By Anne Higuera
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Six years into the city’s efforts to have developers help meet the need for affordable housing, things aren’t turning out exactly as expected. Seattle’s Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) laws, which the City Council unanimously made citywide in 2019, were supposed to both provide more income-restricted units in market-rate buildings, and fund the construction of additional low-income housing. While some of that has happened, the MHA is also being blamed for making it harder to build multi-family housing units in Seattle, according to a report released recently.

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office commissioned the report by BERK Consulting and Heartland LLC to evaluate how well the MHA policies, which included select upzoning to increase density, met goals during the first 5 years. After giving latitude to construct taller buildings with more units because of the upzoning, the city asked developers to either commit to providing a limited number of low-income units in their buildings for 75 years or to pay a fee based on the building square footage. It might seem like a simple choice to make, but it’s complicated by market conditions, land costs and in the case of the period from 2019–2024, the turmoil caused by the pandemic. The report paints a picture of declining feasibility not just in Seattle but across 13 “peer” cities they examined, where higher interest rates and increasing construction costs made it difficult for projects to pencil out. “MHA requirements play a relatively small but important role,” notes the report, adding that even with better market conditions, the cost of complying with the MHA could well be the deciding factor for a developer to say, “No go.”

As bleak as that sounds, many thousands of new housing units have been built since MHA passed. Through 2023, developers paid $300 million in fees to the city. The report points to MHA funds supporting 4,702 new low-income units, but those funds were pooled with other financing, so it’s hard to tease out exactly how many units can be attributed solely to MHA funds. The developers themselves only built 404 income-restricted units in projects during that time. The stated goal was for MHA to be directly responsible for 6,000 new units over 10 years, with no specific goals for how much of that would be achieved through developer fees. It turns out that 95% of developers opted to pay fees for their projects, most of which were either low-rise or high-rise. Of the 5% who did not, the vast majority of the income-restricted units were built in mid-rise projects.

While the preference for paying fees has been consistent, the amount collected has varied significantly. Fees from developers made up almost half of the Office of Housing budget in 2021 by bringing in $74 million that year, but that is down to a projection of $22 million for 2025. The Office of Housing does have other revenue streams, including the Housing Levy and Payroll Expense Tax on companies with high earners. That means the opportunity to build many more affordable housing projects remains, but not because multi-family housing is booming generally.

In light of some of the challenges during MHA’s first 5 years, and knowing that the legislation was written based on much different economic situation than the current one, the BERK/Heartland report makes a number of recommendations to take that all into account and still encourage more affordable housing:

* Adjust MHA fees annually based on market conditions, housing type and location, rather than using a formula

* Allow fees to be paid later or over time (currently paid early in the process, which is an added financing cost)

* Raise fees or remove fees entirely as an option to ensure more income-restricted units in projects.

* Remove red tape: Streamline permitting and eliminate design review, adjust other miscellaneous policies

In a letter to the City Council last week, Mayor Harrell indicated he will look into the possibility of fine-tuning the MHA, saying the report, “…serves to confirm that MHA can be a useful tool, but it requires careful design and active management to ensure it does not result in unintended consequences for Seattle’s housing market.” Harrell’s Press Secretary Callie Craighead told WSB that a 5- to 7-person technical review committee will be convened to assess and provide feedback on the report. Craighead said the BERK/Heartland study cost $250,000 and was funded by MHA administrative fees collected by the Office of Housing.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Convened by the city for the first time in 15 months, the Southwest Design Review Board gave its final approval tonight to an 8-story apartment building proposed for 3010 SW Avalon Way, with just a few relatively minor recommendations.

All five current board members were in attendance – chair Gavin Schaefer and members AB Alvarez, Nicole Li, Jessie McClurg, and Rob McCulloch, all identifying themselves as West Seattle residents. The city land-use planner assigned to the project, Theresa Neylon, was in attendance too. Schaefer was the only holdover from the board’s previous meeting (about another project) in December 2023. The previous meeting about this project was three and a half years ago.

Tonight’s hour-long online meeting unfolded in the standard design-review format:

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(Rendering by Studio 19 Architects)

Three weeks ago, we told you about the upcoming Design Review hearing for an 86-apartment project at 3010 SW Avalon Way. At the time, the city hadn’t linked the “packet” for that hearing (though we found a draft version for our story), but now it’s available and you can see it here. The online review meeting is at 5 pm Thursday (February 6); the links for participating/viewing are on this page. As we noted last month, this will be the first time the city has convened the Southwest Design Review Board since December 2023. The project passed the first phase of Design Review in November 2021. P.S. If you’re wondering how close this is to the future light-rail station, that’s shown on a map in the packet.

