After nearly three years of delays and moratoriums, the City Council is finally poised to pass a rezone of the two remaining mobile-home parks in Seattle in an attempt to preserve them as affordable housing — or potentially ensure that affordable housing replaces them.
Continue readingCategory: zoning
Mayor’s Office pushing through Interbay rezone for Seattle Storm practice facility
In the waning days of Mayor Durkan’s term as Mayor, her office is driving a rezone of a property in the Interbay industrial zone to allow the Seattle Storm to realize their years-long goal of building a practice facility there. There are only three problems with her plan: it isn’t legal; it places her in violation of the city’s ethics code; and it flies in the face of the substantial efforts to stop the continual paring-down of pieces of Seattle industrial lands — including one effort that Durkan herself commissioned.
Continue readingTwo and a half years in, preserving Seattle’s mobile-home parks still proving elusive
In January of 2019, the City Council madly scrambled to pass an emergency one-year moratorium on redevelopment of mobile-home parks when the Halcyon, one of only two remaining in the city, was up for sale. That moratorium has now been extended three additional times, and it’s likely that a fourth extension will be passed next week as the Council struggles to enact more permanent zoning changes to prevent the current residents from possibly being displaced.
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Your weekend reading
There are a number of reports and documents that have been published in the last couple of weeks and are worth paying attention to. So curl up in front of the fire, break out your reading glasses, and dig in.
Continue readingCity settles Showbox lawsuit (UPDATED)
This afternoon, the City of Seattle announced that it has reached a settlement in the lawsuit filed by the owner of the Showbox property over the city’s “spot zone” of the Showbox to prevent it from being redeveloped.
Continue readingSEPA reform bill voted out of committee
This afternoon, the City Council voted out of committee a controversial bill making several changes to the SEPA appeal process, after making a handful of mostly minor amendments.
Continue readingSawant looks to expand sanctioned encampments and tiny house villages, but faces SEPA appeal
Over the summer, Council member Sawant has been working on a bill that would expand the city’s ability to establish additional “tiny house” villages and issue permits for more sanctioned homeless encampments. However, her bill has already been tied up in land-use bureaucracy.
Continue readingFt. Lawton redevelopment plan draws expected legal challenge
Two weeks ago, serial “neighborhood activist” Elizabeth Campbell filed a lawsuit challenging the recently-passed Fort Lawton redevelopment plan on a laundry-list of issues.
Continue readingCouncil passes ADU ordinance
This afternoon, the City Council passed into law an ordinance loosening rules on Accessory Dwelling Units (aka ADUs), often referred to as “backyard cottages” and “mother-in-law apartments.”
Continue readingJudge strikes down city’s ordinance preventing redevelopment of the Showbox
Last Friday, King County Superior Court Judge Patrick Oishi issued a “bench ruling” that invalidated the City Council’s ordinance extending the Pike Place Market Historical District to include the Showbox site, in order to prevent it from being sold to Onni Development and redeveloped into a residential tower. This afternoon the judge issued the written version of his ruling.
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