Seattle has eliminated “single family” housing… from its vocabulary. Monday, the Seattle City Council approved what housing development proponents say is a key change for how City Hall plans growth in a vote renaming the lowest density zoning in the city to “Neighborhood Residential.”
“The legislation passed today brings us one step closer to a more inclusive Seattle. Today, we recognize neighborhoods across our city are home to diverse housing built before increasingly restrictive zoning went into place. This includes small businesses, parks, schools, and services, as well as diverse households that expand beyond the ‘single-family’ designation – that was a misnomer. ‘Neighborhood Residential’ reflects that diversity more accurately,” co-sponsor Teresa Mosqueda said in a statement on Monday’s vote.
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“We have heard loud and clear from housing, environmental, small business advocates, community members, leaders across our region, and our city’s own Planning Commission: it’s past time to move forward with a name change to update our language so that our planning documents reflect the true character of Seattle neighborhoods, diverse housing, small businesses, and many different types of households,” Mosqueda said.
Under the approved bill from citywide councilmember Mosqueda and Northwest Seattle rep Dan Strauss, the city will begin using Neighborhood Residential to describe the “single family” zoning designation. The change will “touch many elements of the Comprehensive Plan” including the Future Land Use Map, the Land Use, Housing, and Parks and Open Space elements, seventeen neighborhood plans, and the Housing appendix.
The legislation will take effect in November.
The change comes, the councilmembers said, in response to the Seattle Planning Commission’s “repeated request every year since 2018” to change the name as laid out in the body’s Neighborhoods for All report.
It also will change the language of the debate as Seattle faces continued pressure to create more housing to address issues ranging from homelessness to affordability. In its most recent overhaul of zoning, the so-called Mandatory Housing Affordability plan altered the city’s zoning to surgically allow taller and more multifamily-packed development in the city’s densest neighborhoods including Capitol Hill and the Central District. The MHA plan tied upzones in 27 of the city’s densest neighborhoods to the creation of affordable units and was planned to transition a reported 6% of Seattle’s single family/Neighborhood Residential-zoned property. Growth advocates say much more is needed.
The new Neighborhood Residential zoning will be at the center of changes planned as the city gears up for the 2024 update to its Comprehensive Plan to make way for more dense development in Seattle.
The incumbent Mosqueda performed well in the August primary and appears in line to retain her seat. CHS reported here on her campaign and work leading the council through the tumultuous 2020 budget process. She is being challenged in the General Election by Kenneth Wilson, a civil engineer and consultant who has focused his campaign on infrastructure investments.
The city’s mayoral candidates, meanwhile, have both championed increased investment in affordable, dense housing to help address the city’s ongoing homelessness crisis.
Seattle City Council continues to focus on bombarding and “revolutionary” slogans instead of solving the problems.
How about less controversial ideas such as removing building red tapes, focus on high density growth around light rail stations, etc?
The name wasn’t the main problem – it’s the fact that zoning and redlining still exists – looking at you Queen Anne, Magnolia and many others. Not even talking about exclusionary, NIMBY places like Bellevue, Redmond and others.
If you want to change Bellevue or Redmond you’re going to need to move there and vote there….
But it’s almost funny you are complaining about Bellevue… Bellevue currently ranked as the most diverse city in state and they’ve got the space for and have been/are currently building quite a bit of dense/tall apartment housing… much of it at/near transit centers and the new light rail stations.
Anyone who can complain about Bellevue when compared to Seattle need to get a grip on reality.
It has
In one word: much better in almost everything that concerns its residents.
And it has way less political scapegoating, and endless divisiveness in Seattle.
In general, we should look at Bellevue as a model on how to actually successfully run a diverse, progressive City. (While Seattle and San Francisco’s failures kind of become the fodder for liberal-shaming in Conservative media.)
Spot on!
Have you been to Bellevue or Redmond any time in the last few years? They are becoming very diverse in many of their neighborhoods, far more than many parts of Seattle. Might want to check the facts and data before you comment here.
Question for those more in the know than I: Could this lead to a spreading out of development throughout the city rather than what seems to be a concentration in certain neighborhoods?
I hope.
ugh. Please, all of you, go back home.
The wording seems is intentionally coded so they’re not upfront about what they want, are they saying they want different types of houses?