Category: Density

City Hall, Density, Elections, legislature, Police

New Column! Introducing Greater Seattle
Mayor Katie Wilson, with new interim chief Andre Sayles at far left

By Josh Feit

PubliCola isn’t making endorsements this year, but election season (see item 3 below)  gives me the perfect opportunity to debut this new opinion column with its simple premise:  X > (is greater than) Y.

1) The Case for Firing SPD Chief Shon Barnes > The Case for Keeping Shon Barnes

The case for firing police chief Shon Barnes, a holdover from the Harrell administration, might seem disproportionate to the happenstance of being out of town during a shooting (and subsequently fucking up media briefings on the shooting because of your absence).

But if you’re a regular PubliCola reader, you know there are plenty of reasons beyond Barnes’ alarming  OOO MO that made him an odd fit with Wilson’s progressive administration. Among them: His aversion to the CARE Team; SPD’s violent treatment of  counter-protesters at an anti-trans rally in Cal Anderson Park; lawsuits accusing him and his team of discriminating against women and LBGTQ staffers; the department’s ongoing failure to recruit more women, and his questionable hiring and promotion decisions.

Wilson can get pretty anxious about diverging from Seattle’s older Black community, which I think partially explains why she recently disappointed her activist base on surveillance cameras. But Wilson is also known for listening to the facts, assessing the situation, and acting accordingly. Thankfully, in weighing Barnes’ rocky tenure against the vague call for stability, she made the right call last week.

And by the way: Barnes’ recent chest-forward display of toxic machismo (after a South Seattle Emerald reporter dared to ask him about Erica’s reporting on those frequent absences) was red card material. If not a fireable offense in its own right, Barnes’ playground behavior surely gave Wilson an unnerving reminder of why he wasn’t a fit.

2) Seattle City Council Members Eddie Lin, Dionne Foster, Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Bob Kettle, and Dan Strauss > Seattle City Council Members Joy Hollingsworth, Debora Juarez, Maritza Rivera, and Rob Saka

A million years ago, I used to write a column on Seattle City Hall called Five to Four. So pardon me for being extra excited about a narrow city council vote last week that distinguished the pro-housing council members from the anti-housing council members.

Erica has the rundown on the 5-4 win for Southeast Seattle Councilmember Lin’s pro-density legislation that will stop homeowners from turning the Seattle Hearing Examiner into a weapon against renters and new housing, something NIMBYs have been doing for the 20-plus years I’ve been reporting on this issue. I just want to add: WTF Joy Hollingsworth? You represent one of the most progressive, densest, renter-centric districts in the city. What’s the gatekeeping about?

3) Ron Davis (and even Will Dreher) > State Rep. Gerry Pollet

In this year’s North Seattle election battle between mansplainers, longtime North Seattle rep  Gerry Pollet (D-46, N. Seattle) versus know-it-all housing pundit Ron Davis, at least Davis is the YIMBY in the race. Pollet is a NIMBY who spent the bulk of his tenure as housing committee chair stalling legislation that would have created more housing in his district. The pro-housing, urbanist wing of the Democratic Party eventually got fed up with Pollet and removed him as chair of the housing committee.

In contrast, Davis is gung-ho on urbanist housing policies such as funded inclusionary zoning (FIZ) (a PubliCola favorite). He also advocates for increasing density around schools and parks.

In addition to supporting upzones  as a way to increase density, Davis also supports hacks to the building code that will allow more density without changing overall zoning, such as Sightline initiatives like parking, stairway, and elevator reform; Davis has been a regular contributor to Sightline, the state’s leading pro-housing, urbansit think tank, and is endorsed by Mayor Katie Wilson and The Urbanist.

But Davis isn’t solely a free-market, density guy. He sees a role for good governance to support affordable housing through progressive taxes, rental assistance, social housing, and universal childcare.

