Plans and Policy

A small crane move materials to the top of a three story townhome complex where a construction work receives them.

Seattle’s Housing Construction Booms While Permitting Flashes Warning Signs

Plummeting permits could point to a housing slowdown and less affordable housing money after a banner year. Seattle’s housing production set a new record in...

Puget Sound Leaders Not Ready to Hit Brakes on Highway Expansion

Even in the face of ambitious greenhouse gas emissions goals that remain out-of-reach, elected leaders in central Puget Sound aren't ready to rethink the...
Two police SUVs are parked behind metal barricades blocking traffic from Market Street.

Op-Ed: The Seattle Police Department Has an Efficiency Problem

SPD’s refusal to offload low-priority calls is undermining its ability to solve serious crimes. Over recent decades, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) has increasingly handled...
Fort Lawton include patchy grass and drab concrete low slung buildings and garages that used to serve the military installation.

Harrell Proposes Doubling Affordable Housing at Fort Lawton Site to Overcome Impasse

The move could be a jolt to a long-delayed plan for the decommissioned site, spreading infrastructure costs across more homes -- if the bid...

Burgeoning Waterfront Redefines Vancouver, Washington

Ambitious development is taking Washington State’s most overlooked city from 'Vantucky' backwater to hip. A few years ago an Urbanist reader approached me at a...

Puget Sound Leaders Debate a Pivot Away from Highway Expansion

A small change around regional grant funding criteria could prove a bellwether for transportation policy in Puget Sound. Everywhere from Lynnwood to Puyallup, from Auburn...

Op-Ed: State Model Code Could Give Middle Housing a Shot

In House Bill 1110, the Washington State Legislature read the will of the people and demanded that we tackle the housing crisis more proactively...

Model Code Missing the Point on Middle Housing

Washington State Legislature legalized “missing middle” housing across the state, allowing more homes on a lot in the form of rowhouses, duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes...