This coin dates the end of the republic

OMG, can Harrell point to one policy that required a spine that he went all in on?

What I imagine it will feel like next year when I roll off the Seattle Planning Commission.

Greeting from Democratic hellhole Seattle! Antifa meeting or a magnificent dinner with friends on a crystal clear fall evening?!?

This is why I’ve been trying to reform design review for a decade and generally oppose more new city regs. This isn’t benign bureaucracy—it ossifies into a tool for capricious delay and to extract reductions in dev capacity.

Saw my first ADU duplex today in the wild. There are going to be a few of those under the latest iteration of the zoning

Did Brittney singlehanded change the course of Mariners history? I think so!

30% Tariff on Upholstered Furniture? 10 bucks says he is just naming items in his office. Soon, 40% tariffs on Lamp.

i can't believe the USA is getting torn apart by someone who needs two hands to drink a glass of water.

The US has a national housing shortage and some advocates credit the problem to a lack of “middle” housing — duplexes, townhomes and small dwellings that fall between single-family homes and apartment buildings. Our new series examines the missing middle. www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/housing...

Oh no! Now my achy back has autism

2015: Mayor Murray touched the stove with HALA recommendations to eliminate single-family zoning (bonus historical Harrell quote!) 2025: We can build 4-story 12-unit stacked flats in NR zones, 75% more lot coverage, 2X the size, without parking.

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.

City's Growth Plan Update Maintains Seattle's Suburban Character, Including Mandatory Parking The council's changes mostly doubled down on Mayor Bruce Harrell's slow-growth plan, which advocates criticized for failing to address Seattle's housing crisis. publicola.com/2025/09/22/c...

once you see it, you can't unsee it also - despite claims otherwise... point access blocks and fine grained urbanism go hand in hand. this is more parcels per block than a streetcar suburb in the US

Kinda crazy that if we did expand the number of neighborhood centers, it would have been a DOWNzoning. Except the tree requirements, seems like this was all a HUGE win by YIMBYs

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!

Fall Bitches Already Fondly Gazing at Summer’s Sweet Demise: tinyurl.com/yc574b4r

Yay, rain! Ask any PWNer, the return of rain is welcome. It means fall, the end of fire season, all the plants suffering summer’s drought bounce back, sweaters and hoodies, good sleeping/cooler nights to the white noise of little rain drops.

Hey tech companies, media, universities, farmers, unions, vets, elders, professionals, blue staters, red staters: No amount of supplication/privilege is enough to inoculate you from the GOP’s quest to enshittify everything. Whatever wherever you are, our lives are getting worse.

Democratic leaders act like the GOP are going to one day say ‘ok we have enough authoritarian power, we’ll stop.’ But they won’t stop, can only be stopped Start by voting no on absolutely everything! Worried about how that looks next election? I’m worried there won’t be another election.

We canceled Disney.

Irony that CM Rivera can repeated harangue OPCD about not adequately engaging the public, then propose sweeping changes to development standards that no one can even read beforehand.

After nearly 4 years of process, major modifications of development standards are being voted on without anyone being able to read them They have had MONTHS to come up with these.

As a politician, Sara Nelson is like Reverse Spiderman. Whenever she senses a controversial vote, she leaves the area.

Even though I focused squishy 'feasibility' language in amendment 102, it has other troubling aspects: Adds BS project narrative($) Reduces conceivable building widths to 10'(who is building 10' units?) Vehicle access and retaining walls must be required by Director, not designer choice.

language added since Friday adds 30 day shot clock for design team to completely redo the project post building permit submittal What if their Master use permit is already approved? have design review approval? locked in contractors? Gotten fixed bid contract? have holding and financing costs?

Oops, I think someone read my skeet because now Rivera's Amendment 93 makes these buildings impossible! She revised a bunch of the planting areas, making it harder to use side, front and backyards, or spaces between buildings as planting areas.