Private attorney and first-time candidate Will Dreher is a former clerk for liberal SCOTUS Justice Elena Kagan and a DOJ prosector who went after J6 rioters. He’s also, yikes, a former clerk for pre-SCOTUS Brett Kavanaugh who signed a letter supporting Kavanaugh’s nomination in June 2018. However, three months later Dreher and two other clerks withdrew their support, calling on the FBI to reopen its background investigation into Kavanaugh over Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her.

Dreher’s focus is on corporate accountability, particularly when it comes to the environment and regulating A.I. He’s been endorsed by A-student progressive Seattle City Council member Dionne Foster and progressive City Attorney Erika Evans.

Slow growther Pollet has been endorsed by the Seattle Times of course.

City Council, Density, education, Mayor Wilson, Police

This Week on PubliCola: August 2, 2026

Police chief resigns, Burien city manager fired, school meals resolved, and much more.

By Erica C. Barnett

It was a busy, busy week for PubliCola, with news about now-former Seattle police chief Shon Barnes starting on Sunday night, when we broke the news that he was out of town during the mass shooting at Seattle Center, an absence we later learned contributed to a five-hour delay in information getting out about the incident. I spent the week burning up the phones and breaking news.

Meanwhile, on KUOW’s Week In Review this week, two guests (including one of KUOW’s editors) dedicated a huge chunk of time to insulting PubliCola and our work, calling me an “influencer” who just “hung out a shingle” and “called myself a news person.” (They didn’t name PubliCola directly, but every reference was to our reporting).

KUOW editor and reporter Catherine Smith and their guest Angela Poe Russell, who’s making the rounds as a Barnes defender, erroneously claimed that every police chief going back to Gil Kerlikowske has been out of town as much as Barnes has. “Don’t give us one-sided narrative and call it journalism,” Russell said, and Smith agreed that I didn’t have the goods, saying it was not “fair” for me to “criticize him for that when other chiefs travel like that.”

Russell and Smith presented zero evidence for their assertions. Smith claimed her story this week included information about those past chiefs’ schedules that contradicted my reporting, but it did not; the only “reporting” she had on that subject was a summary of a spokesman saying “Barnes’ level of travel is consistent with past chiefs of police.”

Then Russell said biased and false reporting like mine was why people should support public radio like KUOW instead The host of Week In Review, a show on which I am sometimes a guest, did not push back as the two women insulted me and said my work this week was inaccurate. (For the record, I’ve been a full-time reporter in Seattle since 2001, and at PubliCola since 2009—and I stand by my reporting).

So! This is your reminder that PubliCola is a paywall-free independent news source brought to, and our ONLY source of funding is direct contributions from readers who appreciate this work. If you can, please consider making a one-time or ongoing contribution via Patreon, Paypal, Venmo, or check, or subscribing to my Substack newsletter below. Thank you for reading and supporting PubliCola!

Monday, July 27

Council’s School Meals Plan Will Require Cuts to Other Services

An early plan by city councilmembers Joy Hollingsworth, Dionne Foster, and Dan Strauss to dip into the city’s general fund to pay for universal school meals would have required Mayor Katie Wilson to come up with cuts elsewhere totaling around $3 million. The proposal, which changed later in the week to one the mayor and council could both accept, came after Hollingsworth and Foster proposed delaying universal school meal funding to pay for take-home food vouchers for low-income kids as part of the Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise (FEPP) levy.

Seattle Police Chief Out of Town During Mass Shooting

I broke the news on Sunday that then-police chief Shon Barnes was out of town at a conference in Dallas during a shooting at Seattle Center, part of a planned absence of at least two weeks during the height of the summer’s public festival season. As I previously reported, Barnes’ family and permanent home are in Chicago, where he has traveled frequently, and he also spent much of his time as chief giving keynote speeches and attending out-of-town events.

