Ryan Packer
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.
Small but mighty Port Townsend appears to be the first city in Washington State to have fully ditched its off-street parking requirements.
In the first chance to discuss the Harrell administration's planned growth strategy, Morales was leagues ahead of her colleagues in articulating changes she wanted to see made, such as higher growth targets and more multifamily zoning, before earning her vote of approval.
Even after plans for a new Alki Elementary were redesigned to add parking, the project is caught in another appeal alleging there still isn't enough proposed parking. The delays triggered by the appeals have cost the school district at least $3 million so far.
The state's 60-day legislative session wrapped on March 7 with only a few housing bills headed to Governor Inslee's desk. Rent stabilization, transit-oriented development, lot-splitting, and a builder's remedy all failed to pass.
The Washington legislature just approved a broad set of changes expanding the authority of cities and counties to use automatic cameras.
As a $930 million transportation levy winds down, its oversight body has made it clear that a simple renewal this year won't be enough to address Seattle's transportation issues. The group is pushing Mayor Harrell to go big.
A bill pushed by Bothell Rep. Davina Duerr and approved by the Washington legislature this week would prioritize trees when retention policies come into conflict with local parking mandates.
April 1 is the launch date for Pierce Transit's newest offering, the Stream Community Line. A peak-hour service that will shadow existing service on the Route 1 between Tacoma Dome Station and Spanaway, the Community Line will run every 20 minutes from 5:30am to 7:30am and from 4pm to 7pm, only stopping at the most frequently-used stops along Pacific Avenue and Mountain Highway.