The Seattle City Council’s land use committee will discuss a proposal Wednesday afternoon that would create a new pilot program linking community organizations with developers to create affordable “equitable development” in neighborhoods across the city.

The “Connected Communities” proposal from land use chair Tammy Morales would create a pilot program that would run through 2029 or create 35 housing developments — whichever comes first — by pairing “community-based organizations with limited development experience” with nonprofit and for-profit developers “for development of low- and moderate-income housing with neighborhood serving equitable development uses,” according to a council memo (PDF) on the plan.

The program would ease the path for the projects by providing density bonuses “and other regulatory incentives.”

The pilot would “encourage equitable development, creating low-to-moderate-income housing ,social housing, and undo some of the damage created by historical redlining,” a briefing on the proposal reads.

Morales’s office says the program would also help solve some of the issues of funded equitable and affordable development getting bogged down by a regulatory environment “that can hinder, delay, complicate, and add cost to these projects.”

It could also extend multifamily housing development into more diverse swaths of the city. The pilot would be active in zones that allow residential uses throughout the city excluding downtown “with additional development capacity available in Office of Housing Community Preference area census tracts and areas with historical racially restrictive covenants.”

The proposed program would “demonstrate the social benefits of equitable development with community serving uses and housing available to a spectrum of household incomes through onsite affordability standards.” It would also provide incentives for housing and equitable development uses “through partnership between public, private, and/or community-based organizations.”

The program would also include affordability requirements that would either guarantee 30% of the housing to be developed as “moderate income” units — “a dwelling unit that, for a minimum period of at least 50 years, is a restricted unit affordable to and reserved solely for families with annual incomes not to exceed 80 percent of median income for rental units or 100 percent of median income for ownership units — or development of the property under the guidelines of the newly created Social Housing Public Development Authority.

In that regard, the Connected Communities pilot could represent yet another pathway to create housing under the authority in addition to the newly proposed $53 million a year business payroll tax ballot initiative.

The new pilot proposal continues the effort started on the council last year by Morales to create “equitable development zoning” in Seattle to help organizations navigate the city’s regulations while building community projects, housing, and centers.

An example project that could benefit from the changes, the backers say, is the William Grose Center for Cultural Innovation and Enterprise, Africatown’s center for “economic empowerment and community-driven development” that transformed the former Fire Station 6 at 23rd and Yesler.

Proponents says the city’s existing code limits the allowed uses and development, adds costs due to fees and requirements, creates delays, and requires special expertise for the community organizations behind the projects.

Equitable development zoning would help reduce some regulations but also provide resources to help organizations navigate the challenges.

Wednesday’s meeting of the land use committee will be the first public discussion of the Connected Communities pilot proposal. There is no date, yet, for when the committee might vote on the legislation.

HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.