Many of Seattle’s most influential business and community organizations have formed a coalition calling on Mayor Bruce Harrell and the Seattle City Council to adopt more ambitious growth goals and increase housing density more thoroughly — and more equitably — across the city.

Co-chaired by leadership of Futurewise and the Housing Development Consortium, the Complete Communities Coalition including the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Habitat for Humanity, House Our Neighbors, the NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association, and Seattle growth and development advocacy and media organization The Urbanist is calling for the city’s proposed update to its 20-year comprehensive growth plan to “reform zoning rules and housing policies to allow more homes of all shapes and sizes,” “incentivize affordable housing and homeownership,” “build upon our recent historic, nearly $1 billion investment in affordable housing, the Seattle Housing Levy.”

At its core, the group says it is calling on city leaders to shape the next growth plan to extend new state law House Bill 1110 legalizing “the creation of cottage homes, townhomes, duplexes, triplexes, and other midrise multifamily housing types in single-family zones” into all areas of the city — not just areas where density has been clustered under past zoning.

The coalition is also asking for the final plan to fully do away with parking requirements, saying “requirements for off-street parking in several residential areas will make desperately needed units less likely to be built.”

Other groups have also criticized the proposal. CHS reported here on transportation and housing groups backing a roster of demands to call for both the new Comprehensive Plan and the upcoming Transportation Levy to do more including a more fair distribution of growth across the city that would include allowing “midrise housing (4-8 stories) and mixed uses in all residential areas within walking distance of frequent transit” instead of restricting it to limited pockets as the current proposal lays out.

CHS reported here on the Harrell administration comp plan proposal that will continue to lean hard on the densest cores of Capitol Hill and the Central District while making small steps forward in allowing multifamily-style housing across the city.

The proposal would continue many of the development patterns that have shaped modern Seattle. Nearly 70% of new construction expected under the draft plan would be constrained to “Regional Centers,” the plan’s new designation for the city’s most densely populated, high transit areas — Downtown, Lower Queen Anne, South Lake Union, University District, Northgate, Ballard, and, of course, First Hill and Capitol Hill — or less dense but still highly developed areas now called “Urban Centers” instead of “Urban Villages.” 23rd Ave from Union to Jackson is one nearby example. The “Madison–Miller” area north of E Madison is another.

Under the draft plan, the Capitol Hill-First Hill area of the city is projected to add 9,000 new housing units — second to only downtown — and 3,000 new jobs.

Zoning in many of these areas like Capitol Hill would remain capped at eight stories though there could be allowances for taller development near light rail stations.

Seattle’s plan was first adopted in 1994. The current version, a 600-page document called Seattle 2035, was adopted in 2016, though it has been amended several times since then, most recently in 2021. The new plan in development has been shaped with community partners — including the newly Seattle Urbane League-enveloped Capitol Hill EcoDistrict in District 3 — and has been christened the “One Seattle Plan,” extending the Harrell administration’s use of the theme throughout its planning.

The draft plan would include changes for every level of zoning designation in the city.

The majority of the city’s land will remain under its lightest zoning designation now dubbed “Urban Neighborhood.” Areas like this including North Capitol Hill and a Central District zoning island around Squire Park will shift to accommodate the state’s new state middle housing mandate legislation that requires replacing single-family zoning with fourplex zoning while setting a base at sixplexes near frequent transit. Under the draft plan, Seattle would propose to soften the new state mandate with lower density requirements in areas of the city the Office of Planning and Community Development has identified as at high risk of displacement.

“Neighborhoods in and around the Central Area have continued to see very large decreases in the numbers of Black residents,” the plan reads. “Other neighborhoods with large shifts include Beacon Hill and Seward Park, where the Asian population has continued to decrease. Furthermore, the number of Hispanic and Latino residents counted in South Park decreased between 2010 and 2020 in significant contrast to this population’s growth in the neighborhood between 1990 and 2010.”

There is also a new zoning designation that will define some of these residential areas as “Neighborhood Centers” with potential areas of increased density.

The designation would be limited to extend out only about 800 feet from a commercial core but would “allow residential and mixed-use buildings up to 6 stories in the core and 4- and 5-story residential buildings toward the edges,” according to the draft plan.

The draft plan’s “Place Types” map shows 24 such Neighborhood Centers in the city including Madison Park, Madison Valley, Madrona, and Montlake.

The city has launched engage.oneseattleplan.com to share details and collect comments.

The Seattle City Council will need to approve the plan later this year. D3’s Joy Hollingsworth has said she supports gating the city’s growth goals in areas including the Central District to help slow displacement and gentrification and slowing development in areas of Capitol Hill.

A Environmental Impact process is also underway around the plan. The “story maps” for the alternatives presented in the proposed impact statement provide the most specific details about the areas potentially impacted by the proposals. You can review those maps here.

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