-We have to act with urgency.
-State lawmakers say we're falling behind
in the affordable housing crisis.
And developers say they're facing too many restrictions
on what and where they can build.
-Really right now, we've only got certain zones
that allow you to do multifamily.
-But does the so-called missing middle plan
to require nearly every city to allow
fourplexes to be built in all residential zones,
have a strong enough foundation?
-The parking minimums is going to be a challenge.
-It's just that there are a lot of unintended consequences.
-We hear from two mayors
from either side of the state to get the story.
-We had to do something bold. -Is the infrastructure in place?
-Does the missing middle bill measure up or miss the mark?
We're nailing down some answers next
on "City Inside Out."
♪♪
-Welcome to this edition of "City Inside Out."
I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
We all know the rising cost of housing
is a crisis in our state.
But is a plan requiring cities
to get rid of single-family housing zones
part of the answer?
House Bill 1110,
the so-called missing middle bill,
would mandate that cities with at least 6,000 residents
need to allow fourplex housing in all residential areas
or sixplexes in areas close to major transit stops.
Opponents say this bill could hurt cities
by forcing them to add costly infrastructure
and potentially increasing displacement
from older affordable housing units.
But supporters say the state has to act now
with a housing shortage that's getting worse every year.
-The fundamental underlying challenge
is that we do not have enough housing in our state
for our people.
-It doesn't take a proclamation from the governor to know
housing prices in Washington
have quite literally gone through the roof.
-And it's simple supply and demand.
There's just not enough houses.
We've had a huge influx of people coming in,
all the tech workers,
and we just can't build houses fast enough.
-Michael Pollard is vice president of Entitlement
for Shelter Homes, a local home builder,
creating new units like these townhomes in Kirkland.
There's just one problem.
-We always run into the challenge of nobody
wants development in their backyard
and after their development is done.
-Resistance toward adding housing density
is a statewide issue exemplified in Seattle
where a majority of the residential areas
are zoned for single-family homes,
not duplexes or fourplexes that Pollard says could provide
a major boost to our housing supply.
-If you can get two, three, or four done on a given lot,
then that allows more lots to be developed.
And it really -- it opens up a sea of new land
for us to develop on.
-Representative Jessica Bateman says this zoning issue
has left most local prospective homebuyers zoned out.
-First-time home ownership is only affordable
in three counties in Washington State.
They're all in eastern Washington.
-Bateman, the Democrat from the 22nd District in Olympia,
is prime sponsor of House Bill 1110,
the missing middle bill focused on middle income earners.
-Washington is experiencing a housing shortage,
which is culminating in a housing crisis.
-1110 would require cities with a population over 6,000
to allow for development
of at least four units per lot on all areas
now zoned for residential use,
six if two of the units are affordable.
-Today we are a united front. -Both sides realize
that we can no longer accept the failures.
-The measure has bipartisan support this year.
After Bateman's unsuccessful attempt to pass it in 2022
and she says the data from places like Portland,
which eliminated single-family zoning last year,
shows the policy can work.
-It's a diffuse absorption of population growth.
You're not seeing entire, you know,
blocks being bulldozed down
and sixplexes going up in all of them.
-Bateman says our state is currently
140,000 units behind in terms of housing supply
and we'll need a million more homes in the next 20 years
to handle population growth.
So the time to act is now.
-So if we want a future where young people can buy homes,
start families, build equity, people have affordable rent,
we do have to treat this with some urgency.
-I do believe that our legislators are doing this
with the best of intentions.
There are just some unintended consequences
that we want to make sure don't happen.
-Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus works with the Association
of Washington Cities,
which rejects what it calls HB 1110 one size fits all approach.
-One of the challenges that we have
with the current structure of the bill
is the uniform application of this in all cities over
6,000 on all parcels.
-Backus says new housing means new needs
for infrastructure,
like electric service and sewers.
Big money projects for smaller cities, especially.
-The infrastructure, is not there to support the additional
density in those neighborhoods.
Well, that's a cost to the city
that obviously is going to be passed on to our ratepayers.
-And she says the bill's requirement to add density,
specifically in areas within a half mile of major transit stops
could mean developers will buy up
and tear down older, existing affordable units,
leaving many of her residents without a home.
-Where do they go?
We're required to make sure that there's no displacement.
But this law itself is going to create displacement.
-Backus says her city is not anti-density.
She says more than 2,000 units of affordable housing
have been built here in the last five years.
-Auburn is very affordable. I'm very proud of that.
