Tag Archives: climate change

Seattle City Council notes: ‘Net-zero’ big building bill, sidewalk repair legislation, small business lease protections

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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. Continue reading →

Seattle considers plan for its 4,000+ largest buildings to be ‘net-zero’ by 2050

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(Image: City of Seattle)

Estimates show Seattle’s buildings are responsible for about 37% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the city. A new proposal would raise the standards on the city’s largest buildings to speed up efforts to address climate pollution.

Wednesday, the Seattle City Council’s Committee on Climate Action will consider legislation that would “dramatically lower the carbon footprint of existing large buildings in Seattle,” according to a briefing on the bill.

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 plan would impact around 4,100 existing buildings larger than 20,000 square feet 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. Continue reading →

After summer’s ‘unprecedented stretch of dry weather,’ Seattle residents urged to conserve 49 million gallons of water per day

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With the Puget Sound about to be walloped by its first bout of true Pacific Northwest-level fall and winter rains, Seattle Public Utilities is putting out a call for help that shows just how close the region is cutting it in terms of water supply after an extremely dry summer.

Citing “an unprecedented stretch of dry weather” this summer, SPU is asking residents to cut down on things like showers, watering lawns and flowers, and more as drought conditions have taxed the city’s water supply. SPU says the goal is to drop the average water consumption for the region to 100 million gallons per day and “keep it at or below that level until we get enough rain to refill the mountain reservoirs sufficiently.”

The region is currently averaging use of about 149 million gallons per day, according to SPU. Continue reading →

Group slams mayor for ‘pressing pause’ on climate change legislation targeting emissions standards for city’s buildings — UPDATE

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CORRECTION: The proposed standards would be applied to existing buildings, not new construction as CHS originally reported.

The REN apartment tower (Image: REN)

Environmental advocacy group 350 Seattle is criticizing Mayor Bruce Harrell for “pressing pause” on what it says is key legislation to address climate change in the city through improving requirements for energy savings and more in existing development new construction.

Harrell rolled out his administration’s version of the Building Emissions Performance Standards legislation this summer with a press conference touting his commitment to addressing greenhouse emissions and climate change. Buildings represent the fastest-growing source of climate pollution in Washington. While new construction is already guided by regulations and programs that cut emissions, older stock isn’t currently held to these kinds of environmental standards.

But Harrell’s office failed to transmit the proposal to the Seattle City Council before its August recess which would have allowed the bill to be voted on September. 350 Seattle says it doesn’t want to see the administration further weaken the effort to put the new standards in place: Continue reading →

City Council considering more than 50 amendments to Seattle’s tree protections

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Interlaken Park (Image: City of Seattle)

The Seattle City Council’s Land Use Committee has a marathon session in store Thursday as it tackles updating the city’s tree protections.

Council staff says the tree legislation is being tackled in two meetings Thursday including a morning session and an afternoon round to vote on over 50 amendments being proposed for the updated legislation.

The draft bill 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.” Continue reading →

Broadway banks targeted in ‘climate justice’ demonstrations

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(Image: 350 Seattle)

A couple Broadway banks were targeted Tuesday as part of climate justice demonstrations across Seattle and the country.

Groups including 350 Seattle say they organized the protests to bring attention to “Wall Street’s Continued Financing of Climate Destruction.”

Tuesday’s shutdowns included a joint action from 350 Seattle forced a temporary closure at the Wells Fargo at Broadway E and E Republican, the group says, “dealing with an ‘oil spill caused by corporate greed.” Meanwhile, the GreenFaith was reportedly “disrupting business with an interfaith worship service” at the Bank of America at Broadway E and E Thomas.

CHS isn’t aware of any arrests associated with this week’s Earth Day adjacent protests. Last month, Seattle Police complained of sabotage of one of its officer’s vehicles after “a pebble was found jammed into the stem” causing the car’s tire to deflate.

 

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Balancing the health of its ‘urban forest’ with ‘a critical need for more housing,’ Seattle shaping new tree protections

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(Image: CHS)

The Evergreen State’s largest city, Seattle takes its trees seriously and its city council is in the middle of a sprawling legislative process to create new and better protections for its urban canopy.

The council’s Land Use Committee heard updates on the process Wednesday to finalize legislation with a major set of new tree protections. Officials say the draft bill would create incentives and code flexibility to better protect trees, include more trees in the regulations, plant or 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.

The new protections would also create regulations protecting designated “heritage trees” that can’t be removed unless deemed hazardous or in an emergency. Continue reading →

Mayor’s climate order will create three ‘low-pollution neighborhoods’ in Seattle, transition city fleet to electric vehicles

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(Image: City of Seattle)

Seattle needs new resources to handle climate change including clean air shelters and new rules to protect workers when temperatures soar and wildfire smoke returns. The city also must do more to help reduce its own contributions to global warming. This week, Mayor Bruce Harrell signed an executive order with new requirements hoped to “reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions” in Seattle’s transportation sector.

“We recognize the inherent link between our infrastructure, transportation systems, climate, and community wellbeing – meeting the scale of the climate crisis and fulfilling our commitment to strong and healthy communities requires addressing them together,” Harrell said in the announcement on the order signed Thursday at City Hall.

The new plan includes more than 20 initiatives, including making 20 miles of “Health Street” roadways permanently marked for pedestrians and bicyclists, hosting a youth environment summit in 2023, and eliminating all gasoline vehicles from the city’s fleet by 2030. Continue reading →

Council considering changes to allow more equipment — and restaurants — on city’s rooftops to help make Seattle greener

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(Image: City of Seattle)

Developers say equipment and technologies needed to create cleaner, more efficient buildings in Seattle require an important resource — rooftop space. The Seattle City Council’s land use committee Wednesday will consider proposed legislation to change the city’s rules to allow more of its new development’s roofs to be covered in important equipment.

The proposed legislation will increase rooftop percent coverage allowances for new buildings in most of the city’s zones, for rooftop equipment and enclosed areas between 4 and 15 feet above the roof. “These kinds of features can legally extend above the height limit that is measured at the roof’s surface elevation,” a summary of the proposal reads. Continue reading →

Smoke Season extended: Seattle’s terrible air quality forecast to continue — UPDATE: Rain but no relief… yet

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(Image: sea turtle via Flickr)

Conditions Monday Morning

A predicted onshore push of wet weather failed to materialize Monday leaving Seattle with a forecast for dangerous smoke lasting through the week with no clear end to the poor air quality.

A federal air quality alert in place through Monday morning was expected to be extended: “System offshore weakening today,” the National Weather Service tweeted. “Lesser chances for showers and lighter winds = little smoke improvement.” The service said it wouldn’t bother to post its latest smoke predictions as conditions are even more terrible than the calculations and the model is “underestimating current smoke in the region.” Continue reading →