(WSB photo)

Checking the city’s online files for notable development proposals hasn’t yielded much lately, but we keep checking anyway, and found one this week: An early-stage proposal that has four old brick duplexes on the east edge of The Junction, west side of the 5000 block of Fauntleroy Way SW, slated for demolition, to be replaced on the 31,785-sf site by 28 new residential units – 20 townhouse duplexes and eight standalone houses. Off-street parking would be along the alley to the west. The stretch of Fauntleroy Way between The Junction and Morgan Junction has been slowly redeveloping for years, primarily into townhouses, but mostly a few units at a time; the size and scale of this makes it noteworthy. County Assessor files do not yet show a record of sale for the parcels, whose addresses range from 5029 Fauntleroy to 5045 Fauntleroy [vicinity map], but the developer is listed on the site plan as IS Property Investments and the architect is listed as David Cone. Again, this is an early-stage proposal, so it’s not in any official review phase yet.

Three notes tonight, with one week to go until the December 20th deadline for comments on the city’s rezoning proposals (on which we first reported two months ago):

CITY’S ONLINE ‘INFO SESSION’: An online informational meeting last night had some technical trouble, so the city has scheduled one last “virtual info session” about the rezoning plan for Tuesday (December 17), 5:30-7:30 pm. Here’s the link.

MORGAN COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION MEETING: Last night’s Morgan Community Association-organized meeting at High Point Library filled the meeting room there with more than 50 people. No presentation, but the meeting did include two Q&A sections, with MoCA president Deb Barker answering most questions. While the rest of the meeting just involved people milling around city infosheets on the walls (you can look up Morgan or other neighborhoods’ proposed changes here), we did record both sections of Q&A:

The zoning changes by neighborhood for City Council District 1 – which includes West Seattle – can be seen here.

FAUNTLEROY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION’S CALL TO ACTION: Another West Seattle neighborhood group, the Fauntleroy Community Association, has launched a last-minute letter-writing campaign in opposition to some of the proposed rezoning. They contend that the changes “would harm our neighborhood.” Their campaign includes two templates for potential letters to the city – one with prewritten statements of concern, the other in which you can voice your own concerns about the plan. Or, scroll down the city’s main page to see how to comment, whatever you think about the proposals.

(Google Maps Street View image, west side of 35th/Barton)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Above, you see the heart of what would be the Upper Fauntleroy “neighborhood center” as part of the proposed zoning changes just unveiled by the city.

The maps are part – but not the entirety – of the “comprehensive plan” (aka One Seattle Plan) updates that the city’s been working on for the past two years, part of a state-mandated process to update the plan once a decade. We got a preview at a City Hall media briefing this morning; the city says its proposed sheaf of changes would give Seattle the capacity for a total of 330,000 new housing units, far more than they envisioned when circulating the draft earlier this year. (Here’s the slide deck from today’s briefing.)

The proposed maps build on the draft maps circulated last spring, as reported here in March, when we first noted that the city intended to plan for increased business activity and housing density by designating “neighborhood centers” as well as making some changes in its existing “urban centers” (formerly known as “urban villages”). Back in March, the city’s early version of these changes showed six “neighborhood centers” for West Seattle. Now, the newly unveiled maps show (update: 7 out of the 30 total proposed citywide – OPCD tells us 3 were were “studied” but are not currently being proposed):

*Brandon Junction (centered on Delridge/Brandon)
*Fairmount (centered on California/Findlay)
*Holden (centered on 35th/Holden)
(UPDATE: Studied but not proposed) *Sylvan Junction (centered on Delridge/Orchard)
*Upper Fauntleroy (centered on 35th/Barton)
*High Point (centered on 35th/Morgan)
(UPDATE: Studied but not proposed) *Highland Park (centered on 9th/Trenton)
*Endolyne (centered on 45th/Wildwood)
*Delridge (centered on Delridge/Dakota)
(UPDATE: Studied but not proposed) *Alki (centered on 61st/Stevens)

(For now, check the online maps for exact boundaries and the attendant rezoning where applicable – we’ve requested a larger version of the map/list and will add it here when available. UPDATE: Here it is.)

The “neighborhood center” additions are only part of what you’ll find on the zoning maps. West Seattle’s four “urban centers” – Admiral, Alaska Junction, Morgan Junction, and Westwood/Highland Park – would, in most cases, expand (here again is the interactive site with the maps).