Tuesday, July 28

Confrontation With Reporter Was Just “Passion on Full Display,” Police Chief Says; OPA Complaint Filed

When South Seattle Emerald reporter Connor Nash asked Barnes about my reporting on his frequent absences from the city, Barnes lashed out verbally; his chief of staff and longtime friend Alex Ricketts inserted himself physically between Barnes and Nash and hustled Barnes away. Asked about his outburst at a press conference, Barnes claimed he was just being “passionate about what I do as a police office.” One person who disagreed with Barnes’ takeaway filed a complaint against him with the city’s Office of Police Accountability. Although KUOW’s story described the OPA complaint as a mere assertion by me as an individual, I obtained a copy of the complaint and quoted it in my piece.

Wednesday, July 29

On Narrow Vote, Council Gets Rid of Local Appeal Process that Delays Land Use Legislation

On a 5-4 vote, with Bob Kettle serving as a swing vote, the Seattle City Council approved legislation to eliminate one of several avenues for opponents to appeal land-use legislation, such as the city’s comprehensive plan. The bill, sponsored by Councilmember Eddie Lin, eliminates pre-legislative appeals to the city’s hearing examiner while still allowing people to appeal legislation to the state Growth Management Hearings Board or to King County Superior Court after it passes.

Partial, Altered Schedule Shows Police Chief Out of Town Nearly 7 Weeks So Far This Year

A partial schedule that was altered to removed time then-police chief Barnes had previously planned to be away in August showed that the chief was out of town, mostly at conferences and visiting his family, about seven weeks over less than three months. (SPD only provided an accurate schedule between March 29 and July 26; Barnes had also planned time off in August, but the schedule was altered to show him in town after the shooting). In other words, Barnes was out of town or otherwise not on the job at least 40 percent of time time during the 17 weeks for which SPD provided his schedule.

Multiple Sources Say Police Chief Barnes is Out; Mayor’s Office Not Responding to Questions

As of Wednesday, what we knew about Barnes’ departure was vague and unverified; my sources told me Barnes had started calling some of his captains to say he’d been fired, and that he had been seen entering Wilson’s office late in the day and leaving a couple hour later. At the time, Mayor Katie Wilson’s office was not responding to questions; later, it would become clear that she had asked him to resign and he had refused, launching negotiations over a settlement that would not wrap up until late the following day.

Thursday, July 30

Burien Council Fires Controversial City Manager

Burien City Manager Adolfo Bailon, who’s been on paid leave pending an investigation into his conduct on the job, was fired by the city council this week. In addition to months of pay while the investigation was ongoing, he’ll get six months’ salary as a settlement—about $117,000. You can read about some of the many issues that have been raised about his performance in my post.

Mayor and Council Say They’ve Found Money for Universal School Meals After All

As mentioned above, the mayor and city council manage to identify “underspend” in the 2026 budget that will pay for universal school meals, with the FEPP levy picking up the tab for both low-income food vouchers and universal school meals the following year. The city is banking on the success of the so-called millionaires’ tax at the ballot box in November to pay for school meals after that.

Police Chief Shon Barnes is Out, His Deputy Andre Sayles Will Serve as Interim Chief

Mayor Wilson made it official at 3:30 on Thursday afternoon: Police Chief Shon Barnes resigned and will be replaced on an interim basis by one of his two deputies, Andre Sayles. Negotiations over the terms of Barnes’ settlement stretched into Thursday, contributing to a frustrating delay in information out of the mayor’s office.

Friday, July 31

Wilson, New Interim Police Chief Sayles Address Barnes’ Ouster, SPD’s Future

At a packed, rowdy press conference, Wilson and new interim chief Sayles took questions about Barnes’ resignation and the mayor’s plans for appointing a new police chief. I reported that Barnes will receive a total of $700,000 as a settlement. Although reporters repeatedly demanded that Wilson lay out her reasons for firing Barnes, the settlement agreement reportedly includes standard non-disparagement language that would prevent Wilson from going into too many specifics.

(That didn’t stop the Seattle Times editorial board from accusing her of firing Barnes to create a “distraction” from her incompetence and saying without specific reasons, the public would be right to believe he was “scapegoated.”)