-And Auburn and other cities want to make sure a new state
zoning requirement doesn't complicate
local housing efforts already underway.
-We just want the ability to work through processes
that we've already begun and not have to scrap that
for a statewide process
that may not fit with all the work
that's already been done and all of the money
that's already been spent for that plan.
-Despite the critiques,
many signs point to the passage of HB 1110 this year
as our state looks at solving a housing crisis
with a long road ahead.
-I think it really does need to come from the state level.
-To discuss this issue further
we have two mayors with us from either side of the state.
We have Keith Scully.
He's the mayor of Shoreline in our studio.
Mayor Scully, thank you very much for being here.
-Thank you for having me. -And we also have with us Mayor
Nadine Woodward from the city of Spokane.
Mayor Woodward, good to have you as well.
-Great to be here, Brian.
-I think you have some different experiences when it comes
to affordable housing,
and I'm very appreciative of having your input today.
And Mayor Woodward, maybe I can start with you here.
So when the state was not able to pass a missing
middle housing bill last year,
Spokane basically enacted its own version of that legislation.
Talk to us about building opportunity and choices
for all the BOCA ordinance.
It's an interim one year ordinance that you championed.
The city put it into effect in August of last year.
What is it? Why did you support it?
What impact is it having?
-Thanks a lot, Brian. It's a really a win-win
between the administration and the legislation community
and all the stakeholders in the housing issue.
And what we found out was we had eight in ten families
that could not afford a home in Spokane and Spokane County.
Our median price of homes have gone up to $400,000,
nearly double what they were before the pandemic.
We've seen a huge migration of people
moving to the east side of Washington
from western Washington and California.
Tight, tight supply, high demand.
I declared a housing emergency
and we got to work very, very quickly.
We had already been working on a Spokane housing action plan
that came from a commerce grant
that we had brought the community together
and listened to what the needs were.
But we took that plan,
brought it to my housing task force,
and helped inform that even more.
But what it basically does to address the missing middle
is it allows duplexes
and townhomes on any residential lot
and also triplexes and fourplexes
on busier transportation lines and corridors.
So what it really has done
is allowed us to use vacant lots in the city,
in neighborhoods in a way that they could not be used before.
-Okay. Thank you very much for that.
Mayor Scully, I want to talk about
what's going on in Shoreline and your approach to this issue.
There's a lot of growth that's happening in your city,
as you well know.
And the city has approved up zones in several areas
around light rail stations
and high capacity bus lines.
I want you to tell us about how your city
has responded to growth.
This whole missing middle question, what do you got?
-So we took a slightly different approach than Spokane did.
Instead of up zoning across the board,
we picked a few areas around existing high-capacity transit
and up zoned intensively there.
So right around the light rail stations and along Aurora,
which is served by Bus Rapid Transit,
we allow what we call MDR 78,
which is a 70-foot height limit and it's mixed use residential.
So you can put businesses there or you can put housing there.
And what folks are building is rental housing.
We had hoped there would be some condominiums going in there
so folks could afford to buy a place that,
for the most part hasn't happened.
But then surrounding those intense zones,
we've got less intense zones,
which are generally still within a half mile
walk shed of high-capacity transit.
And those are zoned for either 35 or 45-foot height limits.
And those are townhouses.
And those have been going up like mushrooms.
You can't move without tripping over a townhouse in Shoreline.
-Okay. -The unfortunate thing is,
we had hoped townhouses would be
where folks started buying their first homes.
They've been retailing for between 800,000
and $1,000,000 each,
which sort of is not the end goal we were hoping for,
although the more supply you add,
hopefully will eventually see those prices start to come down.
-Thank you. And I want to kind of expand on this idea
and talk about what the state's discussing here
with House Bill 1110, this missing middle bill.
It's one of more than a dozen bills related
to housing that's happening in Olympia.
So HB 1110 would require cities with populations of 6,000
or more to allow fourplex housing
and all residential areas and sixplexes
in areas near major transit stops.
Mayor Scully, is that a good idea?
-So I'm opposed to it, but I'm really curious to hear
about Spokane's experience with it.
-Yeah. -Because our concern is simply
because it's in a city doesn't mean it's near transit.
Right. I mean, Shoreline is very dense to start with.
We are pretty much built out.
But there are still neighborhoods
where if you add six more cars to a street,
that's six more cars parked on the street.
And those folks are not going to able to walk to transit
because it's not walkable. -Okay.
