Category Archives: Transportation

MHA FEIS Preferred Alternative Map for Wallingford Urban Village

Citywide Open House on MHA, Tuesday January 30

Come to the Citywide Open House featuring District 4 Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) Maps.
See how the city proposes to upzone Wallingford. Join your neighbors to help us all Keep Seattle Livable!

Tuesday January 30, 6:00 – 8:00 PM. Come anytime during the evening for the informal walk-around presentation.
Hamilton International Middle School, 1610 North 41st Street.

The Seattle City Council invites you to “Come and review maps of proposed MHA zoning changes to your Urban Village”. District 4 includes the Eastlake, Fremont, Greenlake, Roosevelt, U-District, and Wallingford Urban Villages.

MHA FEIS Preferred Alternative Map for Wallingford Urban VillageCome see if your block is getting rezoned – how high and how wide. Many parcels in Wallingford would change from Single-Family to Lowrise 1, Lowrise 2, or even Lowrise 3 zoning! Let the city know again of your concerns.

Keep Seattle Livable!  Here are the basics that we recommend you ask for:

  • Alter the Urban Village boundaries to spare 700 Single-Family homes from the wrecking ball. Even without them in the Urban Village, Wallingford still meets the City’s affordable housing goal for our neighborhood.
  • Prevent massive developments next to houses. Many of the upzones change building heights from three stories up to six stories! You can check this site if you are looking for quality painting services.
  • Require setbacks and step-downs in order to preserve yards, trees, and daylight.
  • Require on-site parking.
  • Require true family housing in all zone definitions. Add density limits back to the zone definitions so that two, three, and four bedroom units are built throughout the neighborhood.
  • Increase mixed-income housing development in Wallingford.
  • Require affordable housing units to be built on-site.
  • Protect our local small businesses. Require affordable leases in new buildings.
  • Require the City to track displacement of low- and middle-income residents, and small businesses.
  • Impose Impact Fees now to fund schools, parks, roads, and public safety!

While you are there – ask the City how the MHA “Grand Bargain” program helps to retain and grow middle-class housing in Wallingford.

Learn what the City is not telling you at the WCC MHA “Grand Bargain” page.
Read how the proposed zoning changes will affect you at The City reveals “Preferred Alternative” zoning changes for Wallingford (corrected from Draft Zoning Maps Released for Walllingford).
Note: While the focus of this meeting is on Urban Villages – any parcel that is currently zoned multi-family, inside or outside of an Urban Village, will be upzoned as well.

Tuesday January 30 at 6:00 PM. Bring your friends to see what the city is up to!

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Deadline for ADU EIS Scoping Comments, Thursday November 16

Comments must be submitted by 5:00 PM tomorrow, Thursday November 16!

The City is proposing to change the Land Use Code to remove barriers to the creation of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in single-family zones. The proposal allows for two ADUs instead of one per lot, removes existing off-street parking and owner-occupancy requirements, and changes development standards that regulate the size and location of detached units (DADUs).

We urge you to express your concerns regarding what issues the City should study in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Your comments may address these topics:

  • The objectives for this proposal are not clear. Better objectives might be more affordable housing, more family housing, preservation of tree canopy and yards, and development compatible with existing single-family housing.
  • Only one alternative is presented for this proposal. At least two alternatives to accomplish the objective are required. You may suggest alternatives to be studied.
  • The impacts of this proposal on neighborhoods, public services, and natural resources.
  • Measures to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the effects of this proposal.

Comments must be submitted by 5:00 PM on November 16 by:

Further information is available at the City’s Accessory Dwelling Units EIS website. The City will produce a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).  When the DEIS is released, you will then have a chance to comment on the specific conclusions in that document.

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Wear Black to the City Open House, Thursday October 26

A.K.A. the “Funeral of the Neighborhood Voice”

Thursday October 26, 6:00 – 7:30 PM
Hales Brewery (in the Palladium)
4301 Leary Way NW

Wear black as together we mourn the loss of our Neighborhood Voice

The City wants to remove Single-Family zoning language from our Neighborhood Plan to allow for upzones and increased building heights in our neighborhood.  This Thursday, the City is having an Open House in which they want to “start a discussion” around changes to five neighborhood plans.

If you think that neighborhoods should have a voice, and believe that residents, neighborhood businesses, schools and the city should all be involved and working together to plan the future – then wear black and attend the Open House.

We can make a statement about our lack of voice.  Here’s how:

  1. Show up, dressed in black as a visual protest of the City killing our Neighborhood Plans by controlling its language and not allowing neighborhood-directed planning.
  2. The City will ask you to rewrite a section of our neighborhood plan to remove single family zoning language and will dictate what language is allowable, or ask you to choose one of their options. Instead, we recommend you tell the City that our neighborhood plans and zoning should only be changed through a formal neighborhood planning process.

Please join us for the “Funeral of the Neighborhood Voice”.
Suggestions for Signs:

  • RIP – Neighborhood Voice
  • RIP – Democracy in Seattle
  • RIP – Livability
  • RIP – Affordability
  • Death of the Neighborhood Plan
  • Silenced! Neighborhood Voices
  • Resurrect Neighborhood Plans

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MHA DEIS Comments Due by Monday August 7

We need you and your friends and neighbors to comment this weekend!

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) evaluates the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program impacts on Urban Villages, and in multi-family and commercial areas throughout Seattle. Residents from many neighborhoods have reviewed and analyzed the DEIS.  The results are available in the Comments folder and the Analysis folder.

Please view the comment and analysis documents, find the issues important to you, and email your comments to the City at MHA.EIS@seattle.gov or by using the online form.  Submitting many brief comments is probably preferable to sending one long email.  The more people who submit comments, the more seriously the City has to address the comments!

If you are overwhelmed or short of time, here is a suggested comment to make:

“The DEIS is not sufficient to represent all Urban Villages and the City overall. Each Urban Village is unique, with different housing types, cultural traditions, businesses, resources, and growth needs. This DEIS fails to recognize and examine these differences.

Each Urban Village and Surrounding Area needs to be analyzed separately, thoroughly and accurately via their own individual EIS.

Additionally, the DEIS does not address how the whole City will be impacted by the changes both in this DEIS and the other SEPA analyses combined. Seattle residents live in both their own neighborhoods and in the City at large, yet this DEIS has failed to analyze the impacts to both thoroughly and accurately.”

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