Seattle must embrace bold zoning changes in Queen Anne and similar neighborhoods now to preserve our city’s promise for future generations.
We need a lot more housing. All kinds. And we need it in all parts of Seattle. Seattle isn’t full. Queen Anne isn’t full.
We need to make more room. People keep moving here and they will keep moving here for our temperate climate and high quality of life — as the planet warms.
We must create space, through new zoning, for newcomers to thrive here.
The maps that Mayor Bruce Harrell’s planning department have proposed are a necessary step in that direction. This once-a-decade “One Seattle” Comprehensive Plan designates allowed housing types for the next 20 years.
The comprehensive plan, though an important step forward, isn’t perfect. We acknowledge that past zoning decisions have often disadvantaged marginalized communities, and this plan doesn’t fully address these historical inequities.
“Queen Anne is full. It’s tapped out. There are other places close to downtown (Rainier Valley, White Center) and density can go there instead.” [applause]
— Qagggy! (@qagggy.bsky.social) December 4, 2024 at 8:19 PM
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Under the proposal, the “Upper Queen Anne Urban Village” would get expanded boundaries and housing capacity, which means a few more blocks with the potential to add apartment buildings with first-floor storefronts. Such an expansion has been proposed before, but was shot down by vocal resistance. We cannot let that happen this time.
Recent community meetings have surfaced concerns about traffic and parking — and even more hyperbolic opposition comparing the plan to “martial law” — these reactions shouldn’t deter the City Council and Mayor from embracing necessary change. In fact, our neighbors’ strong opposition has inspired us to spend our weekend writing this rebuttal. This is a generational opportunity for Queen Anne to take a different approach to land use planning.
Three decades later, the basic idea still holds true: we need more homes in our growing city. It’s not a new idea, but it remains a good idea to make room for more people to call Seattle home.
Here’s the City’s website for accepting public comments on the One Seattle Plan, which are due by December 20. (More on how to comment below.)
Here are the perspectives of three renters who are glad there’s room for them in Queen Anne.
Neighborhood Centers: A Closer Look
Due to recently-passed state standards for middle housing, the whole city is going to have the opportunity for new fourplex homes, at minimum. This is a fair approach to making room for more neighbors. In contrast, “Neighborhood Centers” adding multifamily zoning were not evenly distributed across the city.
This will limit the location of social housing, preventing it from being embedded in the most wealthy neighborhoods and quiet residential streets across the city. When Prop 1A passes in February, the state-mandated fourplex zoning won’t allow for social housing near our most beloved parks and walking distance to many of our schools. Without strong advocacy, the “One Seattle” Plan might further entrench two Seattles, not one.
For example, areas in Laurelhurst, Broadview, West Woodland, and Seward Park were cut from plans for Neighborhood Centers, which once numbered 50 in an earlier internal draft of the plan that the mayor quietly reduced. Even after a few recent additions, Neighborhood Centers only number 30 in current plans, leaving significant areas of the city lacking adequate opportunities for new housing and amenities. We need to keep all the Neighborhood Centers in the plan and advocate for restoring more from the cuts.
The City of Seattle nearly created dozens of Neighborhood Centers or “Anchors” back in 1994 when today’s “Urban Villages” were drawn, but City leaders scrapped the proposal due to a vocal minority of residents.
While zoning changes passed in 2025 will take years to translate into new housing, they’re essential groundwork for our city’s future. Additionally, while new market-rate apartments may have high rents, they’re preferable to no housing at all.
It is an absolutely jam packed room.
— Qagggy! (@qagggy.bsky.social) December 4, 2024 at 7:05 PM
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The local community council (claiming to act in our name as neighbors) has a history of blocking a lot of new housing. They continue to push back on proposed zoning changes, reducing housing opportunities, shrinking the maps, and hurting the next generation of Seattleites. Being welcoming can start here, in Queen Anne. We ask Queen Anne residents to show up differently and be part of the solution, rather than pushing people out of the city.
Call To Action
Here’s the City’s website for accepting public comments on the One Seattle Plan. Comments are due by December 20, 2024. There will be several months of public hearings at City Council in 2025.
If you’d like help shaping your comment, Alternative6.org developed by Share The Cities volunteers, provides a form to generate an authentic public comment. It demystifies a confusing process and should take you about five minutes to engage in the One Seattle Plan.
There’s an upcoming public meeting in-person on December 10, 2024. If you attend, please go with a buddy, as these meetings can be contentious and emotionally exhausting.