In the News

KNKX: Environmental advocates want more scrutiny of Seattle's development plan | KNKX Public Radio
Washington’s Missing Middle Housing Bill Misses the Mark

Seattle growth plan lacks creativity, coherence: How to repair it

Amazon pledged to support affordable housing. How has it fared so far?

Make it One Seattle, full of trees, in Comprehensive Plan

Seattle’s Affordable Housing System is Crumbling, and Roots to Roofs

Phase 2 Zoning is underway

District 1: West Seattle, District 2: Beacon Hill & nearby
District 3: Madison, Madrona, Montlake, Central, District 4: Bryant, Ravenna, Wedgwood District 5: Greenwood, Maple Leaf, Haller Lake, District 6: Ballard, Magnolia, Tangletown, NW Greenlake,District 7: Dravus & Queen Anne

March 19, 2026: Select Committee on Comp Plan

Recorded Meeting, Presentation

Residents asked for “less Vancouver,” where upzoning led to speculative investment and even more expensive housing (third highest after Hong Kong and Sydney, and “more Portland,” where housing prices went down thanks to strategic policy decisions.

Next Select Committee on Comp Plan meetings

  • April 6, 2026, 9:30 a.m. public hearing

  • May 29, 2026, 9:30 a.m. public hearing

  • June 4, 2026, 1:00 p.m.

  • June 18, 2026, 1:00 p.m.

Write to Council today(*) &
show up at City Hall on April 6th for public comments (9:30am)

When the Comp Plan process started, Seattle was experiencing a boom. Amazon was the largest employer, and hiring had just peaked and reached an all-time-high, with 10,000 more Seattle employees than today. “Housing abundance” was the prevailing hypothesis for bringing down home prices.

We ask City Council, before it rezones every center and corridor, to create an updated assessment of Seattle’s capacity needs, and incorporate the lessons from Vancouver and Portland.

  • The AI boom has generated major layoffs in Seattle (the largest in the nation): Today’s biggest employer in Seattle is the University of Washington with 50,000, followed by Amazon which is now around 49,000, then City of Seattle / Seattle Children’s / Swedish Health Services each at around 10,000 to 12,000. A city once defined by steady expansion is no longer growing in the same way, and may be shrinking.

  • Eastside / Bellevue are the new Seattle, post return-to-work policies: Amazon has stated publicly that it expects to employ ~25,000 in Bellevue as it exits Seattle. This compounds upon the Seattle-Eastside traffic impact of Microsoft’s return to work. Seattle traffic, quality of life, and taxes will drive relocation of many in tech from Seattle to the Eastside.

  • Vancouver and Portland offer important lessons that need to be understood: In Vancouver, broad upzoning attracted speculative investment, including foreign capital and private equity seeking a safe place to park money. The added demand, along with the destruction of naturally-occurring affordable housing replaced by un-attainable housing, pushed housing prices even higher even as density grew (wrong density). Portland, by contrast, created incentives to add housing beyond the single-family model, especially missing-middle options, while also preserving more of the existing neighborhood fabric. In Portland, housing prices went down.

    Note: Vancouver ranks as the third least affordable major housing market in the 2024 Demographia International Housing Affordability report, with a median multiple of 12.3. That means the median home price was 12.3 times the median household income, described as “impossibly unaffordable.” Only Hong Kong (14.4) and Sydney (13.8) ranked worse among the 94 markets studied.

  • Seattle’s 135,000 NR parcels now accommodate up to 4-6 homes per lot, to implement HB1110: City Council just passed the biggest upzone in Seattle’s history. However, this was not considered as a factor in any Comp Plan environmental study. We must assess the impact of that before we upzone more.

