Seattle City Council begins ‘Centers and Corridors’ debate, kicking off next phase of 20-year growth plan

From the committee’s Thursday presentation (PDF) kicking of the Phase II process

The Seattle City Council’s Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan will hold its first meeting of the year Thursday as it kicks off what officials are calling “Phase II” of the process to set a new 20-year development plan for the city.

Now chaired by District 2’s Eddie Lin after D3 rep Joy Hollingsworth guided the committee through the update’s first phase and legislation last year, the committee will face a complicated year of debate as it digs into the nitty gritty over state-mandated laws hoped to allow a greater range of housing types in more parts of the city.

CHS reported here on Phase II’s core elements of the new growth plan and the debate that will likely burn hottest for those opposed to change in the city: future growth in areas like Montlake, Madison Valley, Madison Park, and Madrona.

The city’s “Centers and Corridors” proposal (PDF) is the second in what officials say will be a four-phase process to increase building heights and density in more areas of the city and coordinate growth with investments in transit.

The planning comes as Seattle is undergoing an ongoing housing crisis. Addressing supply is a core solution, according to a presentation (PDF) on the “Centers and Corridors” legislation for the committee’s Thursday afternoon session.

The plan is being championed by Mayor Katie Wilson though the administration has also said even more must be done to address the crisis.

“Seattle is a great city, and more and more people want to make it their home. We’ll keep advancing zoning changes and developing social housing, as we expand our housing and affordability options,” Wilson said in February with the Phase II plan’s release.

It has been a long process to create Seattle’s new comprehensive plan including legal challenges to the planning that slowed down an already massively delayed process. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s initial 20-year plan proposal the council started with landed around a year later than planned.

Pressured by opposition from some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city, the plan’s core areas have been downsized. CHS reported last summer on the city’s revisions that reduced nine of the city’s 30 proposed Neighborhood Centers.

CHS reported here as the first phase of legislation setting the framework for the 20-year growth plan update was finally wrapped up to end 2025 under District 3 representative Hollingsworth.

The new Centers and Corridors legislation “updates zoning in new growth areas identified in the Comprehensive plan, including: 30 new Neighborhood Centers, new and expanded Urban Centers, and transit corridors,” city officials say.

The second phase of comprehensive updates starting now will focus on the 30 proposed Neighborhood Centers including Montlake, Madison Valley, Madison Park, and Madrona in the Capitol Hill area.

The designation will “allow residential and mixed-use buildings up to six stories in the core and four and five-story residential buildings toward the edges,” according to one city summary.

Once the neighborhood framework is in place, future Neighborhood Centers like Roanoke Park could be in play.

Hopefully, Seattle has also sorted out the Squire Park “donut hole” by then.

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