-It's walkable in some parts of the city.
It's not walkable in others.
And without that access to high-capacity,
my concern is not only are we not decreasing
our dependance on automobiles,
but we're kind of trashing our cities,
we're adding density in places it doesn't need to be.
And while it's better to be in a city than not in a city,
simply because it's in the city doesn't mean
it's necessarily in the right spot.
-Fair enough. Mayor Woodward,
I just wanted your thoughts about this
and maybe your take on this idea of
maybe bringing BOCA to a statewide level.
Do you think that would be a good thing?
-Well, I do, because it's definitely working for us.
But as far as the state,
I don't know if the state legislation
right now is going to change much
or impact the city -- the city of Spokane much
because of what we've already done.
I mean, it would just increased fourplexes to sixplexes
in those busy -- busy corridors.
But what we're seeing in our predevelopment
permitting is a lot of interest
and a lot of action based on BOCA.
Now, whether or not all those units go through,
that's another thing, but lots of interest.
We're not seeing any huge push back.
In fact, we're seeing more support
than we ever thought we would in neighborhoods
because the building that we're suggesting
has to meet the already existing design and building standards.
So you're not going to tear down an historic home
and build something modern.
And we have seen absolutely no tear downs --
-Okay. -...through this.
So it's been very favorable.
-Okay. Good to know. Keith.
Sorry to take your job I'm curious, Mayor Woodward,
in the less dense areas of the city,
how much have you seen?
How many folks are putting a cottage in their backyard?
-Well, actually, the ADUs have been very, very popular.
And that was another reform that we've done.
We've had dozens of those permitted already
starting in 2022 and into '23.
So actually, a lot of interest in that.
-Okay. I wanted to make sure I guided us back.
Mayor Scully talking about
some of the infrastructure issues
that can sometimes come with this,
because I know that's been a concern here.
You add this extra density, it might add some extra
needs for infrastructure. Some thoughts on that?
-No, for sure. And that was a big constraint
what we did and we had to work
with our electricity comes from Seattle City Light.
We had to work with them to make sure we had power.
We worked with our water district,
which is independent of the city,
to make sure we had water.
And when we built it or when we designed it,
we went block by block.
And we ask one, is this going to be walkable to transit?
Two, is the infrastructure in place,
not just water and sewer, but also sidewalks?
Is there enough parks?
And we made sure that as we designed it,
that when it was fully built out,
we'd be able to support it. And my worry and again,
I'm fascinated here about Spokane.
My worry is if you start just dropping this here
and there, you're going to find that infrastructure
does get stretched because our infrastructure
was designed for single-family back in the '40s, '50s, and '60s
when Shoreline was first built out.
-I see. Mayor Woodward,
maybe you can break this down for us.
Has this infrastructure piece been an issue in Spokane?
I know it's very early yet with the BOCA process
because it just went into effect in August of last year.
But let us know about infrastructure
and how that plays a role here.
-Yeah, we have not had any issues with infrastructure
concerns and certainly we looked at that
before we passed BOCA we are utilities,
so we provide water, we do use a vista for electricity,
but our situation is different.
We're an old city.
I mean, the city of Spokane has been around
since the mining and timber days.
And when we had housing crisis 100 years ago,
we were doing multifamily housing
throughout the neighborhood.
So our infrastructure may be a bit aging.
We're keeping up our capital improvement projects
have really been good about, you know, keeping up with that.
But we have seen no problems with infrastructure.
-Okay. Thank you. And I should point out,
the state is looking at this issue while discussing this
bill and Olympia could offer some extensions
to some cities if this does pass,
possibly other assistance if there's a demonstrated
need for infrastructure here.
But, Mayor Woodward, maybe I can stick with you
for another question here.
Other jurisdictions around the country
have already passed measures that are similar to HB 1110,
the state of Oregon, the state of California.
And the data I've seen from those cities
seems to show what you're talking about.
It's a gradual infill.
Is it kind of a rush here with BOCA?
Are these things popping up overnight
or what's been that -- what's been that situation in Spokane
with the passage of BOCA?
How quickly is this infill moving in?
-It's very, very gradual. As I mentioned,
even our predevelopment activity is about 200-plus units.
And those haven't even been fully approved yet.
So it's very, very slow.
We anticipate one thing that we know when we change zoning,
it does things don't just change overnight.
Certainly they haven't experienced
that in Spokane at all,
but we just knew we were in such crisis mode
for housing that we had to do something big.
We had to do something bold.