  • Phase 2 upzoning creates vacancies for the type of unit that already abounds: 13,500 apartments are vacant in Seattle today, and apartment vacancies are reaching 10% in some neighborhoods. As a result, some market-rate rental units are the same as, or cheaper than, subsidized housing- leaving subsidized housing with a 20% vacancy rate, the lowest ever. Meanwhile, the wholesale destruction of single family homes for rental apartments will drive housing prices higher, eliminating the housing stock we need for the housing stock that we already have in abundance.

  • Short-term AirBnB rentals have grown: Homes are homes, hotels are hotels. Adjust allowable nightly minimums (5 nights? a month?) until we reach desired outcomes to grow housing stock for Seattle residents. Prioritize one-month+ residents over transient cruisers and other tourists.

    (*) Email the following people and ask them to re-evaluate learnings and need to get desired outcomes. Tell them to listen to constituents, not special interests/lobbyists, learn from what went wrong to make Vancouver even less affordable and what they did right in Portland to increase the new affordable stock while maintaining their neighborhood form. Below is the to: line to include based on your district. It includes OPCD and Eddie Lin, the Chair for the Select Committee, as well as the two at-large council members.

  • DISTRICT 1 (West Seattle, South Park, Georgetown, Pioneer Square): Rob.saka@seattle.gov, eddie.lin@seattle.gov, michael.hubner@seattle.gov, opcd@seattle.gov, alexismercedes.rink@seattle.gov, dionne.foster@seattle.com

  • DISTRICT 2 (South Seattle, Yesler Terrace to Rainier Beach): Eddie.lin@seattle.gov, michael.hubner@seattle.gov, opcd@seattle.gov, alexismercedes.rink@seattle.gov, dionne.foster@seattle.com

  • DISTRICT 3 (Central Seattle): Joy.Hollingsworth@seattle.gov, michael.hubner@seattle.gov, opcd@seattle.gov, alexismercedes.rink@seattle.gov, dionne.foster@seattle.com

  • DISTRICT 4 (Northeast Seattle): maritza.rivera@seattle.gov, michael.hubner@seattle.gov, opcd@seattle.gov, alexismercedes.rink@seattle.gov, dionne.foster@seattle.com

  • DISTRICT 5 (North Seattle): debora.juarez@seattle.gov, michael.hubner@seattle.gov, opcd@seattle.gov, alexismercedes.rink@seattle.gov, dionne.foster@seattle.com

  • DISTRICT 6 (Northwest Seattle): dan.strauss@seattle.gov, michael.hubner@seattle.gov, opcd@seattle.gov, alexismercedes.rink@seattle.gov, dionne.foster@seattle.com

  • DISTRICT 7 (Downtown, SLU, Queen Anne, parts of Magnolia): bob.kettle@seattle.gov, michael.hubner@seattle.gov, opcd@seattle.gov, alexismercedes.rink@seattle.gov, dionne.foster@seattle.com‍ ‍

Letter to Mayor Wilson from member group asks for time and space
with neighborhoods for planning Seattle’s future (Feb 2026)

Summary of recommendations requesting more planning before passing upzones (1-8), and additional recommendations from SRTG:

  • Articulate a vision for the city’s future development. Seattle was built on plans that aligned mobility, green space, and housing production - including the original Urban Village Plan and the neighborhood plans it generated, plans for Seattle's HOPE VI neighborhoods, and the Bands of Green plan for urban greenways.

  • Conduct true neighborhood planning to right-size upzones. Identify and fund the development of parks, transit improvements, and other infrastructure required to accommodate housing growth. The mayor’s budget contains some money for planning in the areas recommended for the most significant upzones, but more resources are needed. Draw on staff from the Department of Neighborhoods, Parks and Recreations, Housing, Transportation and others, or form a sub-cabinet for community development to expand the planning resources available. Adding density succeeds when it comes with the guarantee of tangible improvements for both new and current residents of the neighborhoods affected. Example of what not to do: Zoning over parks, such as Interbay, where the little league fields and the Interbay football field were upzoned to MR.

