All of these are subtle but cruelly effective tools in developing and preserving exclusive communities, especially in the face of clearly increasing need for homes—of many types and sizes and price points—across a growing city. So we want to legalize them (and re-legalize it in Wallingford itself, so, for example, single-family teardowns aren’t limited by law to becoming nothing but $1.5M+ homes for one rich family but rather might also be ‘plexes for folks with smaller budgets).Please keep it civil and constructive. However, it is not necessary to demonize current residents. This is equal to the total single-family parcel acres divided by total parcel acres in the neighborhood of all zones plus park acreage.
The process was run by a consultant provided by the City. We work to promote smart policy ideas and monitor the region's progress towards sustainability. The goal differed from that the City is doing currently with HALA in that we strove to accommodate density without creating adverse impacts to the elements that make each neighborhood of Seattle a unique and special place.Also, Mike has adopted the recent redefinition of the urban village concept promoted by City Hall to support HALA. Here’s a reminder as you seem to have forgotten: Why have there been single story commercial buildings along 45th street for decades? West Wallingford plate map from Seattle’s 1960 zoning maps. many of them are leftovers from the ‘zoning as snapshot’ of existing conditions of the 1923 comp plan, on which they’re super visible graphically: unfortunately, we don’t allow many cornerstores today. And when policies unreasonably restrict the kinds or numbers of homes permitted in the city’s neighborhoods, those policies restrict countless people—current residents and hopeful ones—from sharing in the wealth and potential of those opportunities.HALA’s Mandatory Housing Affordability proposed upzones would produce a nominal increase in allowed development for thousands of units of affordable housing, but 94 percent of the city’s single family zones contribute nothing to MHA, a massive inequity. The city proposed urban village plans for several neighborhoods across the city and each neighborhood had a chance to submit its proposed amendments to the city’s plan. We need more neighborhoods like Wallingford, not fewer.We need to more neighborhoods like the parts of Wallingford-as-built-pre-modern-zoning everywhere. Consider that resistance to HALA is likely seated in the fact that it is an incredibly flawed proposal that favors profit over affordability. It would seem that these properties should have been redeveloped into denser housing if the demand existed. For example, though the HALA plan proposes upzoning land within Wallingford’s existing urban village boundary to some of the more flexible zoning types for which these villages were intended (a two decade delayed fulfillment of the urban village plan), it does nothing to expand the village and continues to privilege the rest of the neighborhood as strictly single-family. HISTORY. The UW has always had a somewhat predatory attitude toward its neighbors. These requests shouldn’t be surprising; they are history repeating itself: zoning restrictions lobbied for by a select few that confine the lives, space, and opportunities of countless people.At present, Seattle’s Office of Planning and Community Development has not recommended that the city adopt these proposed amendments. HALA does little to remedy the shortage of ownership opportunity, focusing instead on incentivizing real estate investment firm construction of more rental units, which is overbuilt and moving more toward a surplus.Mike’s reference to his friend Doug Trumm’s run for the WCC Board adopts Trumm’s unsubstantiated claim of not being successful due to being a renter (even though there was no litmus test and no one knew) rather than that he stated that he had not attended any WCC Meetings, had no experience in neighborhood issues and was running against another candidate that did attend meetings, led several volunteer projects, and understood the issues facing the council.