One Seattle Comprehensive Plan

On Monday, June 23, the Seattle City Council is holding a public hearing on the One Seattle growth plan. Housing advocates must defend the 29 neighborhood centers in the plan and push to add more. Jazmine Smith lays out the case for these eight additions.

After dozens of blocks were dropped from the One Seattle housing growth plan, planner Michael Hubner downplayed the changes as minimal. The Seattle Planning Commission painted the move as pushing the city is headed in the wrong direction.

Quick decisions by a King County Superior Court ruled that two separate challenges to the One Seattle Plan's environmental review will have to wait until the Seattle City Council makes a final decision on the growth plan.

To meet a state deadline, the Seattle City Council legalized fourplexes or sixplexes across the entire city via the adoption of an interim code Tuesday. The move is just a prelude to a bigger fight over urban density, as Council advances Mayor Bruce Harrell's broader growth plan.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has shrunk the dimensions of eight neighborhood centers and six urban center expansions he proposed last year. The move chops dozens of blocks off the growth centers, limiting opportunities for apartments and affordable homebuilding and drawing criticism from housing advocates.

There are two important housing fights coming up next week. Public hearings are scheduled on Monday and Wednesday, and advocates need to ensure Seattle's plan for middle housing keeps advancing and long-promised affordable housing gets built at Fort Lawton, despite pushback.

Want a deep dive on the latest in Seattle housing policy? The Urbanist has you covered. Check out this recording and transcript of our April housing panel with experts.

Once plentiful across the city, small apartment buildings with flats stacked on top of one another are incredibly rare in new construction. The reasons behind that are multifaceted, and stemming the tide will take a push on multiple levels of government.