Under one new bill up for a vote Tuesday, sidewalk repair and installation would be a mandatory part of any major paving project (Image: SDOT)

It is the final week of the legislative calendar for the Seattle City Council in 2023 — and the final days at City Hall for some outgoing incumbents including District 3’s Kshama Sawant who will wrap up her years on the council with a “Ten Years of a Socialist in Office” celebration Thursday night on Capitol Hill. In January, the Central District’s Joy Hollingsworth will be sworn-in for Sawant’s D3 seat after her decisive victory in the November election.

In the meantime, there is some final work to attend to including Tuesday’s final full council meeting for the current members. The winter recess will run from December 18th through January 1st when staff will be working to get the new council offices up and running.

• Climate change bill: Tuesday’s full council meeting will include a vote on legislation officials say will “dramatically lower the carbon footprint of existing large buildings in Seattle.” The bill aims to achieve net-zero building emissions by 2050 by establishing emissions reduction targets for buildings greater than 20,000 square feet, measuring and verifying greenhouse gas emissions, helping building owners create decarbonization plans, and establishing fees. The proposal impacts around 4,100 existing buildings around the city including a handful of school, health, and residential buildings around Capitol Hill and the Central District. The standards would be phased in over five-year intervals with the city’s largest structures first on the list.
• Sidewalk legislation: The council Tuesday will also take a final vote on legislation to help repair and improve the city’s existing sidewalks and create new sidewalks where they don’t exist by tying improvements to road projects. Under the proposed legislation, the Seattle Department of Transportation would add missing sidewalks or fix any sidewalk deficiencies whenever they undertake a major paving project. According to the council, Seattle is missing roughly 11,000 blocks of sidewalks and there are 154,000 deficiencies in sidewalks citywide. While the need is obvious, the additional work will further bog down SDOT’s already sluggish timelines and add news costs to projects. “Specific costs will need to be determined for individual projects and addressed in future budget development,” a memo on the proposed legislation reads.
• Small business lease protections: Also on the docket Tuesday are proposals to protect small business owners. The proposed legislation would limit personal liability to the first two years of rent payments, limit the value of aggregate security deposits and letters-of-credit liability, and require landlords to provide information to current tenants about the new law. One of the main goals of the bill is to protect personal liability of small business owners taking on commercial leases by limiting the liability and making sure information about a lease and its risks are fully disclosed by landlords.
• Updating taxi and rideshare rules: Tuesday’s final full council meeting of 2023 will also include a vote on a suite of three bills that would update regulations for taxis and rideshares, aligning local regulations with state law and promoting regulatory flexibility for drivers. “The updates also reflect years of extensive stakeholder engagement, including surveys and input from drivers, companies, and advocacy groups,” a council brief on the bills reads. You can view a presentation on the three proposed bills here (PDF).

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