Major Review

Seattle - Your City, Your Future

The City is going to be conducting a Major Review of its Comprehensive Plan in a phased approach over the next three years. Each phase will review and update certain topics that are central to how the City plans for the growth that we expect to occur over the next 20 years.
The first phase of the update will focus on three critical topics:

• Climate change
• Development around transit stations
• Urban design

The first public discussion about possible policies to address all of these topics is going to be at a May 3 meeting. The City will also sponsor specific meetings for each of these topics in late spring and summer to further develop the ideas for inclusion in the Comp Plan.

DPD will then submit a package of recommended amendments to the City Council in November 2012, for the Council to consider and vote on in early 2013.

We will follow similar processes in 2013 and 2014, addressing additional topics for the Plan in each of those years, so that by June 2015 the City will have reviewed and updated the entire Comprehensive Plan, in compliance with state law.

Why focus on these three topics first?

The Comprehensive Plan has been a successful tool for encouraging and guiding growth. And its fundamental principle of providing the right kind of zoning in designated Urban Centers and Urban Villages has worked.

However, since the last major update of the Plan in 2004, two significant changes in the city suggest the time has come to consider shifting some of the emphasis in the Plan. Those two changes are:

• Light rail transit (11 stations opened and six more on the way)
• City commitment to aim for net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050
• Continued growth in the city (since the Plan was first adopted in 1994, the city has added nearly 100,000 people and over 50,000 housing units, and we expect more growth than that in the next 20 years)

The arrival of the light rail stations in designated urban centers and urban villages reinforces the Comp Plan’s strategy of providing better transit service in those areas that are expected to absorb most of the city’s growth. It also raises questions about other guidance the City may want to adopt regarding the future of those neighborhoods.

In order to achieve a future in which the residents and businesses produce no carbon emissions while still growing, the City will need to define new ways for growth to occur and for significantly reducing use of gasoline-powered vehicles.

As the city adds more housing and more businesses on the limited land in the designated Urban Centers and Urban Villages, it will be increasingly important to provide assurances that this growth will not only be a positive contribution to the urban environment, but will also complement aspects of the city that make Seattle unique and livable. Urban design policies can help guide how new growth can fit in the city.