The Seattle City Council is expected to vote on the Seattle 2035 Comp Plan at its meeting 2pm Monday (October 17th).

We encourage urbanists to attend to express support for passing the Seattle 2035 Comprehensive Plan and get in a last word to encourage new ideas to include in this or future plans. We must apply consistent pressure to push the council on issues like expanding housing capacity and building municipal broadband internet.

Many municipal broadband supporters turned out at the PLUZ meeting last month, and it looks like it will be included in the plan as Policy 92. Of course we need to see municipal broadband through the whole legislative process. News that Comcast is capping data shows the need for a fair, affordable source of internet service is urgent.

We should also support painting the urban villages one color to expedite the roll out of Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program. Capacity expanding rezones unlock the inclusionary requirement. Setting up the Future Land Use Map (FLUM) to be compatible with MHA rezones allows for a public process but a more efficient process that will deliver affordable housing sooner.

Other issues that may deserve mention:

  • Lidding I-5 (Policy T3.11)
  • A new Community Involvement Element
  • Urban Village expansion
  • Integration with transportation
  • Redefining Level of Service (LOS) to be human-focused, not car-focused.

The Urbanist has delved into many of the issues. Some of that coverage is below.

Article Author
Publisher | Website

Doug Trumm is publisher of The Urbanist. An Urbanist writer since 2015, he dreams of pedestrianizing streets, blanketing the city in bus lanes, and unleashing a mass timber building spree to end the affordable housing shortage and avert our coming climate catastrophe. He graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2019. He lives in East Fremont and loves to explore the city on his bike.