-It's wonderful
to see such a large crowd on a Monday
afternoon on a work day right after Easter weekend.
So shout out to everyone here for showing up.
For more housing, for connected
communities, for climate action,
give yourselves a round of applause.
(cheering and applause)
All right.
My name is Jeff Paul.
I'm the co-executive director of How Is Our Neighbors?
We advocate for social housing in Seattle and beyond.
We are proud.
Coalition member
of the Complete Communities Coalition who is here today
and you all in this rally
to talk about what we need in this comprehensive plan.
I'm very excited to be with you all today
and very excited for the amazing speakers
that we have to show support for a bold vision
for this stage of the comprehensive plan.
Quick, raise your hands.
Who here is familiar with the Centers and Corridors
Legislation of Comprehensive Plan?
Okay.
Our people are here. Our people are here.
All right.
I'm glad to see that
we all know what we're here to talk about.
Just a quick little bit of information.
We've got a table over here.
It's going to have information about
what we're advocating for in the plan.
The amendments that this is proposing is pushing forward.
You're going to hear about a bunch of stuff
that we need today from our amazing speakers.
But feel free to grab
some talking points, grab those fliers,
sign up for our volunteer list.
This is just the beginning,
really, of advocacy for this phase.
This is the first public hearing.
There's another one in June,
and there's a whole bunch of work to be done between now
and then to get the word out about a need for a bold,
comprehensive plan.
So we hope that
you'll just think of this as the first step in a push
for what Seattle really needs to plan for growth in a way
that's going to bring about housing affordability,
more connected communities
in the kinds of neighborhoods that we want to see.
All right. So with that,
I'm going to hand it off to our first speaker,
our YIMBY-in-Chief, Mayor Katie Wilson.
(cheering and applause)
Okay.
Thank you, Jeff.
How are you all doing this afternoon?
(cheering and applause)
Ready to build more housing?
Okay.
Well, thank you so much
to the Complete Communities Coalition
for bringing everyone together today
to rally
around these deeply important, if somewhat esoteric, topic
of the day.
Seattle's municipal zoning codes. Yes.
(cheering and applause)
So thank you to Jeff, Cecelia, Colleen,
all our speakers, and thank you to Councilmember
Rinck, great partner and champion
in the push to build cities where every person,
every family can make a thriving home.
(applause)
And a few.
Thank you, Sierra.
I also want to thank Council President Hollingsworth
for her work to get the comprehensive plan
update across the finish line.
And to Councilmember Lin for assuming the role
of Chair of the Comprehensive Planning Committee
and for rolling up his sleeves on the work ahead.
I am very eager to get to
work to use our upcoming work to lay the groundwork.
That's a lot of work for an affordable,
welcoming Seattle now and long into the future.
Our comprehensive plan establishes
a once in a decade vision for more housing choices
in more places across the city of Seattle.
Taking big steps to implement that plan through zoning
is the work that we need to do,
and centers and corridors is an important first step.
However, we need to do more sooner
to fully meet the scale and urgency of our housing crisis.
Last week you heard me announce my administration's
taller, denser, faster housing growth plan.
(cheering and applause)
I guess that's the official name now.
What that means is that we are going to start
with a more inviting,
optimistic assumption of our growth capacity.
See, yes, Seattle is a great place
to live and people are moving here in droves.
That adds to the pressures of scarcity,
and we are planning for a bright future.
That increased housing
capacity is the foundation
to meet the scale of our housing crisis.
We are going to plan
to allow more housing in every neighborhood. Yes,
(cheering and applause)
creating an equitable distribution
and meaningful housing choices.
Every neighborhood should be an open,
welcoming place for people and families to live.
We I believe that every resident
deserves the opportunity to live on peaceful,
beautiful streets in places they love.
Right now,
we focus the densest housing on the busiest arterial roads
that has the effect of putting housing on the main roads
that can have air noise and safety impacts for residents.