  • Identify, protect and expand areas of the city that are working well— aka, “green zones.” Thanks to the past generation of neighborhood planning, there are many areas of the city in which housing development—including affordable housing—is occurring in balance with green space, transit access, and other civic infrastructure. Replicate those characteristics in other parts of the city.

  • Budget for adjustments to help more neighborhoods develop the characteristics of green zones. The City has tools to support neighborhoods that are striving to add affordable housing, become greener and more equitable, including the Neighborhood Matching Fund, the Housing Trust Fund, and the Park District funding mechanism. Community-based organizations such as the Seattle Parks Foundation and non-profit housing developers have long lists of quality projects awaiting funding. Even modest budget adjustments to get projects off the ground quickly would be an important signal of new energy and a new vision at City Hall.

  • Create transformation plans for neglected areas of the city where coordinated development of housing, transit, and green infrastructure could have a major impact, aka “gray zones.” Areas such as Aurora Avenue & 95th will take time and significant resources to redevelop, but they represent a huge opportunity to transform neglected areas into vibrant neighborhoods. Imagine Aurora Avenue as a landscaped boulevard with new housing near the BRT stops, wide tree-lined sidewalks, and nearby parks and playgrounds.

  • Make better use of surplus public land. Land that is no longer needed by public agencies is one of our most valuable tools for shaping equitable growth.

State Mandate: Build Middle Housing,
not Single Family Homes and Tower-hoods

HB1110 defines Middle Housing as: “compatible in scale, form, and character with single-family houses and contain two or more attached, stacked, or clustered homes including duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, fiveplexes, sixplexes, townhouses, stacked flats, courtyard apartments, and cottage housing.” Source: HB1110, lines 32 - 35

What is not Middle Housing? Detached single-family “tower homes” and oversized attached units over 1,250 square feet do not align with the spirit or intent of Middle Housing. When developers replace older, modestly priced homes with luxury units—especially tall, bulky tower homes—they eliminate existing Middle Housing, erase tree canopy, and drive up land values. These projects often attract wealthier buyers relocating from other cities, while long-time residents seeking attainable housing are left with even fewer options.

If we continue down this path, we risk accelerating the destruction of true Middle Housing—ironically, under the banner of creating it.

Over 23 Seattle organizations and neighborhood groups agree: Seattle can do better. The City’s HB1110 Permanent Legislation, which applies to every single-family lot in the city, unnecessarily shrinks setbacks, raises roof heights, and expands lot coverage—changes that will fast-track demolition and large-scale redevelopment across neighborhoods – to the benefit of developers and investors and to the detriment of affordable Middle Housing, current residents, and the environment. There are many examples of middle housing in Seattle today that respect the scale, character, and tree canopies of their neighborhoods – the true intent of HB1110. Let’s do more of that!

Capitol Hill | Central District | Columbia City | Green Lake | Greenwood | Haller Lake | Madison Park | Madrona |
Magnolia | Maple Leaf | Montlake | Mt Baker | Phinney Ridge | Queen Anne | Tangletown | Wallingford |
Washington Park | Wedgwood |West Seattle – Fauntleroy | West Seattle - Seaview/Fairmount | Whittier Heights

TAKE ACTION TODAY

  • Write to your Council Member (email list here), as well as at-large Council Members.

RESOURCES

Background

This summer, the City Council is prioritizing major decisions on future growth citywide. A significant focus is on passing CB120993, legislation to comply with the state mandate (HB1110) allowing 4-6 units per lot across the city. This will substantially increase housing capacity and density. Between June and September, the Council will review, debate, and legislate the Comprehensive Plan CB120985, featuring new policies and Future Land Use Maps. Rezoning and converting all single-family lots to multi-family is the objective of Phase 1. The Full Council and Select Committee Meetings will primarily focus on HB1110 and the Comprehensive Plan legislation, aiming for a final vote in September. Council will shift to budget work in October-November, resuming Comprehensive Plan Phase II in Dec-January.