Here are a few notable items from this week’s legislative activities at Seattle’s City Hall:

• Seattle Social Housing Developer Board appointments: The council made its first ever appointments to the board formed to organize the city’s newly approved Seattle Social Housing Public Development Authority. The City Council approved the nominations of real estate and housing expert Julie Howe of the University of Washington and Alexander Lew, a Senior Transportation Planner at Sound Transit, in Tuesday’s session. CHS reported here on the effort to fill the board after I-135’s victory in the February special election established a public developer to acquire and take over management of existing properties for affordable housing while also developing new projects. Under the initiative, the board will also include a MLK Labor representative, a rep from El Centro de la Raza, a green development professional from the city’s Green New Deal Oversight Board, plus the two reps appointed by the City Council and another picked by Mayor Bruce Harrell. Board members “representing residents, community organizations, and the labor representative” will be paid for their work. The members will spend up to 20 hours a month helping establish the new PDA.
• Tree protection legislation: The council’s efforts to improve tree and canopy protections in the city continues to draw criticism that the rules are unwieldy and would hinder much needed housing development. Council committees met twice on the proposals this week council staff says “would create incentives and code flexibility to better protect trees, include more trees in the regulations, plant / replace more trees, and establish a payment in-lieu program to provide flexibility for tree replacement and address racial inequities and environmental justice disparities, amongst other changes.” CHS reported on the proposals — and issues — here.
• Human services wages: The council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee is taking on an effort to increase pay for human service workers in the city and with city contractors. Council staff says there is a 37% wage gap between non-profit human services workers and workers in non-care industries, which would take a 59% wage increase to close. The committee discussed steps to address the wage issues Tuesday.

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