SEATTLE, WA – Seattle’s draft Comprehensive Plan, released earlier this month and laying out city leadership’s vision for the next 20 years of growth, is sorely insufficient in its housing recommendations.
Dan Bertolet, Housing and Cities director for the nonprofit research organization Sightline Institute, is available for interview and comment on what he sees as the three big fixes leaders should make to the draft plan to address the city’s severe housing shortage and high home prices and rents, while honoring its commitment to addressing homelessness, equity, and climate issues:
- Allow bigger, more disability- and aging-friendly middle housing types, like Spokane has done, and avoid project-killing mandatory affordability for these projects.
- Allow apartment buildings in more places throughout the city—not just areas already zoned for them or along polluted, dangerous main roads.
- Legalize more car-free homes citywide by getting rid of parking requirements. Parking minimums drive up the cost of housing and prioritize storage for cars over homes for people.
“Comp plans happen only about once a decade, so it’s important to get this right,” says Bertolet. “The draft plan is a recipe for more homelessness, more climate pollution, and even more unaffordable homes and rents in our city. Seattle deserves better, and we can make that happen.”
Read the full analysis: Seattle Deserves a Better Comp Plan
Related:
- Homelessness is a housing problem | Why do some US cities struggle more with homelessness? A new book explores a key component of the issue: housing supply.
- Unlock middle housing with parking reform | As long as parking is required, smaller, lower-cost homes are still illegal.
- Aging solutions are climate solutions | Adapting communities to better serve growing elderly populations also makes those places more climate-resilient. A new book charts the path to making this connection.
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Dan Bertolet is the Senior Director of Sightline Institute’s Housing and Cities program. Find his latest research here, and follow him on X (fka Twitter).
Sightline Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank providing leading original analysis of housing, democracy, energy, and forests policy in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, British Columbia, and beyond.
