Seattle eyes taller, denser in affordable housing proposal

But critics fear plans will hurt character of neighborhoods.

SEATTLE — Seattle’s booming tech industry has brought a massive influx of new residents with big wallets to the city. But an ensuing housing crunch has led to skyrocketing rents and home prices that have strained middleand working-class families and deepened the city’s homelessness crisis.

To keep construction humming and help people of all incomes stay, city officials have come up with what’s dubbed the “grand bargain”: Let developers build taller and denser in core areas across the city and require them to either include units that working-class people can afford, or pay for projects to be built elsewhere.

Backlash was swift from those worried increased heights and density will change the character of single-family neighborhoods that dominate this picturesque city.

But equally vocal groups have formed to back the city’s mandatory housing affordability plan, which aims to create 6,200 new affordable units over 20 years for those making 60 percent of area median income. More growth and housing choices mean teachers, firefighters and other laborers can remain in Seattle alongside wealthy tech workers, supporters say.

As the city has grown, “there’s a real sense of some folks winning and some folks losing as part of that growth,” said Seattle Councilmember Rob Johnson, an urban planner who is sponsoring the housing proposal. The first of several public hearings is set for Monday night.

“If we make no changes to zoning, those buildings will be built, and they will be built without affordable housing components to them,” he added.

Cities such as San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C., have policies that require development to include affordable units. Philadelphia is among those weighing similar mandates.

Friction over growth is playing out in other cities grappling with housing shortages. In Portland, Oregon, the city’s plan to accommodate growth partly by allowing taller buildings downtown has stirred opposition. In California, a controversy is brewing over a state bill that eases building restrictions around transit hubs and corridors and ends parking requirements.

In Seattle — a city of about 714,000 bordered largely by water — growth has been explosive. Fueled by Amazon and other tech giants, Seattle added nearly 75,000 jobs from 2012 to 2016, and 87,000 people in the past five years.

The city subsidizes housing for the poorest, and the market is expanding for top-income brackets. But little has been done for those in the middle who already spend too much of their wages on rent, Johnson said.

Seattle’s median home price has skyrocketed to $757,000 — the highest ever, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Average rent for a one-bedroom apartment has increased 35 percent over five years but recently started to dip.

The changes have led to angst and soul-searching.

“It’s forcing us to have a hard, divisive conversation about what we want to be as a city,” Councilmember Mike O’Brien said.

Critics say the plan gives away too much to developers and isn’t the best way to add affordable housing. They also say it will lead to older and theoretically cheaper apartments and homes being torn down.

A coalition of groups is challenging the city’s environmental review of the plan, saying it didn’t adequately consider issues such as impacts to schools, traffic, parking and trees.

“It’s being sold that we have to change the zoning in order to accommodate the growth. Are the zoning changes the best way to get affordable housing?” said Susanna Lin with Seattle Fair Growth, a neighborhood group opposed to the plan. “You increase the rate of displacement. You lose the historical character, and communities are uprooted.”

Supporters say more housing closer to transit, schools and services would limit sprawl and accommodate surging demand. Options beyond pricey single-family homes — such as duplexes, cottages, tiny apartments and highrises — would allow those with more modest incomes to live in desirable neighborhoods. Existing homes are already being torn down and replaced by expensive McMansions, they said.