The Seattle City Council earlier this week unanimously approved legislation form-fitted to Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central College that will ease the way for the school to build much-needed new housing affordable to students close to its Broadway campus.

In Tuesday’s 9-0 vote, councilmembers approved legislation that tweaks city code would allow a new amendment process for Major institution Master Plan changes to allow “a one-time addition of student or employee housing.” The change will allow “a single development with residential uses at community colleges in Urban Centers to be approvable as a minor amendment to an existing MIMP when certain criteria are met.”

The passage will boost Seattle Central’s plan to replace the school’s giant E Pine parking garage with a new apartment development. On the site where the massive, 510-stall E Pine and Harvard parking garage now rises, there will be more than 500 beds of new housing. The existing garage would be demolished and rebuilt — underground — with about 260 parking spots, which would include charging stations for electric bikes and cars.

CHS reported here on updates to the college’s master plan including an initiative to build a six-story Information Technology Education Center on Broadway, and the student housing project at Harvard and Pine.

The Broadway Achievement Center, also known as the Broadway Performance Hall, will get an indoor facelift, including a new auditorium. This is the only aspect of the project that has already been funded, having been included in the state budget. A full renovation of the college bookstore building on the east side of Broadway next to the Mitchell Activity Center is also planned.

Meanwhile, Seattle Central continues to struggle with the financial fallout of the COVID-19 crisis. CHS reported here on the temporary funding decisions made to continue the school’s  Culinary Academy, Maritime Academy, Wood Technology, PACT, and Apparel Design and Development programs into the next school year, buying time until more stable funding can be secured.

Cutbacks are also coming. CHS reported here on the falling enrollment and dipping budget forecasts faced by the college system that includes Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central. The schools won’t close — “In my 24 years in the state of Washington, no community college in the system has closed its doors,” a spokesperson told CHS — but they could see major cutbacks.

But Seattle Central continues to plan for growth. SCC earlier this year started its search for partners to build its planned Broadway tech building and a new $25 million EcoDistrict heating system for the campus.

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