Also this week: We did two Seattle Nice podcasts about the police chief’s departure—recording one on Wednesday, during the chaotic period when rumors were swirling and we didn’t know the details, and another on Saturday, after the mayor’s decision was official and Sayles (whose family also lives out of state) was officially the interim chief. The second one is behind a paywall as bonus content—subscribe to Seattle Nice on Patreon to listen now, or check out the preview first!

 

City Council, Density, housing

On Narrow Vote, Council Gets Rid of Local Appeal Process that Delays Land Use Legislation

 

Opponents of Seattle land-use legislation will still be able to appeal to King County Superior Court or the Growth Management Hearings Board.

By Erica C. Barnett

On the narrowest possible vote, the Seattle City Council approved legislation yesterday that will eliminate one of several avenues for opponents to appeal land-use legislation, such as the city’s comprehensive plan. The bill, sponsored by Councilmember Eddie Lin, eliminates pre-legislative appeals to the city’s hearing examiner while still allowing people to appeal legislation to the state Growth Management Hearings Board or to King County Superior Court after it passes.

Currently, hearing-examiner appeals are one of many tools that people and organizations opposed to apartment construction use to delay or stop development.

Yesterday’s four-hour meeting, which I covered live on Bluesky, featured the kind of over-the-top rhetoric that has long characterized debates about housing in Seattle. Public commenters who opposed new housing, mostly older white homeowners, argued that denser housing harms the environment by removing individual trees when homeowners sell their houses to developers (opponents refer to these lawn-based tree removals as “clear-cutting”), and contribute to climate change that kills salmon, orcas, and birds.

Although opponents have repeatedly raised the specter of Seattle turning into New York City (the horror!) the comprehensive plan, currently delayed indefinitely by an appeal that began at the hearing examiner’s office, would in fact allow modest new density in a few dozen small areas citywide, all within a block or two of major transit stops.

One speaker suggested that the city just convert all the vacant commercial buildings downtown into housing and let renters live there. (This isn’t really a new idea: “Solutions” that involve moving all renters into segregated areas are exactly what we have now, with new rental housing mostly confined to highways and busy arterial roads). Another said councilmembers who supported Lin’s appeal reform bill are just like Trump, because they’re taking away the civil rights of local density opponents the same way Trump is taking away the civil rights of Black voters and immigrants.

Councilmember Rob Saka, a former Facebook attorney and Air Force veteran who proposed an amendment to Lin’s bill that would have restored the appeals the underlying legislation sought to eliminate, also invoked “civil rights” in a speech excoriating his colleagues for violating “fundamental due process rights, free speech rights, the right of people to petition their government for redress of grievances. These rights form the bedrock of our democracy, and these rights are enshrined in our Constitution,” Saka said.

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Later, after Lin confirmed with a staffer that there’s no Constitutional right to appeal land-use legislation to a hearing examiner in Seattle, Saka said, “Even if it’s not a right, we heard dozens of people today say, from their perspective, that it is a right.” As I noted yesterday, that is not actually a point—just because a political faction uses highfalutin language about “rights” and “democracy,” that doesn’t mean their feelings trump the law. Allowing property owners to endlessly delay housing for renters by appealing land-use changes is arguably pretty anti-democratic in itself, especially when it halts legislation before the public legislative process can begin.

After Saka’s amendment failed (even Maritza Rivera voted against it), the final vote ended up being a nail-biter. Rivera, the council’s most consistent opponent of pro-housing legislation, said she of course wants to see more housing, but doesn’t support “taking something away” from her constituents. Debora Juarez, a former elected councilmember who was appointed to serve out Cathy Moore’s term last year, said she wanted to “err on the side of giving a little bit more… because that’s due process, and that’s what the people want.”

Bob Kettle, who represents downtown, Queen Anne, and Magnolia, ended up casting the surprise swing vote (Joy Hollingsworth, who abstained from voting in committee, voted no), but not before chiding housing proponents, mostly younger renters, for using rhetoric he called inappropriate.

