Housing

Zoning maps for 30 new neighborhood growth centers, a handful of urban center expansions, and narrow transit corridor rezones dropped on Thursday. With the patchy current vision driven by the Harrell administration, new Mayor Katie Wilson has pledged to come back and expand the plan once a supplemental environmental study is completed.

The close vote earlier this week was a strong signal of a change in direction for Burien, which saw a 5-2 moderate council majority flip to a 4-3 progressive one last November.

Building more dense housing within vibrant walkable neighborhoods is a key climate strategy, argues IPCC author Michael Gillenwater. The Seattle Comprehensive Plan could further those opportunities.

Over the last decade, the Seattle metro area produced the most affordable housing in the nation, with more than 24,000 new income-restricted apartments. New revenue streams helped the region get there, but more work is needed to alleviate the affordability crisis and hit long-term goals.

Birds Connect Seattle, Thornton Creek Alliance, and the Orca Conservancy are among the groups trying to send the City of Seattle back to the drawing board on its housing growth plan. They're pushing on behalf of an appeal that has been working its way through the courts since April.

The reviews are the first to take place under the 2025 Housing Accountability Act, intended to spur housing construction by reducing barriers added at the local level. Growth plan reviews are one step in a process that could lead to ramifications for governments that don't make changes, including the much-discussed "builder's remedy."

Adding a light rail stop next to Bellevue's decommissioned airport could unlock more than 100 acres for dense urban development, boosting the potential of the planned line to Issaquah. Like Bel-Red or the Spring District, Eastgate could be the next Bellevue neighborhood to transform with transit-oriented development.

In this video, Uytae Lee of About Here teamed up with Seattle-based environmental thinktank Sightline Institute to talk about North America's elevator problem. Elevators have been made rare and costly by clunky regulations, which may be ripe for serious reform to make elevators affordable and desirable to install in smaller residential buildings.