We intend to add more housing options
in healthy, walkable neighborhoods
with access to transit parks and open space,
not just along the busy corridors.
Now, here in Seattle, we love our public transit,
and that means that
we are also excited about transit oriented development,
which is which is why my plan is going to lead the way
on HB 1491 compliance.
Who knows what that means?
Okay. That's right.
So we're not just going to meet
the deadline of this new state legislation.
We're going to be ambitious.
We're going to beat that deadline.
We are also going to
we can plan for that. Yes.
We're not dragging our feet here.
We are also going to allow for more opportunities in
and around our growth centers, including new and expanded
neighborhood centers that will help us to meet
the demands of the people who live here now
and our growing, thriving city.
This is urgent.
Seattle's housing crisis cannot wait.
There is no reason to delay providing homes
while also protecting our environment,
supporting small businesses.
So we are acting with that urgency in mind.
What was planned to take two or three years
and touch only part of the city
will now be completed in one year,
reaching more neighborhoods and
this accelerated timeline means housing and development
and density can happen sooner in more places.
I believe that every resident
deserves the opportunity to find the housing
they need in neighborhoods across the city
with easy access by walking, rolling
or taking transit to jobs, shops,
cultural amenities and open space,
and to live on peaceful
and beautiful streets in the places they love.
We, alongside all of you, intend
to deliver on that vision. Thank you.
(cheering and applause)
-All right.
All right.
We're going to take a quick, positive speakers
to ask the mayor to come and take a
quick picture with the crowd.
So everyone kind of scooch in, get close, get in here,
take out, take a quick picture.
-All right. Get ready. Say “housing” on three! One, two, three...
(crowd in unison) Housing!
(cheering and applause)
Thank you so much. You.
-All right, give it up
one more time for Mayor Wilson.
That is an enormous announcement.
Understanding the need
to move quickly and boldly on the comprehensive plan
is so refreshing to hear.
So I'm happy to hear that we have a mayor
who is taking this seriously.
Up next, we are going to hear from Coleen Echo Hawk.
She is the CEO of Community Roots, is a long time
community advocate.
Give it up for Coleen.
(cheering and applause)
-Good afternoon, Seattle.
I'm so glad to be here.
I am six months into being the CEO at Community Roots Housing.
We provide over 2500 units around the city.
I'm really out on Capitol Hill was where we have
most of our buildings. And I was recently.
I'm with our team.
We're doing a food pantry.
And this elder came through our line.
She went to our line.
She prepared some potatoes,
she picked out some apples, some onions, some pasta,
and then one of our team said, Would you like some chicken?
And her eyes lit up
and she
we gave her the package of chicken
and she clutched it
to her chest and she said, I feel so rich
over a package of chicken.
And the reason I share that with you
is that we know that Seattle is becoming more
and more expensive for some of the most
important people in our city.
We are talking about senior citizens, teachers,
people who have worked in our bars
and our restaurants who are hungry for protein.
They're not getting it.
We have hunger in this in this city that is
just absolutely unbelievable.
And we have to take action now.
That's why we're here.
That's why so many of you have come out
on this beautiful day.
We know that housing is crucial and essential
for people stability.
We know we have to build faster
with intent in protecting and preserving the heart
and soul of Seattle.
And the heart and soul of Seattle is our people.
It's that it's that elder who I was speaking to.
We are the heart and soul Seattle.
And we deserve every single one of us to live
and to be housed.
We have to tell the truth about why we got here.
We have to recognize the history
that Seattle did not become
segregated and affordable and exclusionary by accident.
This city was shaped by policy.
It was shaped by decisions
about who belonged and who did not belong.
In 1865, the city passed an ordinance
that displaced native tribal people, Coast Salish people
that was not just one act from the distant past.
It set a pattern.
It told a story about land, power and belonging.
It said that Native people,
the first people of this place, could be pushed aside
for someone else's vision of the city.
