How — and where — should Seattle grow over the next 20 years? City planners are creating a framework to shape policy and initiatives that will help guide development, infrastructure upgrades, and deployment of key resources for the Seattle of 2035. Monday night, the Capitol Hill edition of a series of public open houses to discuss the Seattle 2035 plan comes to Miller Community Center:

Seattle 2035 Open House
Monday, October 19, 2015, 6 – 8pm
Miller Community Center Multipurpose Room 330 19th Ave E.
The City of Seattle will hold five community meetings to gather public comments on Seattle 2035, the Draft City of Seattle Comprehensive Plan. The updated Comprehensive Plan will guide city policy and investments for the next 20 years. The meetings will include open house displays and a presentation to provide a broad overview of the Draft Plan, and will highlight major changes. We will also gather feedback on urban village expansion areas, especially areas near the meeting locations.

What is in the Draft Plan?

• Goals and policies to help achieve our vision for Seattle’s future. We are expected to grow by 120,000 residents and 115,000 jobs in the coming 20 years, so this document is how we plan to manage that growth.
• A new Future Land Use Map, showing a pattern of growth that supports the City’s vision.

The draft comprehensive plan has been posted here. The draft plan seeks to focus the “largest amount of residential and job growth” in “urban centers.”

Comments on the plan can be submitted through late November. The mayor’s recommended plan is expected in December and the plan should be finalized by early 2016.

CHS reported in May on the alternatives being considered:

If you’d like the “too long, didn’t skim” version, read about Alternative 2 which is forecast to create the most new housing and jobs for Capitol Hill out of the four models under consideration. Meanwhile, housing affordability is brought up as a problem under all of the options, but for different reasons. Alternative 2 would likely lead to lots of new, tall buildings. These tend to be expensive to build, and end up with higher rents and higher priced condos. Alternatives 3 and 4, which spread the development to more areas, could see people who currently live near light rail stations (in particular lower-income people in south Seattle) displaced as their neighborhoods are rebuilt with shiny, new buildings. The proposal recommends developing “strategies” to help lessen the problem.

If you really want to get into it, attend the neighborhood meet-up for a comprehensive planning pre-funk at nearby Tallulah’s:

What: Neighborhood Meet-Up
When: October 19th at 5:00pm
Where: Tallulah’s, 550 19th Ave. E, Seattle, WA 98112 (http://www.aneighborhoodcafe.com/)