CALL TO ACTION: The City needs to hear from You on “One Seattle Plan”

Comments due by Friday, December 20, 2024

The City’s proposed One Seattle Plan will impact all residents whether owner, renter or occupant. Please take this opportunity to add your voice in deciding how our community is going to change over the next 20 years. 

What & Why?

Passed in 2023 by the State Legislature, HB 1110 allows at least 4 units on all residential lots in Seattle.  It also allows at least 6 units on all residential lots if a.) located within a 1/4 mile (2 blocks) of a “major transit stop” such as light rail or rapid ride, or b.) at least 2 are affordable units.  Seattle is required to adopt zoning in compliance with these new requirements by June 30, 2025.  The City’s proposal is called “Seattle One Plan,” and it further upzones beyond the State’s mandate various areas of the city, including within Wallingford.  WCC has noted articles by a number of city and housing advocates who have called into question the mayor’s request to change zoning to allow for more than twice as many housing “units” than either HB1110 or other population projections prescribe.

We need more density.  We need livability.  We think Seattle can have both.  The city has shared maps and a proposal.  The WCC has spent considerable time reviewing and assessing the One Plan’s new proposed growth strategy. It is complicated, even for those versed in prior zoning efforts. 
Here are a few recommendations that we think would help us, as a city, to increase housing while keeping livable.

Ask for Density with Livability: 

  • Utilize capacity along 45th east/west where there are already existing commercial zoning at NC2-55 and NC2- P75 in the Wallingford business district.
  • In the Tangletown proposed Neighborhood Commercial Center, create transitions by stepping up from NR (single family) gradually, using LR1 to L2, and reduce the number of blocks leading up to the NC2-55 and NC2-65 in the business core. This allows for increasing density while also keeping eight and six story structures from being built next to two story houses.
  • Avoid “canyon effect” with taller buildings through good urban design. For avenues and streets that are being upzoned to 5 to 8+ stories, ask that the sidewalks be widened, setbacks honored and expanded, and the buildings themselves be designed to set back the mass at maximum height to avoid overcrowding the corridor and creating a canyon effect. Street canyon effect has well documented negative mental, physical and environmental health consequences.
  • NR (formerly Single Family) setbacks: Ask that the proposed front setbacks in NR be enforced at 10 feet from sidewalks as proposed, and remove the proposal to allow porches in the setback. The NR setbacks are proposed to be reduced from 20 feet front setbacks in single family to 10 feet in NR zones. This setback should be reserved for planting new trees lost during redevelopment, and to allow for longer periods of sunlight to reach the ground.
  • Front setbacks in LR1, 2, and 3 are 7 feet average and 5 feet minimum. Ask that these setbacks be increased to allow more tree replacement as many arterials slated for LR3 along frequent transit have either no parking strips or very narrow ones that are not conducive to tree planting, nor to longer periods of sunlight at the ground level.
  • Do not Upzone narrow tree-lined streets in Wallingford. Reject the plan to upzone lots facing “frequent transit” arterials on remaining single family 5,000 square foot lots or smaller through the Wallingford neighborhood to LR3. In this plan, Bus routes 31, 32, and 62 trigger an additional upzone. Specifically, do not upzone using LR3 allowing 50 foot, 5 to 6 story buildings in an older neighborhood with narrow tree lined streets and existing homes with heights of less than 3 stories /30 foot heights. Ask city to reduce the LR3 proposal at 50 feet/ 5 stories on frequent transit arterials to NR or LR1 at 30 feet, which are more compatible with existing heights.

Ask for Density with Affordability:

  • Ask the city to extend the MHA program to apply MHA fees when the result is exclusively market units in NR areas (Neighborhood Residential). Thousands of formerly single-family lots are being converted by HB1110 to multi-family allowing 4-6 units per 5,000 square foot lots city wide. A loophole exists that allows a builder to “opt out” of building additional affordable units, scrape a lot, and build only market rate units. The HB1110 state mandate includes OPTIONS for developers to add extra units voluntarily above the allowable four units. Developers can include “affordable units” that meet requirements of 60% AMI for renters and 80% AMI for home ownership for 50 years, but this is the developer’s choice. The builder can simply choose to build 4 units or fewer at market rate on a 5,000 square foot lot and “opt out” of building any affordable units. Currently, MHA fees are charged in ALL Low-rise 1, 2, 3 and higher zones, but not the NR zones.
  • Additionally, ask for the City to review MHA fees to keep pace with building costs so more money goes into the City’s fund for affordable housing.

Ask for Density with Quality of Life

  • Ask the City to explain how it plans to pay for investment in infrastructure to support the additional density, especially in areas that are being upzoned beyond what HB1110 allows such as the proposed “Neighborhood Commercial Centers” and “frequent transit arterial” upzones as per the Mayor’s plan.
  • Ask the City to explain both how the State’s HB1110 will impact property taxes, and how the City’s proposed additional upzones will impact the current residents of Wallingford, renters and owners alike? Upzoning increases property taxes by adding “potential housing” capacity on individual lots which affects property taxes, affordability and increases the risk of economic displacement and gentrification.
  • Ask the City to explain how this plan “meets the challenges of climate change for a resilient future.”

Talk to family, friends and neighbors – everyone is encouraged to email opinions, experiences, and/or questions about development and the Seattle One Plan to our elected officials no later than Friday, December 20, 2024.

Email Your Comments to:

oneseattleplan.zoning@seattle.gov

and copy

Be sure to include your zip code!

The public comment deadline is Friday, December 20th, 2024. Your voice matters, and this is a crucial opportunity to shape the future of our community.

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