And that story did not, in their later redlining
and racist housing policies, took that same logic
and embedded it into neighborhoods
lending, zoning and opportunity.
Entire communities were locked out.
Native people, black families
and other communities of color
were denied access to homeownership,
denied access to wealth, denied access to safe
and stable neighborhoods, and denied the chance
to stay rooted in a city that they helped build.
So when we talk about housing time, we talk about the plan.
We are not just talking about more units,
we are talking about repair, healing, reconciliation.
That's right.
We can plan for that.
We are talking about justice and giving opportunity
for everyone to belong in the city.
We are talking about whether Seattle will keep
protecting the map that exclusion created
or whether we will finally have the courage to change it.
(cheering and applause)
Every time we delay more housing,
when we delay density,
we are not preserving neighborhood character.
We are preserving the outcomes of exclusion.
Every time we say housing should go somewhere else.
We repeating the old story that some people belong
and some people do not.
Every time we refuse to build and wealthy neighborhoods,
high opportunity neighborhoods,
neighborhoods close to jobs and transit and good schools,
we are saying that access should be rationed
by race and income.
And this is what makes this moment so important.
We are citizens and voters who have said no more.
We know the history.
We know the stories of redlining,
exclusionary zoning and unjust housing systems.
The current
plan is not just about growth, it's about justice.
What's right?
It is
about whether every neighborhood will do its part.
It's about whether we will create room for what
Martin Luther King Jr. called the beloved Community.
And when I say beloved community,
I mean the real people that I'm meeting every day,
the residents in our units, community
housing, the teachers, the elders
that server at your bar and restaurant, the parent
who's healing from trauma, the artist,
the service worker, the family trying to stay close
to school, to community and to opportunity.
These are not the people on the margins of Seattle.
These are the people at the heart of Seattle.
They are the heart and soul of our communities.
They are the people who make our neighborhoods vibrant,
who keep our small businesses open.
They ride transit, they shop,
They are drivers of our economy,
and they are an asset to every neighborhood.
(cheering and applause)
If this city
is serious about
living out our progressive values,
and I would remind everyone is around us right now,
we are the coolest, best city ever.
We can do this.
We have progressive values
that ensure that social housing would be passed,
that our Mayor Wilson has been voted in.
Like amazing, spectacular things
are happening right now.
And as we
we bring that into our heart, into our minds.
We know that the people who live in affordable
housing cannot be an afterthought.
They cannot just be talked about in public meetings,
policy papers and planning documents.
They need to be at the table. They need to be heard.
They need to help shape the future of the city.
The Seattle plan has had the most extensive outreach
to every part of the city.
It's historic, the outreach that has been done.
And this is our moment,
our moment to break with the history of redlining.
Our moment to break with the legacy of native displacement.
Our moment to say that we will not keep courting
opportunity behind zoning, delay and fear.
Our moment is to choose welcome over exclusion.
Our moment is to choose courage over comfort.
Our moment is to choose justice over delay.
Let's support this plan.
Corridor East Center is everything about this plan.
Let's accelerate it.
Let's do it faster.
Let's do it
with greater intensity and with love
for our beloved community.
Let's build the housing our people need.
And let's build Seattle
with neighborhoods that make room
for every community
shares opportunity, especially those
who've been pushed out for far too long.
Let's welcome them in
and let them know that they belong here as well. Thank you.
(cheering and applause)
-Wow. Thank you so much for that grounding and really
why we're here
beyond just the policy wonk of the comprehensive plan
and really why this is so important.
Can we just give it up one more time
for Colleen Echohawk. That was a
(applause and cheering)
I know I talked with different folks
about the comprehensive plan, and it's pretty easy
for people to be like, what is that?
What are you talking about?
And I just really
I just want us to all hold for a second
what we're actually talking about
when we're talking about these policy changes,
when we're talking about rezoning, it's
everything that Colleen just mentioned.
So I just hope we can all sit with that
and recognize the importance of this work
and why we're here today and to keep that moving forward.
