From our days as the last supply stop for Klondike prospectors to becoming a hub for timber exports and eventually the birthplace of aerospace, Seattle has always thrived on trade. It’s no accident either. Seattle’s deep-water port attracted railroads interested in export opportunities and became our region’s gateway for goods like grain and seafood to ship to markets around the world. Today, our proximity to Asia and its growing middle class attracts shippers moving goods back and forth across the Pacific.
But a port is more than just the docks. It’s an ecosystem of heavy haul roads, railways, and warehousing. The area south of downtown known as SoDo is the gritty backbone of that transport system, where heavy trucks and loud trains work with industrial businesses that manufacture goods, deliver fresh food to restaurants and grocery stores, and export products to the Midwest and Asia.
And for our city, SoDo is also where the essential functions happen, too: It’s the heart of our electrical grid, it’s where we consolidate waste and recyclables, and it’s home to maintenance facilities for buses, trucks, and trains. SoDo will also be home to large-scale electric vehicle charging infrastructure for medium and heavy-duty vehicles, including the drayage trucks serving the Port, delivery vans covering the last mile, and even school buses that no longer run on diesel.
When the City of Seattle passed Maritime and Industrial Lands Protection legislation in June 2023, it was a recognition of the need to protect what remains of our industrial areas for those basic municipal functions and maritime activities that support tens of thousands of well-paid jobs. After a decade of negotiations, we had a deal.
Since the passage of the legislation and the certainty it provides, we are seeing promising developments toward a vision of SoDo as the heart of an innovative green energy and maritime economy, supporting new living wage jobs. Demand for industrial properties is healthy, with vacancy rates below 9%, compared to 26% for office space. The Port alone plans to invest more than half a billion dollars in new infrastructure along the waterfront in the next decade.
Legislation recently introduced by Seattle City Council President Nelson would upend that vision, and thereby the deal that took years to craft. Despite the City’s current work to update its Comprehensive Plan, Council is being forced to consider a stand-alone bill on a separate, accelerated timeline with less public engagement and outreach than land use bills typically receive. This bill would allow developers to build housing on two blocks of SoDo along heavy-haul corridors, where industrial activities occur at all hours of the day and throughout the year all while removing safety protections for pedestrians and cyclists moving through SoDo.
No one disputes that our city needs more housing. One place that’s not great for housing is SoDo. Along with the health impacts of living near heavy industry, industrial areas don’t have the amenities people need.
As my colleague Commission President Toshiko Hasegawa has pointed out, people deserve better than housing in a place with minimal public transit and no neighborhood schools, greenspaces, or grocery stores. As a transit, bike, and pedestrian advocate, I am constantly working to deconflict those areas of our city like Ballard and Interbay where industrial activities overlap with key commute corridors. The last thing I want to do is create another conflict.
So, rather than putting housing in a place ill-suited for it, let’s preserve SoDo for industrial uses. After all, population increases don’t just mean a need for more housing. We’ll need more buses and trains, food storage and distribution, and waste management. At the same time, a resurgence in American manufacturing has created a unique moment for new businesses to make products right here in Seattle.
In January, Mayor Bruce Harrell launched Seattle’s new Climate Innovation Hub, which he described as a “nexus for innovators and early-stage entrepreneurs focused on tackling the climate crisis and expanding the region’s green technology sector.” As those startups mature and seek space to move from prototypes to manufacturing, SoDo will be the place where greentech entrepreneurs can find industrial space well-suited to advanced manufacturing. Without industrial lands, those homegrown jobs will be lost to other markets.
Industrial lands in SoDo cannot be replicated in other parts of our region: the proximity of SoDo to the deepwater harbor is critical to its utility. Our maritime terminals serve as the transportation and logistics hub where trains, trucks, and ships converge. Pushing industrial activity outside the City would lengthen delivery and distribution routes resulting in more traffic and pollution.
The economic impact is widespread. We are a coalition of more than 70 organizations across the state concerned by the threat this legislation carries. Farmers, longshore workers, truckers, and small businesses have rallied to protect their livelihoods, with support from state legislators from Seattle and the region opposing encroachment on industrial lands.
Both the proponents of the amendment and the advocates for industrial lands agree that continued conversations among the parties could produce an outcome that would better serve everyone’s interest.
In December, the City, Port, County, Washington State Department of Transportation, Sound Transit, and the Muckleshoot and Suquamish Tribes created the South Downtown Seattle Cross/Agency Intergovernmental Collaboration with the purpose of addressing the challenges identified during the passage of Maritime and Industrial Lands Protection. Council President Nelson’s legislation would kill that new mechanism for building a shared vision for the development of that area, including the Stadium District.
It’s not too late for the Seattle City Council to avoid an unforced error, table this proposal, and for all of us to work together through the collaboration to address the challenges and spur major revitalization.
Ryan Calkins
Ryan Calkins was elected to the Port of Seattle Commission in 2017 and re-elected in 2021. He currently serves as Commission Vice President. Ryan is an advisor on port and energy policy at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. For more than a decade, Ryan ran an import and distribution company in Seattle that was recognized for its industry-leading sustainability initiatives. In 2007, he formed Seattle Microfinance Organization, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to capital for entrepreneurs with limited economic resources. Ryan began his career in Central and South America, working for disaster relief and human rights nonprofits.
