Earlier this month, the City of Seattle’s Office of Housing issued its annual report on the MHA program, which requires developers to contribute to the city’s efforts to build more affordable housing. Now that the program has been running for a few years, it’s an apt time to look at how it’s doing.
Continue readingTag: MHA
City-wide MHA survives legal appeals
This afternoon, the Seattle Ciy Attorney’s office announced that the deadline for appealing a recent ruling on the city-wide MHA legislation has passed, clearing the path for the ordinance moving forward.
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Here’s what you missed over the holidays
Welcome back! A few things happened in mid-to-late December that you may have missed, so here’s a post to get you caught up.
Continue readingCity to do another EIS for U District MHA upzone
This morning Geoff Wentlandt of the Office of Planning and Community Development let the Council know that it would be a while before it could implement the MHA program across the rest of the University District because it needed to complete a new environmental impact statement (EIS).
Continue readingCouncil passes “city-wide” MHA legislation
This afternoon, after years of work, the City Council gave final approval to the “city-wide” MHA legislation, which upzoned and applied affordable-housing requirements in the city’s urban villages .
Continue readingAnti-displacement bill gets first discussion
This morning, Council member Lisa Herbold’s bill requiring developers to replace any affordable housing units demolished by construction projects got its first hearing, in the Planning, Land Use and Zoning Committee. And it didn’t get the warm welcome that one might expect. Rather, there was a complicated and sometimes frustrating conversation.
Continue readingMHA legislation passes out of committee after showdown over amendments (UPDATED)
It took about fours hours, but the Council worked its way through all of the proposed amendments to the city-wide MHA legislation and passed it out of committee this afternoon (and evening). Here’s how it played out.
Continue readingPreview of Monday’s pivotal MHA meeting
Two weeks ago the Council walked through all of its proposed amendments to the city-wide MHA ordinance; I wrote up the results here. Tomorrow afternoon, they are scheduled to vote on those amendments, vote it out of committee, and then give final approval to the ordinance on March 18th.. The Council will also start discussing a draft companion resolution to accompany the MHA bill that commits the Council to several other actions. Here’s a preview of how things are shaking out, and the awkward conversations the Council members will need to have tomorrow as they vote on amendments.
Continue readingMHA issues come into focus as Council debates amendments
Last Friday, the City Council held its first public discussion of the amendments formally proposed for the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) “upzone” ordinance. While no official decisions were made (that will happen on February 25th), it became clear which ones had consensus support — and on others, where the battle lines are being drawn.
Continue readingMHA enters the endgame
Two notable things happened today with regard to the proposed city-wide MHA “upzone” legislation: the city published the anticipated Final EIS addendum expanding on the historic resources analysis, and the City Council’s list of proposed amendments was released in advance of tomorrow’s MHA committee discussion.
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