Kettle says it's not "right to declare our neighbors are weaponizing" the appeals process because of the war in Iran and the gun violence epidemic. Of course he is only chiding people on the pro-housing side. The anti-housing folks have been vitriolic, but he isn't tone policing them.

— Erica C. Barnett (@ericacbarnett.bsky.social) 2026-07-29T00:35:34.683Z

Lin, who’s emerging as a pro-housing star on the council, said little before the final vote, which took place at nearly 6:30pm. Earlier in the meeting, however, he did take a moment to respond to commenters who likened new housing to toxic waste and highway expansions. “I don’t think housing and future residents are toxic waste or pollution that need to be studied for years and years and years on end,” Lin said. “I believe housing is a human right.”

Although yesterday’s 5-4 vote to eliminate hearing examiner appeals won’t prevent housing opponents from challenging land use changes in court or to the state Growth Management Hearings Board, the change will allow the legislative process to move forward during appeals, and puts Seattle in line with Bellevue, Everett, King County, Tacoma, King County, and many other local jurisdictions that don’t allow this kind of pre-legislative appeal.

City Council, Density, Mayor Wilson, Poverty, Transit

This Week on PubliCola: July 18, 2026

A marathon debate over transit funding, Katie Wilson’s flight patterns, a bill that would limit endless land-use appeals, and more news from the past week.

Monday, July 13

Seattle Nice Discusses Mayor Katie Wilson’s Track Record at Six Months

On the first of two podcast episodes this week, we discussed how the mayor is doing at six months, focusing on her approach to encampment sweeps (she’s doing them), her progress toward her shelter goals (falling short, but better than her predecessor Bruce Harrell), and the likelihood of budget cuts this year (thanks in large part to spending commitments Harrell made, without regard for future budget impacts, right before the 2025 election.)

Tuesday, July 14

Voting “Yes” On Prop. 1 Will Fund the Library System We Deserve

Guest columnist Brittney Moraski, who’s the advocacy chair for the Seattle Public Library Foundation Board, makes the case for the August library levy measure, which will expand collections, spiff up the aging downtown library, and fund programs like No Late Fines and Peak Picks—not to mentiona quarter of the library’s staff.

Seattle May Actually Limit Anti-Housing Land Use Appeals

Legislation from Councilmember Eddie Lin would get rid of land-use appeals to the city’s hearing examiner, which currently give people who oppose density the ability to stop zoning legislation and comprehensive plan updates in their tracks. The bill would still leave two other post-legislative appeal options open.

More People Will be Eligible for Utility Discounts

City Councilmember Dan Strauss’ legislation expanding eligibility for the city’s Utility Discount Program, which provides deep discounts to ratepayers who qualify, passed easily this week.

Wednesday, July 15

As Mayor, Katie Wilson Doesn’t Travel Much. When She Does, You’ll Find Her in 23F.

Unlike her predecessor Bruce Harrell, who spent large chunks of his term traveling, along with his wife, to conferences and junkets around the nation and world, Mayor Wilson has only left Seattle on city business two times in her first six months, and only once on the city dime. Also unlike her predecessor, Wilson travels in coach—Harrell used his personal wealth to pay for first-class upgrades, including five-figure plane tickets and five-star hotels.

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Thursday, July 16

Land Use Appeal Reform Moves Forward

The land use appeal reform bill we covered earlier in the week passed out of the land use committee, and heads to an uncertain vote at the full council.

Council Splits on Funding for School Meals

The city council appears to be split on a Families and Education Levy spending proposal from Joy Hollingsworth and Dionne Foster that would delay funding for universal school meals, which Wilson previously identified as one of her key accomplishments, and use the money instead to pay for take-home food vouchers for low-income kids. Eddie Lin told us it would take a lot to convince him to vote against universal school meals.