It has gotten broad support
and favorable comments from some of the neighborhoods.
I'll just say some of the historic neighborhoods
were a little bit concerned,
especially those who already have preservation protections,
but they're not seeing the tear downs
that they thought that they would.
What they're seeing is vacant city lots
that now can be utilized
and developed like they couldn't before
because of some of the issues or concerns,
structural issues that were -- didn't pan out
for single family.
Now it does for a townhouse.
-Okay. I guess Mayor Scully in looking at this,
it looks like other jurisdictions
have had a relatively mild experience
with this whole middle missing middle piece.
Do you think it would be different in Shoreline
for some reason?
-I do. And I have fantasies about vacant city lots.
We just don't have -- we of course, have a few, but --
-Sure, sure. -But that's that's just not
the way Shoreline looks. It's pretty much built out.
And my concern is exactly that,
that we're going to get 200 units,
which doesn't really do much for affordable housing.
We have thousands in the pipeline in Shoreline
in the high-density areas.
We're going to get 200 units and they're going to be
plopped down in places where they don't really fit.
And so you're going to get a cul-de-sac
which has been built out since the '60s,
which is nowhere near transit.
And all of a sudden you've got instead of eight houses,
you've got 12 and the neighborhood
is just not set up for that. -Yeah.
-Cities absolutely have to take more density.
We have to do it. We have to up zone and cities
that are trying to preserve their rural feel
as some of them claim, that's missing the boat.
But in my belief, we need to do it carefully
and we need to do it only in certain parts of the city
that can accommodate the kind of growth we want to see.
-Can I go down one path with you, Mayor Scully,
about parking specifically? -Sure, yeah.
-I know that that's a piece of the puzzle here, too,
your concerns about that,
because I know the state's talking about that issue, too.
-So around so are we --
we require 2.75 parking spaces per unit
for one-bedroom units. -Yeah.
-Which means that there is going to be more units
than there are spaces for cars. But what we've found
and what I think is pretty consistent across the nation
is that if you're next to high-capacity transit,
some folks will finally decide they don't need a car
or they don't need a second car,
they don't need a third car, their kid doesn't need a car.
And that problem will solve itself for the high-density.
What actually worries me more on parking
is we've got a giant area around Shoreline
that is going to be driving to our light rail stations.
So I'm worried our neighborhoods are going to get
inundated with folks from out of town,
from the single-family neighborhoods
who want to drive to light rail and then park.
-Yeah, and I know
we're talking about very different cities here,
but I really like this cross comparison.
Mayor Woodward, can you talk to us about parking?
And was that part of the discussion,
part of what was going on with BOCA
here and in talking about it?
-That's always yeah, that's always a consideration, Brian.
What we're seeing and we're much different
than Shoreline, as you mentioned,
is that we have so many people who can't afford who work
in the city of Spokane or Spokane County
they can't afford to buy housing,
are living now across the border 30 miles away in north Idaho.
And we're seeing more car and carbon on our highway
on Interstate 90.
And so if we can get those who work in Spokane
to be able to live in Spokane,
we can have we can address that environmental impact.
But parking is certainly a concern. I understand.
And I -- and I agree with Mayor Scully.
-Yeah, I know the city, the excuse me,
the state is also working on that issue
to try to figure out some different different pieces.
This is very much legislation that is in process.
So I appreciate this back and forth.
Mayor Woodward, let me go back to you here,
because I think the flip side of this question here
is when we talk about hundreds of units being built,
I know you need thousands and so I'm trying to figure out
a way you could incentivize builders to build more units,
especially more affordable ones,
because I think this is a part of the puzzle, too,
building homes for people doesn't always pencil out
for developers when you're building these units,
for people who maybe make less than median income
and things of that nature.
How has Spokane approached this idea
of trying to offer incentives potentially for builders?
-Yes, we have and we've used some of our ARPA funds
for this a project
so city wise, significant funds that we can help
these developers who are building special projects
get compensation for some of the infrastructure
or some of the permitting fees that they need just to act.
And we also have a concierge service
within our own permitting and development services department
that kind of walks alongside some of these developers,
especially with more complex projects,
to make sure that they're meeting all the deadlines,
getting all the -- everything that they need in order
before a filing is made.
So those are some of the things that we're doing right now.
We also have new funding streams for affordable
and low income housing
because I think when we talk about housing,
we have to look at the entire picture.
I'll just be honest. We need housing at every single level.
