Op-Ed: 10 Reasons Seattle Adding 30 Neighborhood Centers Is Smart Planning

Seattle is at a crossroads. City Council has the opportunity to lead on the Comprehensive Plan and build a better future for our city. Thoughtful planning today ensures we’re thriving decades from now.

The One Seattle Comprehensive Plan is our city’s best chance to shape growth in a way that makes our neighborhoods more vibrant, more connected, and more livable. But as the plan moves forward, some of its strongest elements, especially Neighborhood Centers (places with a variety of housing and access to transit located around a commercial core) are at risk of being watered down, removed, or tied up in legal gridlock.

All 30 Neighborhood Centers are essential for a more affordable, sustainable, and thriving Seattle. If we chip away at Neighborhood Centers, we’ll be left with the same housing shortages, rising costs, and inequitable growth patterns we’ve seen for decades.

So, let’s break down the top 10 reasons Seattle should add 30 Neighborhood Centers.

1. The cost of doing nothing is massive. Housing supply is the main factor affecting housing costs. Inaction ensures continued housing supply constraints leading to rising rents, and an unlivable city for future generations.
2. Growth happens whether we plan for it or not. With this plan we are strategically creating space for growth to occur organically and promote 15-minute neighborhoods across the city, where people can meet basic needs within a short walk of home.
3. Zoning for more housing doesn’t mean it all gets built overnight. Market conditions determine what gets developed. Therefore, we must allow for greater housing capacity, knowing not all available lots are suitable for development.
4. Single-family zoning was built on exclusion. This plan moves us toward a more equitable city where development isn’t just concentrated in a few neighborhoods. The City’s racial equity analysis has shown that restrictive zoning has accelerated displacement and pushed out communities of color.
5. Housing shortages drive displacement. If we don’t build enough homes, less affluent residents get pushed out.
6. Seattle’s economy depends on a diverse workforce. Firefighters, teachers, restaurant staff, nurses and other essential workers all need places to live. Most can’t afford million-dollar single family homes, but apartments, condominiums, and townhomes in Neighborhood Centers would put more places within reach.
7. More housing means more revenue for valued institutions and services. Housing generates sales tax revenue from labor and material costs as well as Real Estate Excise Tax, which funds local government services including schools, roads, and public safety.
8. Density near transit fights climate change. We reduce climate pollution by building where people can easily take the bus, train, or bike.
9. Walkable communities improve health. Living near amenities means fewer car trips, more steps, and stronger local connections. Empirical research proves this out.
10. Neighborhood Centers reduce food deserts. More housing brings demand for more grocery stores and fresh food access.

Seattle can’t afford to get this wrong

This plan has been shaped by years of community input. It’s a vision for a livable city. Right now, voices opposing growth are loud. Informed voices who believe in a vision for a vibrant Seattle need to be louder.

Advocates for a more affordable, sustainable, and connected Seattle must show up and speak out. The future of our city, our 30 Neighborhood Centers, our climate commitments, our ability to build a livable Seattle depends on it.

Let’s make sure this milestone moment doesn’t become another missed opportunity.

Make your voice heard

The Seattle City Council’s Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan will deliberate on amendments in coming weeks — though the legal appeal by neighborhood groups could delay legislation. Email your Seattle councilmembers at council@seattle.gov and visit OneSeattleForAll.org and Complete Communities Coalition for opportunities to engage.

Homeowner Groups Stoke One Seattle Backlash, Planners Hint at Compromises

Seattle’s Most Exclusive Neighborhoods File Appeals to Delay Harrell’s Growth Plan