For anyone looking for numbers for the Seattle mayoral discourse, here's a couple excel screenshots to explain what I would expect out of today's drop, and the fate of the race as a whole. First, a day-by-day projection of where I'd expect remaining ballots to end us up. More details below.

So what's the take on why Eddie Lin demolished Ducksworth

Oh, that's it for Wilson. She lost voteshare between yesterday and today

What explains Harrell-Foster voters? 1. The experience attacks landed 2. People view Nelson as more conservative than Harrell 3. Nelson hasn't benefited from the recent Harrell progressive swing

NIMBY candidate Mark Swanson that was filmed crashing into a neighbors yard drunk and insulting the owner, and whose voter's pamphlet included spelling errors in every sentence, got a huge chunk of voters in Bothell, there is a big nimby faction in the burbs

All of these old townhomes have surface parking navigation, but maintain high lot coverage from upper level jut-outs over the parking. How come that doesn't happen to the same extent newer townhome developments?

The Pro-MHA Seattle Times Editorial board acknowledges that MHA fees get passed onto renters, and supports it because of that, lol.

big day to be a former rite-aid

Lake City has had a rough go of it recently, a closed Fred Meyer's, two closed drug stores, and a closed Aurora Rents. Type of neighborhood that could benefit from a targeted 8 year MFTE exemption with no affordability reqs

Used Claude to create a very very rough map of middle housing projects based on %PA permit application downloaded CSV and project descriptions. Can click on each project to see description and search on Seattle's permit portal. www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/e...

some trad nimbyism from mukilteo

Illinois will becoming the 5th state to eliminate local parking requirements for new development projects near transit, after: —California (assembly bill 2097, 2022) —Colorado (house bill 24–1304, 2024) —Oregon (Land Conservation and Development Commission, 2022) —Washington (house bill 1491, 2025)

Bellevue added cottage housing incentives to it's middle housing regs, and it's getting them, 13 units proposed here in a SF-3 zoned area

this is how single stair enables family-sized homes

Absolutely wild project description, what is this

6 unit stacked flat proposal 👀 It's using the ADU floor area loophole in the interim code so it's 5 units + 1 AADU and a FAR of 1.35. The permanent code doesn't exempt ADUs from FAR but allows 1.6+ FAR by right so this project would be doable.

NEW // Op-Ed: Seattle’s MFTE Program 7 Widens Access and Participation By Emily Thompson via @theurbanist.org // 🔗 www.theurbanist.org/2025/10/14/o...

You can see Seattle and Kirkland's present outlier status on for sale DADUs by sorting new homes on lots less than 4,500 sqft on redfin. This map will change soon!

Seattle passed out of committee one of the strongest middle housing rule sets in the country, here's a breakdown of the changes that will supercharge housing production 🧵 First, Type A accessible units are exempt from floor area limits, lot coverage limits and density limits.

All tenants in market rate housing will benefit greatly from the changes thanks to the improved feasibility. The best thing for affordable housing is to maximize housing production, freeing up naturally affordable housing down the chain. It's why the most YIMBY CM, AMR, supports these changes

Under the new middle housing code, you could build an 11,200 square foot single family home on a standard 5,000 square foot if it is type A accessible Far is exempt because type A 15 front, 15 rear, 5 side setbacks = 2.800 sqft footprint * 4 stories(tree bonus) = 11,200sqft

“Protecting single family neighborhoods” ??? There is no such thing after HB1110, but nimby suburban candidates are running on it anyways

I think Washington's TOD bill HB1491 would do almost nothing in Seattle. The light rail stations are likely all already compliant, and most of the bus stops are too. Especially with the ability to exempt 25% of stations if the rest reach 3.0 FAR average, the Aurora zoning is well above that.

Funny proposal to tear down 4 apartment units and replace it with 4 SFHs under the middle housing interim ordinance

Watched the housing legislative preview. Not looking good, talked about how they want to ban corporate homeownership, and want to eliminate the uniformity clause to give homeowners a big homestead exemption. Not much on supply besides victory lapping washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/10/03/w...