But now our city council has increased sales tax
so that we've got some buckets of money
that are accumulating coming into our city
that we can now use to address low income
and low income supportive housing as well.
-Thank you very much for that.
Mayor Scully, some thoughts from you.
What incentives do you think would help
developers build more? What are you hearing from builders?
So we're doing a lot of that and it's effective for the rentals.
It's not effective for the purchased homes.
So in our high rise zones,
the mid and high rise zones, it's mandated.
It's not an incentive. You have to do it.
You want to build the high rise in Shoreline. It has to be 20%.
20% of it has to be affordable to 80% area median
income or below.
And that has not been an impediment.
You see construction cranes, all over Shoreline.
It's getting built in those zones
and in every zone we offer a huge number of incentives.
There's a state program which is
a property tax exemption program.
That's our most significant one in my understanding,
is I think any city is eligible for that.
It's a PT, property tax exemption funding stream.
Folks take advantage of that.
And for rentals, we're doing okay.
I mean, Shoreline is fairly affordable
if you want to rent there.
You're talking about family members who might move here
have look at Shoreline.
It's a little cheaper than Capitol Hill.
In fact, it's a lot cheaper than Capitol Hill.
-Sure. Sure. Right, right, right, right.
And the nightlife. Come on. Yeah. Yeah.
-Hey. -Yeah, I love it. I love it.
I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Right. But the sale prices, I mean, I mentioned earlier
these townhomes that we thought would be
where folks bought their first home,
$800,000 to $1,000,000.
You really can't find a single family house of any variety
in Shoreline for less than 600. It's just not there.
And I don't have a solution for that.
I'm not sure we really can incentivize for sale properties
the same way we can rental properties
just because of the way the financing
and funding streams work.
-Got it. Thank you for that. Mayor Woodward,
I wanted to ask you another question
with regard to naturally affordable housing.
And I know you've heard this phrase, too.
We're talking about older units, for example,
that might have lower rents if a lot of builders do end up
jumping in to build new housing
is there any concern that these older units
might get knocked down and new units have come in?
I know that's not happening yet with BOCA,
but that whole concept of naturally affordable housing
and trying to preserve it,
I think that's part of this discussion, too.
-Yeah, that's something that we're discussing as well
as as you mentioned, we haven't seen it.
What we're very concerned about right now
is anything at the legislature that would penalize landlords.
And I know that there are a lot of landlord
tenant protection bills right now.
Our city council is considering one themselves.
I think we have to be very careful.
Tenants need to be supported.
If we have some landlords that aren't providing safe housing,
we need to address that
and we do have that in our city, maybe about 2%.
But the majority, especially those mom and pop landlords
we cannot afford to lose housing
with punitive regulations and restrictions on them.
And cities that have passed strict landlord ordinances
have seen thousands of units lost to families.
-Okay. All right. Thank you for that.
I just wanted to follow up with you, Mayor Scully.
This issue of displacement, naturally,
naturally affordable housing and this issue,
I think this is a part of the discussion
for a lot of cities around the state.
-So in Shoreline, we're having displacement,
but it's generally not centered around the light rail.
It's around folks taking in affordable, older home,
tearing it down and building a non-affordable, giant new home.
-I see. -We have a ton of redevelopment
going on in our single family neighborhoods
and it is all a million, a million five, big, giant
as much as a lot as they can cover houses.
It's done by developers. It's fine.
I mean, it's just the way the city's going.
But in terms of displacement, affordable housing,
we're getting way more affordable housing
from the high rises than we're losing from losing
the single families that they replaced.
-I see, I see that the McMansion factor.
That's part of what's going on here.
Mayor Scully, I just want to get to what I see as a basic tension
within this issue.
On one side, we've got the state saying, okay,
we need to bring some equity to our zoning laws
because in the past they have not been equitable,
they have been exclusionary.
I think we have to recognize that.
But on the other side, you have other cities saying,
hey, don't give us a one size fits all approach.
Is there some middle ground here?
-Well, what I would like to see happen
is what happened in Shoreline is mandated.
You have to increase density by a certain percentage.
We actually already have that.
It just doesn't have a lot of teeth to it.
And then the local jurisdiction gets to decide how to do it.
We went block by block, sometimes parcel by parcel,
trying to decide, okay, if we allow a high-rise here,
how does that affect the wetland there?
-Yeah. -Right? And that's a question.
And you can you can plan for all that on a global level,
but it's at the local level
that you really have to make the fine distinctions.
