COMP PLAN TALKING POINTS FOR COUNCIL

Please take what you need and make them your own. It’s not meant to be a script.

Join us September 12th for virtual testimony at 9:30 am or in-person testimony at 3 pm. In-person testimony will be at Seattle City Hall. For those who cannot make either, please email the city council using council@seattle.gov.  

Making the Case for Anti-Displacement

  • Seattle has to create 60,000 NEW units of affordable housing in the next 20 years for us to house both people here today and new people to come. This plan does not do that. Not even close.

  • If we keep building market rate studios and one-bedrooms, low-income, BIPOC, and working class people will not be able to live in Seattle by 2045. Housing will be too scarce, too expensive, and too small for our families.

  • It doesn’t matter if the comp plan makes aspirational goals for affordable housing. Without a commitment to progressive revenue, we will never get to 60,000 units.

  • We are losing affordable housing and small business space faster than we are building new units and new spaces. We have to preserve what we have, not just build new.

  • We are losing not just working class BIPOC people, but our cultural anchors, culturally relevant businesses, and community services to displacement. We need to stabilize neighborhoods at risk of displacement with community ownership of land and community-led development.  

  • We won’t be a sanctuary city in 2045 if no immigrants or refugees can afford to live here.

  • Over the last 30 years, the City has upzoned and gentrified BIPOC neighborhoods, because of bad planning and cheap land for speculators. We need the rest of the city to take on more density and give our communities time to stabilize.

  • Getting rid of single family zoning is not enough to create affordability and end discrimination. Unaffordable new townhomes and stacked flats will not make up for a hundred years of segregation and generational loss of wealth.

What’s Missing from the Mayor’s Proposed Plan and Council Amendments

  • Zoning tweaks are not enough - we need City commitment to all models of community housing - tenant cooperatives, social housing, land trusts, BIPOC home ownership, and equitable transit oriented development.

  • The Comp Plan must commit to raising progressive revenue to fund community-led  development and affordable housing so we can get to 60,000 units in 20 years.

  • The Comp Plan should have % targets for how many affordable homes we want in high displacement risk areas, around transit stations, and in low-density neighborhoods. There is no plan if we have no targets.  

  • The Comp Plan should not upzone in high displacement risk areas, unless it's part of a community-driven strategy to keep people in place.

What Amendments We Support and Why

  • The City should maximize the number of neighborhood centers in low-displacement risk areas, and maximize the capacity for new housing in residential areas that are at low-risk of displacement. Amendments 33, 34,42, and 50 make progress towards that and should be supported.

  • The City must plan for more multi-generational housing and larger family units.  Amendments 19, 20 and 78 make progress towards that and should be supported.

  • The City should preference affordable housing, social housing, forms of community or tenant owned housing, land trusts, and accessible units in residential zoning. Amendments 17, 69, 70, 90, 60, 61, 63, and 79 make progress towards that and should be supported.

  • The City should support legacy Black homeowners by providing financial incentives to stay. Amendments 107, 108, and 109 make progress towards that and should be supported.

  • The City needs to prioritize food access and security, to support households struggling to stay nourished in the highest cost city in the US, and the right to food sovereignty. Amendments 5 make progress towards that and should be supported.

  • The City should embed environmental justice priorities in the land use map and residential zoning changes. Amendments 16, 18 and 75 make progress towards that and should be supported.