NEW // Fire Marshals Target Backyard Cottages with Proposal for Wider Pathway Requirements By Andew Engelson via @theurbanist.org // 🔗 www.theurbanist.org/2025/10/07/f...

Speak up in support of the MFTE changes. It’s gonna create so much development that it’ll be Christmas for developers

MN Custom Homes, an Eastside luxury home builder is getting in the Seattle market because they realized they can now build massive .8FAR+ADU homes. this is how you bring wealth to seattle

I'd guess that if stacked flats get built, it's always going to be in 2-3 buildings on one lot instead of one building. Can sell them more as duplexes instead of apartment buildings, can maximize the amount of window space.

Agreed, the math of the boom is pretty simple For example, this lot sold September 2nd for 1.1 million. Under the interim code a developer is proposing 4 1,880 sqft units. A 1,880sqft townhome sells for 1.1-1.2 million. Total $4.5mil The Seattle 3pack totals <$3mil.

2 Detached ADUs were legalized in June, along with other regulatory improvements. Even with middle housing legislation ADUs offer cheaper permitting, dont require parking or street improvements, and lower setbacks in some cases Thread of some recent proposals: 2 1,000sqft DADUs with 250sqft garages

1542 LAWRENCE ST, HOUSTON, TX, 77008

Huge 46 story project proposed next to Bellevue's Wilburton station. Buildings greater than 95ft allowed near Capitol Hill when?

I made a simple web app where AIs play a telephone game by taking turns creating images and trying to guess the original text. Unfortunately they are far too good at it so you don't get the comical errors humans make. ai-telephone.timfduffy.com

Seattle and California are different universes bruh, Seattle is eliminating a requirement to replace 1:1 units in MFTE projects if someone making <50% AMI was living in the demolished building. Obviously good since that requirement is basically just a ban on building MFTE units where apts alr exist

Parts of Seattle's Opportunity Zones are within Hollingsworth's proposed reversal of the CD donut hole upzone. So we have federal and state policy promoting multifamily housing, and then local policy trying to ban it.

Is your Seattle City Councilmember a YIMBY or a NIMBY? Use this chart compiled from the September 12 hearing on the Comprehensive Plan to find out. Thanks to our members Matthew C. and Aidan T. for compiling the data & chart!

Interesting that a group of lefist orgs, including Katie Wilson's Transit Riders Union and House Our Neighbors came out against the MFTE updates that basically turn it into funded inclusionary zoning, but Mercedes-Rinck is in favor of it.

improved seattle map

Comp Plan amendment voting tallies are out seattle.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=...

charcoal gray vertical metal siding fans when they learn Next Portland is relaunching:

this map represents the ratio of car travel time to transit travel time. Red=faster by car, green = faster by transit.

*Heavily* incentivizing 4 units over 3 or 2 units, but then banning 5 units is wacky. You can either build 4 2,000 sqft units or 3 1,666 sqft units, but no 5 units allowed

It is actually surprising just how far we were able to move the Overton window in the last decade. In 2016, single family detached zoning was the third rail of Seattle politics, and next year we'll be able to build effectively LR2+ equivalent multifamily anywhere.

Imagine if Alex Pedersen was still on the council through the middle housing process... we'd be getting daily NIMBY theses

Lynnwood is defunding the police

I crunched the numbers so you don't have to but it seems like if you're able to preserve trees, things are looking pretty good for housing in Seattle's single family zones! The standard 5k sqft single family lot will allow a 4 story 12k sqft building 🤯 (if you retain trees). That's 6 2k sqft units!

Lowrise zoning vs Neighborhood Residential zoning. How tenable is it to allow significantly more density in Neighborhood Residential zones than Lowrise?

HB1110 disallows parking minimums for middle housing within 1/2 mile of a major transit stop. I didn't realize SDCI had created a GIS layer in July of this, they chose to include trolley bus stops so basically all of D3, D2, and much of Fremont, Wallingford and Ballard

I could see stacked flats doing really well as student housing, a lot of projects build large units and then subdivide them anyway, so the maximum unit density of one unit per 500 square feet of lot area wouldn't have an effect