In one of the clearest statements of her urbanist bonafides yet, Mayor Katie Wilson has announced an “accelerated approach” to pounding out Seattle’s new growth plan that could move timing on zoning and development changes up by years.

“Taller, denser, faster,” the mayor said Thursday. “To address our housing shortage, we’re planning for a city where everyone has the opportunity to live in a safe, welcoming neighborhood with access to jobs, services, and community,” Wilson said in her statement on the acceleration of the next phases of Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan to address the city’s housing crisis.

Under the acceleration, Wilson is asking City Hall and the Seattle City Council to combine and speed up the final, meatiest phases of the comprehensive plan process including arriving at a Draft Environmental Impact Statement, finalizing rules for “middle housing” like fourplexes and townhomes in what have been historically single-family zones, implementing state mandates around transit oriented development, and finalizing the “taller and denser” expansion of existing cores like Capitol Hill and the U-District.

Her new timeline would see rezoning legislation in motion by 2027 that was originally not expected until 2028 — or later.

“We have heard from a wide coalition of businesses, labor, housing providers, neighborhoods, and environmental advocates,” District 2 Councilmember Eddie Lin, chair of the council’s Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan, said in the announcement from the mayor’s office. “The message is clear – go bigger and bolder, work with urgency, build the safe, accessible, affordable, walkable neighborhoods we all want. I look forward to working with Mayor Wilson, my colleagues on City Council, and community members to plan for a better Seattle.”

The announcement comes as Lin is set to hold the first public hearing on “Phase II” of the comprehensive plan process Monday evening. From Lin’s office:

Public Hearing #1 – Monday, April 6

Similar to last year during Phase 1 of the Comp Plan, the City Council will hold public hearings this year on Phase 2 of the Comp Plan. On Monday, April 6, I will chair both the morning virtual meeting and afternoon/evening in-person meeting. You are welcome to sign up to give public comment on Phase 2 of the Comp Plan during either time. Comp Plan Phase 2, Public Hearing #1 (Mon. April 6): 9:30 a.m. – Virtual Sign up for virtual public comment between 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Meeting will go until all signups have had the opportunity to speak 3 p.m. – In-person Sign up for public comment between 2:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Meeting will go until all signups have had the opportunity to speak

The Complete Communities Coalition says it is planning a rally Monday before the hearing, calling on the council “to strengthen the proposal and deliver the bold, pro-housing zoning reforms Seattle’s housing crisis demands.” The coalition says the mayor, Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Community Roots Housing’s Colleen Echohawk, and Cecelia Black of Disability Rights Washington are scheduled to take part.

CHS reported here on 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 had been planned as 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.

These are the Neighborhood Centers and Corridors around Capitol Hill as Seattle begins new debate on upzoning

The council’s comprehensive plan committee is now chaired by South Seattle’s Lin after D3 rep Joy Hollingsworth guided the committee through the update’s first phase and legislation last year in a process that was shaped by priorities forged by Mayor Bruce Harrell — and legal challenges. 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.

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.

The proposed 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. Future Neighborhood Centers like Roanoke Park could also be in play.

The phased approach, however, is now mostly being jettisoned in a rush to address the city’s housing emergency. Wilson has now directed the Office of Planning and Community Development to launch a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) in 2026 to evaluate expanded land use and zoning changes with hopes for rezoning legislation to move forward in 2027.

The process’s “Phase IV” legislation wasn’t originally planned to take shape until two years from now. Now, it is possible Seattle will land its plan early, well ahead of the 2029 state deadline for transit-oriented density.

But beyond the schedules, the acceleration is hoped to also speed up real changes for the city including expanding the areas for multifamily housing more deeply into neighborhoods around busy main arterials so that more people can live in quieter residential areas that are still within a short walk of transit.

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