city union-related story, SPOG—the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild—negotiated a ludicrously generous police contract last year that also happens to restrict the CARE Team of unarmed first responders from actually doing first response. This week, CARE Department Chief Amy Barden was extremely candid about the limitations the police contract imposes on her team of social workers, which she said SPOG has interpreted to include any area from which a person could be trespassed, such as parking lots or even sidewalks adjacent to a private business.

I’ve been reporting since last October about the explicit restrictions, which prohibit CARE from responding on their own to calls if there is drug paraphernalia in the area, if the person is inside a car or building, if there is evidence that any crime has taken place, or if a minor is present. (Yes, Seattle is so committed to alternative response that they signed a contract saying police, not social workers, are best suited to help vulnerable young people.)

The additional restrictions SPOG is claiming now make it clear that the police guild, at least, doesn’t want CARE to succeed. And as Police Chief Shon Barnes confirmed at the committee meeting last week (when he said, among other things, that he doesn’t want cops “relegated” to doing cop stuff), there’s no internal pressure at SPD for the union to renegotiate the agreement so CARE can actually do their jobs.

We also discussed my story about Seattle Office for Civil Rights Director Derrick Wheeler-Smith, whose employees have accused him of discrimination and retaliation. Through their union, PROTEC17, some staffers asked Wilson to remove him before she started her term, saying his behavior rose to the level of “just cause” that’s required from removing the SOCR director.

Addiction

In Rare Tragedy, Man Dies Inside Rainier Beach Library Branch
Image via SPL.org.

By Erica C. Barnett

A 41-year-old man died at the Rainier Beach library just after 3pm February 13 after library staffers tried but were unable to revive him with Narcan and CPR. The library shut down for the rest of the afternoon.

According to library spokeswoman Laura Gentry, library patrons “alerted staff that there was something wrong with a patron at the computer area”; thinking the man had overdosed, a staffer administered Narcan while other staff called 911. The 911 call taker told them to try CPR, but library staffers and medics who showed up a few minute later couldn’t revive the patron.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office later reported that the man died of “chronic alcohol use disorder,” not an overdose. According to the CDC, about 178,000 people die in the US from excessive drinking every year.

It’s extraordinarily rare for a patron to die inside a library, although several people have died of overdoses outside library branches after hours. The experience of witnessing someone can be extremely traumatic, especially for workers whose jobs don’t ordinarily involve trying to save lives. Gentry said staff who witness a serious or traumatic incident get access to resources including free counseling, and can ask to move to a different location or take leave if they aren’t ready to return to work.

Staff don’t receive any specific training in recognizing alcohol-related medical emergencies, and training on how to respond to opioid overdoses is optional, Gentry said.

Elections, LGBTQ+, Mayor Wilson

Former City Department Director Admonished by PDC; City IT Director Resigns; LGBTQ Advocates Call for Removal of Civil Rights Director

1. Seattle’s IT director since September 2024, Rob Lloyd, step down on March 27. “Leading IT and our dedicated teams in service to Seattle has been an honor,” Lloyd said in an email to staff. “Thinking more on recent events and transitions, it’s clear that this is the right time. I wanted you to hear this directly from me and as quickly as possible.”

A spokesperson for Mayor Katie Wilson confirmed Lloyd’s resignation but did not respond to questions about whether he had been asked to leave. In an email to IT staff, Wilson did not exactly gush about Lloyd’s tenure.

“We would like to acknowledge and thank Rob for his service and the work he performed during his time with the department,” the mayor wrote. “We appreciate his contributions to our technological operations. I wish him the best.”

Tracye Cantrell, the department’s assistant chief technology officer, will take over as interim director, Wilson told IT staff.

Lloyd, a Bruce Harrell appointee, was a gung-ho AI proponent who advocated for funding a number of new AI programs at the city—including an $800,000 program that will replace permitting functions previously performed by workers at the city’s Department of Construction and Inspections. That program will purportedly “streamline the permitting application process and improve customer services using Artificial Intelligence and data integration.” Lloyd also implemented a public-facing AI chatbot called “SEAMore Voice” and a separate internal generative AI system from Microsoft called NebulaONE.

2. The Friends of Denny Blaine are calling on Mayor Wilson to remove Seattle Office for Civil Rights Director Derrick Wheeler-Smith in response to allegations of anti-LGBTQ bias made by his staff in interviews with PubliCola for a story we published earlier this week. The group of advocates got together after learning that a wealthy homeowner, Stuart Sloan, was working with then-mayor Bruce Harrell to install a children’s playground at the longstanding nude beach, effectively shutting it down.

Several SOCR staffers told PubliCola that Wheeler-Smith and his deputy director, Fahima Mohamed, made insensitive comments and dismissed LGBTQ+ rights in general, including one staffer who said Mohamed laughed in front of staff at a text message Harrell sent Sloan saying “I share your disgust” about the beach. Staffers said Wheeler-Smith, whose previous employer was a Christian nonprofit that does not hire people in same-sex relationships, frequently sidelined LGBTQ+ rights or treated them as insignificant.

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“The Office of Civil Rights is entrusted with enforcing our city’s equity initiatives and safeguarding the rights and dignity of all marginalized communities within Seattle, including LGBTQ+ people,” the group wrote on Instagram. “The statement ‘l share your disgust’ is not neutral language; it perpetuates a long legacy of marginalizing and dehumanizing language targeting LGBTQ+ individuals in public spaces. For SOCR leadership to treat this rhetoric in such an offensive and dismissive manner undermines community trust in the department, and calls into question its legitimacy as a department claiming to hold a commitment to civil rights.”

“This concern is compounded by the broader reporting showing repeated dismissal and minimization of LGBTQ+ civil rights issues within the department,” the post continued. “Seattle’s commitment to LGBTQ+ equality cannot be symbolic. It must exist from the top down, and if the Office of Civil Rights of all offices cannot be trusted to genuinely foster those values and protect the rights of LBGTQ+ people, there can be no trust in any city department, and the sincerity of all commitments to being a welcoming city” to LGBTQ+ individuals must be called into question.”

3. The state Public Disclosure Commission ruled on Tuesday, February 24 that former Seattle Office of Economic Development Markham McIntyre violated election rules when he used an internal City of Seattle Teams chat to solicit contact information from city department heads on behalf of Harrell’s reelection campaign. But they decided not to issue a fine or other penalty beyond a written admonishment. “Staff expect that you will refrain from any use of city equipment, staff or other resources for any effort tied to support or opposition of a candidate or ballot measure,” PDC Executive Director Peter Lavallee wrote.

Lavalee’s ruling reveals that after the Harrell appointee obtained the directors’ personal emails last August, he followed up with an email on September 8. It read: “A little while ago, I asked for your personal information. Part of my intent is to help the campaign. If you are not OK with me sharing your contact information with them, please let me know by tomorrow night. For those you are interested in helping out: we need ideas! Yes, we can do all of the traditional campaign activities (door knocking, phone banking, etc.) but is there something special that we could contribute as City leaders? Now’s the time to get in the game!”

State law prohibits public employees from using their office or any public facilities for campaign purposes. PubliCola reported exclusively on McIntyre’s request for department director’s private contact information in October.

Paul Chapman, who filed the complaint, filed a similar complaint with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission. SEEC director Wayne Barnett dismissed that complaint on Thursday, writing, “Having reviewed the PDC’s letter of February 24, I agree with their conclusion that the evidence collected (and summarized in their February 24 letter) does not warrant further investigation. Mr. McIntyre is no longer a City employee, and Bruce Harrell lost his bid for reelection.”