Local government should have the authority
to decide where the density goes.
We should be required to put it somewhere.
-Got it. And that's a big part of this discussion.
Well, Mayor Woodward, maybe I can follow up with you
on this whole idea of equity,
because I know that was a very important part
of the discussions going on around BOCA here.
Clearly, every city in our state is different.
We're learning that very much so today.
But is there some middle ground on zoning
you think that all cities could agree on?
Any thoughts on that?
-Well, and I agree with Mayor Scully.
I think it really should be up to the individual.
Every city is different.
And so that's why we took this by the reins
and did it ourselves
and did it the way that we believe would work
by lots of community engagement.
This is just a pilot project.
Our BOCA is just a one-year pilot project,
but we are doing right now
is more of that neighborhood engagement,
talking to the stakeholders,
tweaking what we have already now as a pilot project
and hopefully implementing something much more permanent
as we go to our comprehensive plan
and our development codes
and make this permanent by this summer.
Right. I know it expires in July. Did you have thought --
-Yeah. I want to go back to the equity thing a bit.
-Please. -Most of the folks who own homes
in Shoreline have been there a long time.
And Shoreline has become increasingly
diverse over the years.
The immigrant folks,
the people who are moving in from other countries
or other regions for the most part don't own those properties.
Those properties are owned by folks
who have been there a long time and Shoreline
and mostly white folks. -Yeah.
-So it's not going to increase equity in that sense
to say all those of you
who already own homes, those homes are more valuable
because now you can build on them.
-I see. -That doesn't necessarily
make it accessible for anybody. That's just a boon for
for individual property owners who want to do that.
-Okay. Important part of the discussion. Thank you.
We need to start wrapping up the show
and I really appreciate all this back and forth here.
Mayor Woodward, just some final thoughts from you here
about Spokane's experience with BOCA
and how that might serve as an example for state lawmakers
working on this issue of missing middle housing right now.
-Well, and it's getting a lot of attention, Brian.
I'll just tell you that our development services department
and our planning director are they're getting calls right
and left from not just cities throughout the state
of Washington, but really throughout the country.
This, as I mentioned, was a bold move
and it was something out of such distress,
an emergency crisis, that we absolutely had to do something.
But it was intentional. We spent more than a year
looking at this, having very direct, honest,
transparent conversations with those who do this work,
those who need housing, so that we could get to a place
where we had agreement on this
and try it out for a year, tweak it.
But we're very happy with what we have.
It's gotten a lot of interest.
There's a lot of predevelopment permits out there
and we'll see what what happens.
But if we make it permanent, which I hope we do,
that's where we're going to see the impact
years down the road, this isn't nothing.
This is going to change anything overnight.
-Right. -But we had to do something now
so that we can get the change that we want at some point.
-Thanks very much. Mayor Scully,
just thinking about this, this bill is being tweaked
and changed as we speak here in mid-February.
What do you want state lawmakers to be thinking about?
What should they have in mind
as they're talking about the missing middle bill
and housing this session?
-To mandate that cities take density to let us decide
exactly how to do it.
I mean, most city councils take their jobs very seriously,
and this is what we do. I mean, land use and budget
are the two things city councils do,
and we are best positioned to make the decisions
at a local level.
I -- this is a fascinating conversation for me.
I'd love to follow up on it because we are looking at this.
I mean, Shoreline is considering something similar to that
as a city ordinance.
We are unlikely to do it citywide
for all the reasons I've mentioned today,
but we're likely to put it into some neighborhoods
because some of our neighborhoods
are close enough to high-capacity transit.
They do have big enough lot sizes
that this wouldn't really destroy the character of them.
Others of them, not so much.
It would really be a dramatic detriment
to what the way Shoreline looks now.
-Thank you, Mayor Scully. Thank you, Mayor Woodward,
as well. And we will be right back.
What are people saying on social media
about the plan to increase middle housing in our state?
One person writes, "If we limit growth in the city,
"we are encouraging sprawl and environmental destruction
outside of the city." Another person counters,
"Don't be fooled. This bill is a developer's dream
and will accomplish the complete opposite."
We'd like to know what you think.
Send us an email at contact@seattlechannel.org.
Or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Coming up next week, the state Supreme Court upended
Washington's drug possession law two years ago.
And now the clock is ticking for Olympia
to create a new legal framework
that balances criminal punishment
with the need for treatment solutions.
It's the complex story behind the Blake Decision
on the next "City Inside Out."
I hope you join us.
♪♪