I'm going to introduce our next speaker.
Cecelia Black.
Cecilia is a very long time, amazing community advocate
who is here to speak today about why she is so motivated
to see changes in the comprehensive plan.
Give it up for Cecilia.
(applause and cheering)
-Cool, is it working?
Can you hear me do this?
Very good,
folks.
I think
the mic. Mic.
Test for a quiet person.
Thank you so much for having me.
I was knowing that I would be speaking alongside
Mayor Wilson, Colleen Echohawk, Councilmember Rinck.
I was really trying to think about what
can I add to this conversation on the comprehensive plan.
And what I really want to share with you
is how I think about so much of my advocacy,
and that is through a lens of accessibility.
My wish for Seattle is for it to be a city
where people with disabilities can call it their home.
And I say this
not just because we make up over 20% of the population,
not only because we will
all hopefully live
long enough to where we experienced disability
at some point in our life.
But because time and time again
we know that inclusive city benefits everyone.
(applause and cheering)
An accessible city
is first and foremost an affordable city,
it means that there are stair free options and buildings
with elevators.
It is multigenerational housing and
is multigenerational housing and options
and housing options for parents with disabilities
and families with disabled children.
It is
accessibility meets housing
where aging in place is possible,
as well as options for people
who can no longer safely navigate their homes.
It's supportive housing and is quality based.
Can quality community based housing options
for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities
An accessible city means
means people who are immunocompromised
and have chronic health
conditions have the opportunity
to live in housing and neighborhoods that do not risk
their lives by being exposed to chemicals on a daily basis.
Accessibility.
Accessibility means non- drivers
can not only live near fast and frequent transit, but have
services.
And to those third places that make our communities
that build our community
and also are so essential to addressing
the isolation that can be felt when you're
trapped in your home without a car.
And just for a little context,
less than 5% of the housing stock
nationwide is accessible.
We know that people with disabilities face
some of the highest levels of housing insecurity.
We know that the majority of people
that are living on our streets have a disability.
And in Washington State, there are 37,000 adults
with intellectual
and developmental disabilities that are housing insecure.
Before we passed
this comprehensive plan last year,
the type of housing that is required to be accessible by
federal and state law,
as well as the businesses that make our communities
walkable, were banned in 70% of our city.
A like a exclusionary city
is completely incompatible with an accessible city.
But we have made progress.
We have replaced a single family zoning
with a new neighborhood residential zones
that allow for stacked flats
with incentives for developers to build accessible units.
We have these neighborhood residential zones
allow for corner stores
that will slowly make our cities more walkable,
and we have allowed for 30 new neighborhood centers
that allow for six story developments.
Those are developments
that are most likely to be accessible,
as well as create small
commercial corridors.
(applause)
But we know that this is not nearly enough
to meet that housing crisis and is not enough to meet
the diverse needs of the disability community.
So what can we do right now?
As city council considers phase two of the comp plan
and prepares legislation for phases three and four?
First, we need more density and a vision for complete,
walkable communities, not just for the handful of blocks
in the neighborhood centers, but for the entire city.
And we can start this with our transit corridors
by vastly expanding proposed corridor up zones
beyond the parcels adjacent to arterials
to create ten minute walk sheds.
These extended corridors must include more mixed
residential zoning with commercial opportunities.
Family, families and renters deserve
to have options beyond busy arterials,
as well as access to fast and frequent transit.
Second, we have to make sure
that when we own areas like neighborhood centers,
our zoning regulations align with market
realities to support our stated goals.
The bottom line is that six story buildings are essential
to addressing our housing crisis.
They are more economically feasible
and more likely to have elevators
and meet the threshold that triggers
accessibility standards.
And not to get too into the weeds, but
we need to maximize mixed
mixed residential zoning and neighborhood centers.
And we need to replace all low rise
L1 L2 zones that we know are not going to
materialize in the excess in the density
and accessible housing we need to replace them
with more
high rise zoning for five and six story buildings.
