As increasing density and increasing housing costs raise temperatures all over Seattle, residents and planners are engaging in a comprehensive plan that will determine how the city grows over the next 20 years.
Ari Cetron provides insight into the comprehensive planning process underway at Seattle's Department of Planning and Development (DPD), examining in particular the plan's need to accommodate 120,000 projected new residents in the next 20 years.
The "essential question" posed by the Seattle 2035 plan, according to Cetron: "should we concentrate our growth into only a few areas or spread it around, with denser buildings across the city?" Currently DPD is considering four growth alternatives, with the aim of narrowing those four choices down to one option by July. Public comment on the current phase of planning ends June 18.
The four alternatives, according to the Seattle 2035 website:
- Continue Current Trends
- Guide growth to urban centers
- Guide growth to urban centers near light rail
- Guide growth to urban centers near transit
The website includes "highlights" for each of these alternatives.
Ceron's coverage is headlines with a promise to show five maps that will determine the city's future, and to deliver on that promise, Cetron chooses a map showing areas at risk for displacement along with four maps showing where each of the alternatives would locate the largest numbers of new housing.
FULL STORY: Seattle 2035: Five maps that will determine the city’s future
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