# A paper trail from fall 2023 shows that Mayor Harrell's office overruled his planning department and cut transit corridor upzones and halved the number of proposed "neighborhood centers" before release of the growth strategy.| The Urbanist » Advocacy journalism for better cities.
# Kenmore City Councilmember David Baker offered a sharp criticism of the City of Seattle's slow and halting process to rezone the area around 130th Street Station during Thursday's Sound Transit System Expansion Committee meeting. Baker is one of 18 Sound Transit boardmembers who decide the fate of transit projects across the tri-county area. Transit advocates| The Urbanist » Advocacy journalism for better cities.
# The City's Comp Plan is seriously flawed from the start. Seattle knows how to get serious when we need to, whether that’s building trillion dollar companies or signing up for one of the largest light rail expansions in US history. We also know what it takes to tackle the twin challenges of housing costs and| The Urbanist » Advocacy journalism for better cities.
# The land use committee meeting on Wednesday was an eventful one, as several councilmembers shared their critiques of the Seattle comprehensive plan work thus far. Councilmember Alex Pedersen had already attacked the plan from a conservative 'slow the growth' perspective, but most of his colleagues urged OPCD to think bigger and add more housing options.| The Urbanist » Advocacy journalism for better cities.
# Hamstrung by rising building costs, Seattle's seven-year levy would fund 3,000 affordable homes. The Seattle Housing Levy is due for renewal this year, and Mayor Bruce Harrell unveiled a $970 million proposal on Thursday that would more than triple the size of the levy. Due to rising construction, financing, and land costs, that nearly billion-dollar| The Urbanist » Advocacy journalism for better cities.
# The draft plan still isn't out, which is worrying housing advocates. But success is still within reach. Last year, the City of Seattle had planned to release its draft “One Seattle” Comprehensive Plan in April, but that draft has still not been released to the public after the Harrell administration has repeatedly set new timelines| The Urbanist » Advocacy journalism for better cities.
# Seattle has grown much faster than planners and policymakers predicted, which means our planning framework needs to be nimble. Every ten years Seattle makes a major update to the Comprehensive Plan, used to make rules about how we plan for growth and what kind of housing can be built where. The last time we had| The Urbanist » Advocacy journalism for better cities.