And lastly,
lastly, we need to expand housing opportunities
and in high opportunity areas with low displacement risk,
almost all of the up zones who got scaled back
in the current centers
and quarters proposal are in wealthy neighborhoods.
And while policies
can change and comp plans get updated every ten years,
what we build between now and then will last generations.
We have an obligation
to future Seattleites to pass a comp plan
that considers the needs
of entire communities and not just individual homeowners.
We also owe it to our past to understand that communities
who have
been excluded and harmed by decades of exclusionary
land use policies
and have a duty not to repeat, repeat those same patterns.
I know that most of us have been working on this comp
plan for seems like years.
We even filled out all of the surveys.
We've showed up
to all the council meetings and we've worked hard to get,
we've hard to get, we've worked hard to get elected,
voted in that represent our values.
And so I just want to close by saying that right now.
we have not only we have Councilmember Rinck
who is still on City council
and still a huge housing ally, but we have,
Mayor Wilson and we have Councilmember Lin.
And so as we continue to advocate,
we have
more, more possibility than ever before to pass
a comprehensive plan that includes everybody.
(applause and cheering)
(crowd talking and chatter)
-Okay.
Thank you so much.
All right, camera guys, How did you come again?
All right.
One more time for Cecilia.
(applause and cheering)
It's just so wonderful to have such amazing
advocates in our community
who are so deeply aligned with our city's values.
Seattle is a city that values accessibility.
Seattle is a city that values climate action,
that values affordability,
that wants to make sure
that all of our families, regardless of ability,
income, background, race, class, all of the things
can be welcomed within our city.
That's who we want to be.
And this plan is how we put those values into action
through legislation.
So I'm so glad that we have so many wonderful speakers
and so many wonderful folks here in the audience
who also can all come up and share incredible things
about why we need this in a comprehensive plan.
Fortunately, you're all going to get
an opportunity to do that
right up there and just a few hours,
but it's around this out here
actually.
Really quick before
our last speaker, I want to give a quick
shout out to Jesse and Jazmine.
There are two co-chairs,
the co-chairs of the Complete Communities Coalition
with the housing development associated with Utah Wise.
They have done so much to make this a reality.
So just like huge hats off to them and really shout out
to the entire steering committee.
Raise your hand if you're on the steering committee.
You're in the crowd today.
All the folks in the steering
committee, all the folks in the outside working group,
the inside working group raise those hands.
This really has been a community effort
to kind of think through what this policy
is going to look like, make this rally happen
and make sure that we're set up for success.
So just so much gratitude, whoever
everyone who's been a part of this coalition.
For our last speaker, I'm going to bring in
someone who needs no introduction.
She is our champion on council, though.
Now, fortunately, we've given her a few more.
It is Councilmember Alexis Mercedes
Rinck here to talk about what we need
this phase and next phase of the comprehensive plan.
(applause and cheering)
- Well,
good afternoon.
Housing champions.
This is a rally, right?
I'm going to bring on my rally voice and I want to show you
a little bit of good afternoon housing it champion.
That's right. Hi, everybody.
My name is Alexis.
I'm one of the only renters on city council.
Despite being in a majority renters city.
I'm also the only council member
who doesn't own a car, proudly representing the 20%
of Seattle households who live car free.
And last year we stood together to build a city
that works for all of us and we force.
I fought for amendments
to allow expanded neighborhood commercial across the city.
So corner stores not just on corners,
expanded flexibility
for ADUs removing harmful parking mandates
and together
alongside the Complete Communities Coalition,
we dared to add
eight additional neighborhood centers across our city,
opening up housing opportunity
in neighborhoods that have historically locked
people out from owning homes.
(applause and cheering)
We fought together.
We won on some things.
We didn't quite get there on some things,
but I know that that will not slow down.
The work of the Complete Communities Coalition.
