Plans and Policy

With the Seattle City Council set to consider amendments to required zoning changes this week, the city's planning commission highlighted the danger of adding on additional requirements including affordable housing mandates and changing thresholds for infrastructure upgrades.

The way cities conduct public outreach and local elections stacks the deck against homebuilding, tenants, and people of color, research shows. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Nat Henry maps out Mayor Harrell's growth plan and finds his transit corridor plan would would upzone fewer than 1 in 10 parcels within a five-minute walk of transit stops. That forces renters onto dangerous, polluted arterial roads, where apartments would be narrowly focused.

Phase two of the One Seattle Plan had included additional housing density around 30 existing commercial centers like Tangletown and Madrona, but now those changes won't be discussed until after this fall's elections, pushing key housing actions into 2026.

Expectations are high for longtime board member Dow Constantine's new job as Sound Transit CEO. Here's what The Urbanist's newsroom has at top-of-mind in the months ahead.

Hearing Examiner Ryan Vancil dismissed all appeals of Seattle's growth plan. Despite a myriad of issues raised by six appellants, the proposal will move forward thanks to a recently passed state law intended to prevent predatory delay of housing plans.

RSVP to save yourself a spot at the Future of Seattle Housing Panel hosted by The Urbanist and Seattle YIMBY from 6pm to 8pm on April 23.

Cars and sprawl that are the true problem as the Puget Sound region seeks to boost salmon runs and protect salmon-eating orca whales. Building more homes in Seattle is the way to curb sprawl.