Friday, July 17

After Marathon Meeting, Council Committee Passes Wilson’s Transit Measure Mostly Intact

It took almost three and a half hours of speeches (and one called question—someone on the council’s reading Robert’s Rules!) but a committee of all nine council members ended up approving Mayor Wilson’s proposed transit sales measure mostly intact. Proposals to cut the size and duration of the tax failed, and there are lots of directives to report on this and that, but chalk this one up as a victory for the mayor. Once it passes full council, the proposal will head to voters in November.

Seattle Nice: Taxing for Transit, Nude Beach Ruling, and Mayor Wilson’s Frugal Flights

On the second episode of Seattle Nice this week, we talked about that marathon transit discussion, along with my story on Wilson’s travel and a court ruling this week that will allow the nude beach at Denny Blaine Park to remain nude, but not “lewd.”

Also this week:

I was a guest on Rachel Horgan’s The Weekly podcast, where I talked about what it takes to sustain a podcast long-term, the story of how Josh and I founded this independent news site in 2009 and how my business model works now, and what’s been going on in Seattle politics lately. Rachel covers local business news and a lot more every week.

If you’d like to read an entertaining blow-by-blow of Thursday’s big transit tax debate, I covered it live, in way more detail, on Bluesky.

 

City Council, Density, housing, Utilities

Seattle May Actually Limit Anti-Housing Land Use Appeals; More People Will be Eligible for Utility Discounts

 

1. The Seattle City Council’s land use committee will vote tomorrow on a proposal, from Councilmember Eddie Lin, to eliminate an appeals process that allows activists to halt pro-density legislation before it becomes law. Currently, anyone can stop or delay city land use decisions by filing an appeal with the city hearing examiner under the State Environmental Policy Act, arguing that the city hasn’t done enough environmental review before proposing legislation that would change city land use law.

Speaking to PubliCola on Tuesday, Lin said the vast majority of appeals are filed by a relatively small group of activists and attorneys with long experience appealing  complicated land use laws.

“The fact that we often see the same people appeal  again and again shows that 99 percent of Seattleites, if not 99.9 percent, do not find [hearing examiner appeals] a way to engage” on land use issues, Lin said. “This is a small number of people engagnig who have the resources” to file complex legal appeals.

Lin’s legislation would remove the right to appeal land use decisions to a hearing examiner, requiring opponents of land use legislation to appeal directly to the state Growth Management Hearings Board or King County Superior Court. Eliminating the local appeals process allows legislation to go into effect while the activists and lawyers appeal through the other two available avenues. Had the legislation been in place when the council took up the remaining parts of the long-overdue Comprehensive Plan update, the council would have spent the last few months meeting to discuss important amendments to the plan; instead, it’s stalled until next year at the earliest.

“I’ve never been a big fan of our SEPA appeals process,” Lin said. “I’ve seen the decades-long delays [it caused] to Fort Lawton housing and the Burke-Gilman Trail,” two projects that have been stalled for years by a seemingly endless series of environmental appeals. (Opponents argue that it’s better for the environment to move cyclists next to a busy arterial roadway rather than the current path where, it just so happens, a lot of industrial businesses like to drive their trucks.)

Activists lined up earlier this month to denounce the legislation as a reckless giveaway to developers that would allow them to “clearcut” Seattle, sacrificing trees, orcas and birds to apartments in Seattle’s suburban-style single-family neighborhoods. The land use committee will discuss Lin’s proposal tomorrow at 9:30; so far, there’s just one amendment, from Council President Joy Hollingsworth. It would add a 30-day public comment period to every land use decision that would be exempted from hearing examiner appeals by Lin’s legislation.

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2. On Tuesday, the council approved legislation PubliCola covered last month that aims to increase participation in the city’s Utility Discount Program by increasing the threshold for eligibility from 70 percent of the state median income to 60 percent of Seattle’s muchhigher median income next year, with two more bumps—to 70 percent  of Seattle median in 2027 and 80 percent in 2028. Both those increases will require separate legislation.