None of that work
we were able to accomplish last year in the Phase
one legislation would have been possible
without the Complete Communities Coalition.
And now here we are kicking off phase two
and already the Complete Communities
Coalition has brought forward
a number of amendments to pass this year
to support mass timber, passive house, low
rise commercial and to create a new courtyard block bonus.
(applause and cheering)
You all might know
this, but land use is wonky.
It's a little complicated, it's a little technical.
I mean, there is floor area ratio, there are setbacks.
And I mean, what really
is the difference between LA one and LA two?
There's not actually that much of a difference.
The real ones.
No, but underneath all that jargon,
we know what this is really about.
This is about whether a waitress, a bus driver,
a teacher can live in the city.
They make run.
This is about
confronting our city's racist history of redlining
and making a different choice This time.
This is about building the housing
we need for our unhoused neighbors,
our new neighbors who are fleeing other states
right now to come to this welcoming city.
But how welcoming are we truly,
if you can't afford to live here
and this
is about taking the climate crisis seriously
and building a city
where you don't
have to own a car because you can walk, roll
and take transit to your work, your school,
and wherever you go to have fun.
And I'll close with this
because over the weekend
I joined Family Works at the opening
of their food bank in the heart of Wallingford,
co-located
alongside the Wallingford Seattle Public Library branch.
And to get home, I hopped on the Route 44
and then very easily transferred to light rail.
And as you can guess, because now with the opening
of the Crosley connection, I didn't have to wait for that
light rail train very long.
And I was back home
in my apartment on Capitol Hill and less than 30 minutes
and it was on that very short, remarkably short for me.
Can you back home?
I took a moment to take in
what I had seen during that commute.
Diversity in every sense of the word abilities,
ages, race, gender, expression and more and more than that,
I saw something that I believe
the Complete Communities Coalition embodies
the genuine care for our neighbors,
because whether it's graciously
giving up your seat
for someone else on the bus who needs it,
or fighting for a zoning change so a family can live
in a neighborhood with clean air
and not on a polluted arterial.
That's community care.
So together
we choose housing, we choose each other,
and we choose a future with complete communities.
So thank you, everyone.
I can't wait to hear your voices in
council chambers shortly.
Continue to make your voice heard.
Tell your neighbors, tell your friends
now let's create a plan that truly works for our city.
Thank you.
(applause and cheering)
-And one more time for
Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck.
(applause and cheering)
Thank you
for always being our long time champion on council.
I want to shout out I saw Councilmember Lin here.
Raise your hand. Are you still here?
Probably inside doing work, although there is.
Okay.
Thank you so much for also just really stewarding
this work
as the chair of the land Use Committee
and being really committed to working with us
to figure out a bold plan for the future.
We really appreciate you
that goes shout out to Councilmember Foster as well
and many other folks, Councilmember Holloway
and others who are working with us on these amendments.
That'll mean that our comprehensive plan
can get closer to aligning with our city's values.
And thank you all again.
One more round up.
Lots of you are showing up and getting engaged
and making sure
that we have an affordable, inclusive, welcoming city
in the decades to come.
I'm just getting close.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm going to close by saying I think we still do.
We sell pizza over there?
Yeah, we still got pizza.
Go get some pizza if you have it.
We've got some info over here.
There's emails that you can send to council.
We have some ability to make some signs.
We have
a little bit of time between now
and when
we're actually going to be getting public comment,
but who here has been to one of these before?
Our public hearing Before. Yeah.
So you all know this line can be really, really long.
So we really wanted to get here early
so that our people can get in, get their comments,
make their voices heard without
maybe having to be here until 9:00 at night,
as I'm sure some of you have been.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Get in there first.
Make your voices heard, get some pizza,
make a sign,
send out an email,
talk with each other, sign up for our mailing list
and get plugged in in future stuff.
Thank you all so, so much for coming out here.
We're going to go in and we're going
to make it known that we need more housing. Thanks, y'all.