It was only a year ago that Joy Hollingsworth was making the case that issues of development and growth in Seattle showed why the city needs leadership from someone who has lived with those challenges — even if they haven’t been part of shaping policies and government.

“I can speak to real impact,” Hollingsworth told CHS last year during the campaign as The Stranger attacked the candidate for a letter she had written in 2017 opposing a neighboring microhousing development. “The impact it has had on the real communities. That perspective is important.”

Now, as the District 3 representative finishes her first year in office, Hollingsworth will lead the Seattle City Council’s committee dedicated to finalizing the city’s next 20-year plan for zoning, growth, and development.

Councilmember Hollingsworth will lead the council’s select committee on the Comprehensive Plan in 2025.

“Seattle’s comprehensive plan is an opportunity for us to shape what type of city we want to live in for the next twenty years,” Hollingsworth said Monday.

“Throughout the comprehensive plan, we can create a Seattle that is open to all: a welcoming city where young people just starting out can find stable housing; an affordable city where young families can buy a family home and put down roots; a safe city where children can walk to school through a neighborhood they know and that knows them; an accessible city that nurtures and provides for its older residents to age in place; a city where bus drivers, teachers, artists, paramedics, and all working families can afford to live where they work. In short, a city that generation after generation of Seattleite can call home.”

D3 neighborhood by neighborhood look at the proposed comprehensive plan changes

Hollingsworth is stepping into a leadership role left empty by the decision from District 2 representative Tammy Morales to leave the council amid accusations about the council’s toxicity and politics under Council President Sara Nelson.

Monday, Hollingsworth said she will meet with Morales — and hopes to upkeep many of her values.

“She has been a champion for District 2, and I intend to meet with her and her team before she leaves office early next year to understand her vision for her district and to learn from her experiences,” Hollingsworth said.

Hollingsworth brings a track record of moderate and centrist positions on the council including joining in a vote against the Morales-backed Connected Communities pilot program that would have funded 35 “community-led” affordable housing developments over the next five years.

Her stated approach to development, she says, comes through the prism of growing up in the Central District and watching the displacement and gentrification flipsides of development play out.

“In the decades since my great grandmother first put down roots in the Central District, Seattle has truly grown into a world-class city. With that extraordinary growth has come extraordinary affordability challenges,” Hollingsworth said.

“Seattle now has the ninth-highest cost of living in the United States. Nearly 45% of Seattle renters are cost burdened, and one-third of Seattle households are low-income. The median home in Seattle costs nearly seven times the median annual income,” Hollingsworth said. “This is our chance to make a meaningful impact on the affordability crisis facing our city – for today, and for the future.”

Hollingsworth has also been a solid supporter of Mayor Bruce Harrell who endorsed Hollingsworth last year — and is also a child of the Central District.

His administration’s growth plan would continue to focus the city’s growth in its densest cores of Capitol Hill and the Central District while making small steps forward in allowing multifamily-style housing across the city closer to its wealthiest neighborhoods and waterfront properties.

A coalition of business and community organizations have called for more growth, denser “middle housing,” and more housing near transit in the plan.

While the final comp plan proposal would continue many of the development patterns that have shaped modern Seattle, the changes for the final proposed zoning update show the administration responding to density proponents with changes for the city’s expanses of neighborhood residential zoning that would allow developers to create denser designs — upping the threshold from a .9 floor to area ratio to 1.2 FAR in the final proposal.

Floor area ratio (FAR) is the measurement of a building’s area in relation to the size of the parcel that the building is located on and is widely used as a metric to quantify density.

The majority of the city’s land will remain under its lightest zoning designation Neighborhood Residential Areas like this including North Capitol Hill will shift to accommodate the state’s new middle housing mandate legislation that requires replacing single-family zoning with fourplex zoning while setting a base at sixplexes near frequent transit.

Under the draft plan, the city would have proposed to soften the new state mandate with lower density requirements in areas of the city the Office of Planning and Community Development has identified as at high risk of displacement but the Harrell administration has backed off this and dropped the equity component from its proposal.

The final proposal increases the number of planned Neighborhood Centers to 30 including Madison Park, Madison Valley, Madrona, and Montlake. The Capitol Hill/First Hill Regional Centers will be expanded and have targeted upzones. The Central District Urban Center areas would be expanded.

Nearly 70% of new construction expected under the plan would be constrained to “Regional Centers,” the plan’s new designation for the city’s most densely populated, high transit areas — Downtown, Lower Queen Anne, South Lake Union, University District, Northgate, Ballard, and, of course, First Hill and Capitol Hill — or less dense but still highly developed areas now called “Urban Centers” instead of “Urban Villages.” 23rd Ave from Union to Jackson is one nearby example. The “Madison–Miller” area north of E Madison is another.

Zoning in many of these areas like Capitol Hill would remain capped at eight stories though there could be allowances for taller development near light rail stations.

Under the draft plan, the Capitol Hill-First Hill area of the city is projected to add 9,000 new housing units — second to only downtown — and 3,000 new jobs.

The city will also introduce affordability bonuses in the plan that would allow increased numbers of units in all zones.

There are other small but limited injections of development and “15 minute city” initiatives in the proposal. The plan proposes making stores and small cafes on corners in all residential zones legal again meaning we could see more neighborhood-hugging businesses like the Volunteer Park Cafe across the city.

In the meantime, the city is also in the midst of the long-term planning process to shape the ground-up vision for the comprehensive plan’s Capitol Hill/First Hill Regional Center. CHS reported here on that process that will create a 20-year plan hoped to dovetail with the new comprehensive plan to provide more specific detail on land use in these key areas of the city.

The city has been holding information sessions online and across the city to detail the citywide comprehensive plan proposal and gather feedback.

The complete comprehensive plan update proposal has been posted to Zoning.OneSeattlePlan.com.

Following the public comment period, Hollingsworth and the Seattle City Council will consider Phase 1 of the legislation including Neighborhood Residential updates to implement HB 1110 in spring 2025.

The council will consider the Phase 2 legislation including rezones for new Neighborhood Centers, new and expanded Regional and Urban Centers, and select arterial rezones along frequent transit routes in summer 2025.

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