Seattle is upzoning to address its housing crisis

2019-05-21T12:52:00-04:00

Seattle’s upzoning plan is set to take place throughout the city, but only 6 percent of single-family neighborhoods will be affected. These neighborhoods will be rezoned to allow for smaller, denser housing, while encouraging developers to keep existing structures and turn them into multifamily housing — like duplexes — in order to preserve a neighborhood’s aesthetic.

Since 2010 Seattle's population has seen a hike of 16%, so have the rents and the property prices. And while real estate in the city is booming, little of the development is targeted towards the growing demand for affordable housing.

Today 75% of Seattle's residential land is zoned for single-family use, prohibiting the development of much needed higher density housing like apartment complexes throughout most of the city. This March, to address the affordable housing scarcity, Mayor Jenny Durkan signed a Mandatory Housing Affordability policy, which would change the zoning of 27 neighborhoods from single-family to multifamily. This "upzoning" is projected to generate 6,000 new homes over the next decade.

In its search for more progressive zoning, the Seattle City Council is also considering laws that'd allow construction of ADUs.

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Seattle is upzoning to address its housing crisis