The Seattle City Council will step away from 2026 budgets Friday as its land use committee takes up legislation seeked to help the city further rein in State’s Environmental Policy Act review in hopes of speeding more development of housing.

The bill sponsored by council member Mark Solomon would exempt “infill” residential development from SEPA review except in areas near shorelines, environmentally critical areas, or “historic locations.” The proposed exemption would be in place “until citywide planned-for growth is achieved,” a presentation (PDF) on the legislation explains.

According to the presentation, the legislation would align the city with “state guidance for streamlining SEPA environmental review” while also doing more to “speed housing production and encourage transit-oriented development.”

Expensive, timely, and sometimes unpredictable review processes have been consistently eroded in the city over recent years as economic factors have bogged down the development of new housing. One example, Seattle’s “design review” program is on hold as officials look to streamline the system.

CHS reported here in October 2019 on growing calls to pare back SEPA review. Washington’s SEPA, passed in 1971, has come under fire from reform supporters who see it as an outdated form of environmental protection. “It’s rooted in the 1970s-era conception of environmentalism,” one advocate told us six years ago.

Now with a new 20-year growth plan taking shape hoped to spread more residential development into more areas of the city, the council is considering reining in SEPA.

According to the presentation, the proposed SEPA exemption legislation would measure growth at the citywide level according to the final comprehensive growth plan. If those growth totals are met, the exemptions would be lifted and any development with 200 or more residential units or 30,000 square feet of non-residential use would again be subject to the costly reviews.

The legislation also includes protections for historical research, updating Seattle’s rules to match state standards around archaeological assessments to include evaluations as part of “pre-development assessments.”

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