If you’re not in an urban center or neighborhood center, check your zoning anyway. Upzoning is proposed along major transit routes (Fauntleroy Way SW along the RapidRide C Line route past Lincoln Park, for example). And if you’re in a “neighborhood residential” zone (the new name given to “single-family” a few years back), and otherwise unchanged, you’ll be in an “urban neighborhood” area. Most formerly “single-family” parcels already have had the capacity for three units – a main house and two Accessory Dwelling Units – because of previous city changes, but now the State Legislature-passed HB 1110 requires capacity for four units on these parcels. If affordable housing is included, some might be eligible for six units, and/or four stories. And lots of parcels will become mixed-use in one specific way – any corner lot in an “urban neighborhood” zone would be eligible for a corner store.

Other changes include parking rules:

As a result of this, we learned, the Alki Parking Overlay – which requires a space and a half for every dwelling unit in that area – would be abolished (as would the only other “parking overlay” in the city, in the U District). General parking for residential units – aside from the frequent-transit zones where none would be required – would be one space for two units.

Lots more in the maps, and there’s more in what the city announced today. But for starters, you can browse for yourself, and make comments now – that’s why the maps are being made public, with other plan-updates to come. You can also attend an upcoming informational session. The West Seattle session is 5:30-7:30 pm Wednesday, November 6, at Madison MS (3429 45th SW) and the full list of citywide events (plus the online session) is on this flyer. All this ultimately goes to the City Council for consideration. (added) The official comment period, meantime, runs until December 20, so you have time for a close look. Also of note, as discussed in comments, the city plans to propose more upzoning in Urban Centers in a future “phase” of planning (see page 10 of the slide deck).

THURSDAY UPDATE: OPCD says three of the 10 “neighborhood centers” listed for West Seattle were studied but not proposed. We have labeled them as such above.

ADDED THURSDAY PM: Here also, provided by OPCD, is a District 1-specific map (see it in PDF here):

(WSB photo, April draft ‘One Seattle Plan’ open house at Chief Sealth IHS)

Next week, we’ll see how the city proposes updating its plan for future growth – aka the Comprehensive Plan, or “One Seattle Plan” in keeping with Mayor Harrell‘s signature phrase. This afternoon, District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka‘s office has sent out a heads-up on what’s ahead and how/when you can attend a briefing/comment opportunity in West Seattle, six months after the draft version of the plan was circulated at events including one covered here in April:

Many of you had expressed interest in the City’s Comprehensive Plan over this past year. Here is another around of community engagement so please share out broad and wide!

On October 16, the Mayor’s Office and the Office of Planning and Community Development are releasing Mayor Harrell’s updated Growth Strategy for the One Seattle Plan along with detailed information on zoning changes, including draft legislation to implement HB 1110 in our Neighborhood Residential zones and draft zoning maps for other land use changes in neighborhoods across the city.

This release kicks off a two-month public comment period on the zoning legislation and maps that will run through December 20. OPCD has planned a schedule of engagement, including info sessions in every Council District.

The outreach happening this fall is strictly related to zoning changes. Residents will be able to view the specific zoning changes on detailed maps, and will be able to comment directly on the maps via an online tool.

OPCD will host one online session on October 23rd and an in-person session in District 1 on November 6th at Madison Middle School Gym. Residents can learn how to view the maps, use the commenting tools, and voice their feedback. You are welcome to attend any of the other sessions as well.

This feedback will inform zoning legislation that will be sent to council in early/Spring 2025 as part of the Select Committee.

The West Seattle session is 5:30-7:30 pm Wednesday, November 6, at Madison MS (3429 45th SW) and the full list of citywide events (plus the online session) is on this flyer.

The development files have been fairly quiet lately, aside from townhouse projects, which aren’t always noteworthy, but this is an exception, as it’s one of the larger such projects we’ve seen in a while, and on a high-visibility site: Two years after the sale of three 80-year-old duplexes across from Cormorant Cove Park, there’s an early-stage redevelopment plan. Nine 3-bedroom townhouses, with nine offstreet parking spaces, are proposed to replace the boxy duplexes on the corner of Beach Drive SW and SW Orleans (which hold the official addresses 3702-3708 Beach and 6011 Orleans). Seven units would face Beach, two would face Orleans. These are the last un-redeveloped parcels on the inland side of the 3700 block of Beach Drive. A Seattle investment entity affiliated with architecture firm MG2 – whose name is on the site plan – bought the site for $3 million in 2022.