The city of Seattle took advantage of a new state law to donate three underused parcels to affordable housing developers.
"Seattle is transferring three parcels of surplus city land to nonprofit developers at no cost, becoming the first city to take advantage of a state program [pdf] to make underutilized public land available for affordable housing development," reports Katherine Kashimova.
Nonprofit developer Homestead Community Land Trust will develop 16 townhomes on a parcel in Judkins Park, including ten affordable townhomes.
"The transfer of two other pieces of land owned by City Light – one in Phinney Ridge and another in Loyal Heights – is expected to be approved by the City Council in the coming days. Those will go to Homestead and to Habitat for Humanity to build 27 affordable condominiums and townhomes for qualifying low- and middle-income families," reports Kashimova.
The city most recently completed a land inventory in March 2019 [pdf], identifying "dozens of large pieces of underused or vacant city-owned land potentially suitable for housing development," so there could be more such land deals and affordable housing development plans in the future.
Read the full story: Seattle donates three underused parcels to develop affordable housing
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