The bill’s sponsor, Dan Strauss, initially seemed surprised at the lack of controversy surrounding the proposal, which would result in slight utility rate increases and would make UDP one of the easiest income-based programs to apply for. A press availability to discuss the bill (and other topics) enticed just one reporter (me), and the vote on Tuesday was unanimous—and even followed by a rare burst of applause for every council member.

One challenge the program has faced is getting more eligible people to sign up; at the end of last year, only about 36 percent of eligible Seattle residents were participating in the program. To apply, visit the city’s Utility Discount Program page.

City Council, Density, homelessness, Mayor Wilson, Media

This Week on PubliCola: July 4, 2026
KCRHA CEO Kelly Kinnison

KCRHA contracts yanked, opponents rail against plan to eliminate one avenue for challenging density, news vouchers pushed back a year, and much more.

Monday, June 29

KCRHA Spins the News that Homelessness Is Growing

At a meeting of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority’s governing board, KCRHA leaders put a positive spin on the news that more people are homeless in the region than ever, noting that the overall rate of increase has slowed. As we discussed on the Seattle Nice podcast, however, unsheltered homelessness grew substantially, making Seattle an outlier among US cities.

Tuesday, June 30

News Vouchers Delayed Until 2027

Mayor Katie Wilson’s office confirmed this week that a planned ballot measure to fund local, independent journalism has been delayed a year; initially, the mayor’s office had planned to introduce a proposal this summer.

Stranger’s Editor Out

The Stranger’s editor, Hannah Murphy Winter, was fired this week after two years on the job. The timing—one day before the paper released its primary election endorsements—sparked speculation, but the decision seemed to be unrelated to the endorsements.

Ex-Cop Fired for Punching Handcuffed Woman Involved in Fracas at Pride

Adley Shepherd, a former SPD officer who was fired after punching a woman who was handcuffed in the back of his police car, was apparently providing security for a street preacher at a Pride event when a melee erupted, ending when someone restrained Shepherd to break up the brawl. Shepherd appears to have been standing on someone’s wheelchair, ignoring people who asked him to let the person move.

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Wednesday, July 1

Regional Homelessness Agency “Right-Sizing” Will Largely Restore Pre-KCRHA Status Quo

King County Executive Girmay Zahilay and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced they’ll transfer the region’s homelessness contracts back to the city and county, effectively ending the King County Regional Homelessness Authority as it has existed for the past five years. Although both demurred when asked if the authority was a failure, KCRHA CEO Kelly Kinnison told reporters, “As it was launched, [KCRHA] is a failed experiment.”

Thursday, July 2

“Ballard is an Environmental Disaster”: Opponents Rail Against Plan to Eliminate One Avenue for Land Use Appeals

A public hearing on a proposal to eliminate one of several avenues for appealing city land use decisions drew the usual crowd of opponents, who argued that allowing more housing for renters in Seattle would kill orcas, “clear-cut” the city, and lead to dangerous urban heat islands. They also testified against planting new trees, arguing that saplings do nothing compared to existing trees.

Friday, July 4

Proposal to Temporarily Cut Fees on New Housing Is Dead (For Now)

In an 11th-hour decision, Mayor Katie Wilson decided not to propose legislation that would temporarily reduce fees on new market-rate housing that help fund affordable housing projects, saying the proposal needed more process. Housing development has fallen off a cliff in the last year, and developers asked for a two-year, 80 percent discount on the fees so that projects that are currently in limbo could move forward.

Council Amendments Would Slash Transit Funding Plan, Subject Measure to Annual Council Vote

The city council has its hands on Mayor Katie Wilson’s proposal to increase the sales tax that funds additional King County Metro bus service in Seattle, and some councilmembers are asking for major changes. Bob Kettle wants to cut the tax to a level that will require cuts to service, and Rob Saka wants to divert funding for service hours to transit police and security officers on buses.

Also this week: On the latest episode of Seattle Nice, posted today, we discussed the big KCRHA news and what it means for the future of the region’s homelessness system, and the arguments for and against giving developers a break on affordable housing fees.