Seattle Council Committee Votes to Rein In Growth Plan Appeals

Seattle City Council's Land Use Committee voted 3-0 Wednesday to close off a regularly used avenue of citizen appeal when it comes to broad zoning changes and updates to the city's Comprehensive Plan. If approved by the full council next week, Councilmember Eddie Lin's Council Bill 121215 would prevent $120 appeals filed with the City's hearing examiner from holding up growth plan changes for months, if not years.

The bill has an uncertain path when it comes to final passage. Committee members Dan Strauss and Joy Hollingsworth abstained from the vote due to outstanding questions, despite four separate committee meetings since the bill's introduction on May 19. Along with Lin, citywide councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dionne Foster both voted to advance the bill.

Delays to Seattle zoning changes from appeals under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) aren't theoretical. In 2017, a cadre of appellants held up urban center upzones planned under the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program, a move that caused a delay of more than one year and ultimately pushed adoption of those zoning changes into 2019.



More recently, appeal delays have pushed back the implementation of former Mayor Bruce Harrell's "One Seattle" Comprehensive Plan update numerous times, with the adoption of 30 new neighborhood centers and modest upzones along transit corridors pushed into 2027. Without reform, the same delays are likely to impact Mayor Katie Wilson's even more ambitious "Taller Denser Faster" plan that is still in the early scoping phase.

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