Housing

Keeping all 30 proposed Neighborhood Centers is 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.

Port Commissioner Ryan Calkins argues that the Seattle City Council should reject Council President Sara Nelson’s rushed plan to add a housing district in SoDo and continue to reserve the area for industry and freight needs.

After weathering a budget scare, Seattle’s Equitable Development Initiative is growing, with $22 million in new awards aimed at combating displacement and anchoring communities of color.

Seattle City Councilmembers and top planning officials are making the rounds visiting homeowner-dominated community councils in their district to get feedback on the One Seattle growth plan.

Senate Bill 5156, approved by the Washington Senate this week, could open the door to more accessible small apartment buildings built around smaller European-style elevators, reducing overall housing costs at the same time.

Though it was amended to exclude cities with less than 20,000 residents, Senate Bill 5184 still represents one of the most robust statewide parking reform packages to move forward in any state. It now must pass the House.

Tacoma is striving to pick up its pace of housing growth. The City hopes newly enact multiplex zoning while help it hit 325,000 residents in a few decades time, a population gain of nearly 50%.

In Seattle, any person can nominate just about any building for historic landmark status — even without the consent of the building owner — which can delay or upend housing projects. The Washington State Legislature is advancing legislation that would place guardrails on historic landmark programs.