There are petitions in Madrona and letters from angry realtors.

“We are welcoming any and all feedback,” Anthony Derrick, chief of staff to District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth tells CHS about the ongoing process the council member is leading to forge an update to the city’s comprehensive plan and new zoning across its neighborhoods. “With the law, the city is going to see some massive density changes.”

Wednesday afternoon, the Seattle City Council committee Hollingsworth leads formed to take on the nearly impossible task of reaching compromise on Seattle’s comprehensive plan update will meet.

A report on displacement, a core issue for Hollingsworth who grew up watching her Central District neighborhood struggle with gentrification, is on the agenda. But the important statistics and challenges raised in the presentation on the city’s Anti-Displacement Action Plan (PDF) might get lost.

The second half of Wednesday’s meeting will focus on public engagement around the comprehensive plan update — including the city’s meetings on the update it has been hosting since 2022.

Protests and pushback from a growing chorus of property, business, and homeowners from across the city and District 3 are becoming louder as a key February 5th public forum on the comprehensive plan update proposal approaches.

In Madrona, groups are forming to oppose upzoning in the neighborhood as Seattle leaders say more areas of the city must rise to meet state required changes hoped to address growing housing and affordability challenges.

The Madrona neighborhood, they argue, should be treated differently than the rest of the city when it comes to efforts to increase density.

“LR3 zoning would forever alter and potentially erase the historic character and charm of the existing, tiny business district and neighborhood, where many homes are over 100 years old and lovingly maintained,” a new petition against the rezoning plan concludes.

567 people have signed — so far.

Hollingsworth’s office faces a major political challenge.

On one hand, the clock is ticking. Mayor Bruce Harrell needs a plan in place this year meeting the requirements of the 2023-passed state law HB 1110 that requires, for most intents and purposes, the elimination of single-family zoning in cities across the state. Hollingsworth, as head of the committee, is now in charge of forging a compromise across the entire city.

On the other, there is Madrona and other constituents of her home District 3. Not all are fighting the needed upzoning. But the neighborhood-level priorities are a significant challenge for the process.

Hollingsworth’s office is wrestling with an unprecedented legislative challenge in Seattle’s history of comp plan updates.

“This is the first time considering with districts,” Derrick says, citing Seattle’s 2015 switch in how it elected its city council. “We have a lot more of an ear on the ground, a lot more connection to the community.”

And a lot more political risk is on the line.

The Madrona pushback includes what could be a powerful bloc of real estate pros, the Urbanist reports. The expected any day now Final Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed comprehensive plan update could also be the target of “predatory appeal.”

A core element of the proposal being targeted surrounds the creation of 30 new “neighborhood centers” across the city including D3’s Madison Park, Madison Valley, Montlake, and Madrona.

The new zoning designation that would define portions of these areas as Neighborhood Centers with areas of increased density:

Neighborhood Centers are places with a diversity of housing options located around a locally focused commercial core and/or access to frequent transit. Neighborhood Centers in many cases represent the core of a neighborhood providing shops, services, grocery stores, restaurants, and other businesses that residents need to access on a regular basis. These areas provide an opportunity for people to access everyday needs within a short walk or bike ride from their homes. Allowing more housing in these areas can increase opportunities to live in complete connected neighborhoods, strengthen local businesses districts, and help people reduce reliance on cars.

“Neighborhood centers should generally encompass areas within 800 feet, or one to three blocks, of the central intersection or transit stop,” the city’s summary says.

The designation could “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 a plan draft — but Hollingsworth’s office sees room here to compromise.

“I hope people embrace and understand so much of the density is baked in to the state plan,” Derrick said. “But we will consider how, exactly, we implement.”

So much of the debate around the update is focused on change in neighborhoods like Madrona but the new growth plan is not a reinvention of the city as we know it today and 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 designation for the city’s most densely populated, high transit areas — Downtown, Lower Queen Anne, South Lake Union, University District, Northgate, Ballard, and First Hill and Capitol Hill — or less dense but still highly developed areas like 23rd Ave from Union to Jackson.

Derrick says Hollingsworth’s office is looking at how best to meet the state’s new requirements for Seattle zoning while also fine tuning where, exactly, the lines are drawn.

“We’re talking about where we want density to exist,” Derrick said. “A place that is designated as a neighborhood center, drawing lines on the map, the block by block implementation.”

“There’s the potential for there still to be a neighborhood center but for that to be zoned with lower heights.”

How that compromise can be worked out meeting the state mandates effectively eliminating single-family zoning restrictions while also meeting calls from those like the Madrona groups is yet to be seen. Would a neighborhood center zoned with lower heights still be a neighborhood center?

Already, Hollingsworth and city officials say feedback on the growth plan has been used to boost the number of Neighborhood Centers, increase density in the plan, adjust its approach to displacement to be more uniform across the city, and reduce parking requirements in the plan. Those changes will be mostly cheered by urbanists. Expect more changes to address those asking for slower growth in the city.

LIke most good local government process, phases could buy Hollingsworth and everybody at Seattle City Hall time.

Following the February 5th hearing, Hollingsworth and the Seattle City Council will consider what they are calling Phase 1 of the legislation that will finalize the structure of the comprehensive plan and Neighborhood Residential updates to implement HB 1110. That’s the part that will say “Neighborhood Centers” exist — or they don’t — and these are the parameters.

The compromises over drawing the actual lines will be pushed into summer as the council considers Phase 2 including rezones for the new Neighborhood Centers, new and expanded Regional and Urban Centers, and “select arterial rezones along frequent transit routes.”

Derrick says Hollingsworth’s team is ready to listen.

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