By Erica C. Barnett
This week on Seattle Nice, we solicited questions from listeners for a mailbag edition of the podcast. (If we didn’t answer your question or you sent one in too late for this episode, don’t worry, we’ll do it again!)
A surprising number of listeners had questions about the ongoing comprehensive plan process, which will determine how much new housing the city allows and where. People wanted to know what the plan is for, whether it can be changed in the future if and when the city council gets more pro-housing members, and what’s currently happening with the plan, which the city has allowed to fall many months behind schedule.
The questions are timely, because the city has already failed to hit several deadlines for completing the plan, and as a result is currently rushing the latest proposal through with less time for public input than usual for such an important, city-shaping document.
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And there’s plenty to critique about the plan, especially if you’re an urbanist—someone who supports more housing options in all parts of the city for people at every income level, including the renters who make up more than half Seattle’s population.
Even after amendments made in response to pushback from pro-housing advocates, Mayor Bruce Harrell’s comprehensive plan proposal continues to embrace the city’s longstanding policy of segregating most renters onto dirty, traffic-clogged arterial roads, while just barely complying with a new state requirement to allow up to four units (such as four freestanding townhouses) on every residential lot.
The new plan calls for 30 new “neighborhood centers”—areas directly adjacent to major intersections and high-traffic transit stops where the plan will allow new housing. Already, anti-housing advocates in Seattle’s traditional single-family-only neighborhoods are pushing to eliminate some of these centers, and they could find a receptive audience on the city council, where District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth will oversee the process as the new chair of the council’s land use committee. (She’ll replace Tammy Morales, who resigned).
We also discussed next year’s elections, answering questions about why Council President Sara Nelson is widely considered vulnerable to a challenge from the left while Mayor Bruce Harrell isn’t. We also answered a reader’s question about the “wildest” city stories of the year before discussing our local-politics wishes for 2025.
