The Seattle Department of Transportation will host an in-person public workshop on Sunday, September 27, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Cathy Hillenbrand Community Room, located above Capitol Hill Station on 10th Ave E. The event is free and open to all, featuring food, project information, and opportunities to talk directly with city planners.
The meeting comes after Capitol Hill was selected alongside Lake City and South Park/Georgetown for the citywide pilot. Backed by $8 million in local transportation levy funds alongside federal support, the initiative is aimed at cutting car exhaust, cooling heat-island concrete, and making crossing the street safer.
“Pedestrianization and these types of streets are an ingredient to making a whole neighborhood that encourages use of transit, walking, cycling, and other modes,” SDOT climate officer Radcliffe Dacanay told CHS earlier this year. “It isn’t that a pedestrianized street reduces all emissions all at once. It’s part of a broader collective of efforts that are combined to make that impact on reduction.”
The city under the Wilson administration is ready to change how Seattle uses its streets and embracing new statewide “shared streets” laws that will allow the creation of more stretches of roadway that put pedestrians and bikes first.
On Capitol Hill, the challenge is fitting new street designs, uses, and experiments around dense housing, a robust nightlife economy, and transit. There will also be consideration of public safety and elements like lighting.
Priority areas under consideration include the Pike/Pine and Broadway cores. Barbara Bailey Way north of Cal Anderson adjacent the bustling light rail station is a popular choice for pedestrianization potential.
Community advocates hope the planning process will resurrect pedestrian-first concepts such as the long-sought Capitol Hill “Superblock” or the full pedestrianization of Barbara Bailey Way alongside the Sunday Farmers Market. Other ideas range from delivery curb-management hubs and EV freight loading zones to new mid-block crossings, green infrastructure, and expanded street-tree canopies.
There will also be hopes of avoiding past false starts. More than a decade ago, organizers closed a stretch of E Pike to vehicles for three Saturday nights in 2015 and repeated similar versions of the “pilot” until opposition from some nearby business and property owners shut the trials down.
City officials say that the new pilot remains in its listening phase. Feedback gathered on September 27 will help refine a design “toolbox” through 2027, with physical construction and programmatic rollouts slated to begin in 2028.
Registration for the workshop is optional, and community members can learn more and RSVP via SDOT’s Climate Response project portal.
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