In an effort to stimulate and enliven the environment of Seattle's neighborhood business districts -- the neighborhood centers where people interact and essential goods, services, and jobs are provided -- the City is proposing some new strategies to reflect changing conditions and neighborhood plan goals.

Seattle's regulations play an important role in maintaining the vitality of these business districts and making them compatible with surrounding residential areas. To recognize the new direction provided by the Comprehensive Plan and Neighborhood Plans, Mayor Greg Nickels directed DPD to work with citizens to improve pedestrian and transit orientation, support job creation, enhance housing opportunities, and maintain compatibility with surrounding residential areas.

The resulting project, titled the "Neighborhood Business District Strategy" (NBDS), aims to ensure that Seattle's mixed-use neighborhood centers continue to evolve as desirable places to live, work, conduct business, and meet their neighbors.

Name Change for NBDS Project
NBDS has previously been referred to as "Commercial Policies and Code Review" or "Commercial Code Review." The name was changed to more accurately reflect the project's focus on the core of our urban centers and villages in the future.

The project encompasses reviewing how different policies and requirements interact, such as parking, pedestrian orientation, residential uses, and design review. The project continues to apply only in Commercial or Neighborhood Commercial zones.

"The new title should help reinforce that the project is helping to strengthen our business districts, a key part of most neighborhood plans," said John Rahaim, Seattle City Planning Director.