Doug Trumm
Doug Trumm is The Urbanist's Executive Director. 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. He lives in East Fremont and loves to explore the city on his bike.
Two years ago the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) Advisory Committee tried to put forward the idea of changing Seattle’s rigid single-family residential zones to something more flexible, termed Residential Small Lot (RSL), that would allow duplexes and triplexes on lots where they are currently prohibited. But somebody leaked...
Author's Note: So many big things happened in 2016, I neglected to mention the U Link extension, which brought light rail service to Capitol Hill and Husky Stadium in March. Too important of a story to miss considering how much it's improved mobility to and from those areas!
Ignoring the national political...
As predicted, the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) approved the land use permit Thursday for the King County Children and Family Justice Center, also known as the youth jail, with the hefty price tag of $210 million and an arguably sordid history.
Mayor Ed Murray issued a statement contending his hands...
On Tuesday we sardonically noted that Seattle had gotten itself a new youth jail for Christmas (real festive!) in a headline. That got us thinking what more appropriate gifts would be for our forward-thinking city.
The first step to writing a good Christmas list is understanding the budget constraints of...
The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection (SDCI) is expected to release its permitting decision on the King County Children And Family Justice Center better known as the Seattle Youth Jail on December 22 right before most of the city retires for the holiday.
Opponents of the $210 million jail have...
There wasn't much that The Seattle Times got right in its editorial yesterday gloating over and hailing Hearing Examiner Sue Tanner's ruling against Councilmember Mike O'Brien's Backyard Cottage Law, apparently preserving for a little while the sanctity of single-family residential zones. Now editorials are not primary source news reporting, but...
Mayor Ed Murray announced $47 million in funding for affordable housing via the City's optional incentive zoning program and the housing levy at a 10:15am press conference yesterday outside the Capitol Hill Staion. On that very site, now a parking lot, Capitol Hill Housing will build 110 affordable units by 2019...
In a blow to the Housing Affordability & Livability Agenda (HALA), Hearing Examiner Sue Tanner issued a ruling that the City of Seattle must conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before moving ahead with its proposed accessory dwelling unit (ADU) changes to single-family residential zones across the city. Drafting and finalizing...