Kudos to ‘neighborhood defenders’ support of Amendment 93: It allows 4 story buildings in NR zones if you save a tier 2 tree. As a stacked flat developer, I’m looking for a lot with 1 T2 tree in the front corner and an alley. Can build 9000sf, 4story 16 unit apt bldg in NR. It’s exciting!

Rivera's Amendment 93, to codify larger tree planting areas, has been revised since Friday, and now: required planting areas are much bigger (some 200%) have minimum dimension that don't fit in setbacks widen distances between buildings eliminated bonuses for preserving large trees! Bad faith!

What should be an exciting program has been reduced to a shrug and an eyeroll. I'm not convinced anything will ever happen. even by 2028.

Amendment 102 says: “…The Director has the authority to require submittal of alternative site plans if the Director determines that an alternative site plan could feasibly increase the retention of existing healthy trees…” What development could ever met this standard?

Re: Amendment 102 Here is the diagram explaining why when you solve only for trees, unit size and quantity, the result isn't necessarily 'feasible' or equivalent. The amendment gives SDCI the authority to require a crazy site plan no one would build!

Kudos to ‘neighborhood defenders’ support of Amendment 93: It allows 4 story buildings in NR zones if you save a tier 2 tree. As a stacked flat developer, I’m looking for a lot with 1 T2 tree in the front corner and an alley. Can build 9000sf, 4story 16 unit apt bldg in NR. It’s exciting!

Those other amendments: massive reductions in north end neighborhood centers, carve outs for historic districts, Saka’s nonsensical 2 story cottages somehow attaining a FAR of 1.8 (physically impossible). Nothing pro housing at all!

It kills me that eliminating parking minimums has to have a SEPA analysis. Cars are the largest source of pollution in Seattle, and we have to have an environmental study to measure negative impacts but can’t weigh the benefits.

for what is worth, within 100yds of my house, there are at least 13 new ADUs and DADUs, and I feel like I can be pretty satisfied that the advocacy work I did from 2009-19 helped build these new homes.

okay, just so those who can’t follow the process know, CM Hollingsworth, the chair of the SELECT committee, has a consent package of all the straightforward things the councils generally behind. None of the controversial items are there—they all get debate. www.seattle.gov/council/topi...

Missing @yimbytown.bsky.social this year is giving me major FOMO

I am going to revise my statement: Amendment 102’s language about ‘no feasible alternative site plan’ isn’t sloppy—it is carefully worded to introduce a high risk that any project that affects any tree will not get a permit. Design teams can no longer be certain, if it is SDCI’s arbitrary call.

Amendment 102's language is so sloppy, what is 'feasible' is left for the code official to decide. It puts tree protection above pragmatic site planning, opening the door for predatory delay, bureaucratic churn, making many perfect sites undevelopable. medium.com/@matthutchin...

WHAT IF WE HAD POLITICAL WILL? Transportation dollars are scarce, but a new progressive mayoral administration can make a big impact without breaking the bank. Here’s my list. 🧵

Ugh, now I have to learn about groypers? Kirk was murdered for the LOLs by an even more right wing nihilist troll? Great work America.

My comments on behalf of the Seattle Planning Commission in support of the boldest comp plan possible: text in the image alt:

I know that tomorrow at city council, there will be lots of back and forth between tree advocates and housing advocates about Seattle's future, but today, if you have a planting strip, the city will give you trees for it. Plant some trees today! www.seattle.gov/trees/trees-...

Looking at CM Rivera's tree amendment 93: Take a 6plex on 6000sf lot = 8 points plant two river birch + two small = 8 points achieves 600sf+ mature canopy if 300 sq ft landscaped area in front setback, add 2 small trees in back

“The new push against adding more Neighborhood Centers comes just as Seattle’s Planning Commission weighs in on the full amendment package, pushing the council to support amendments that either retain or expand those centers centers…”

The Seattle Planning Commission fully supports Neighborhood Centers. Any reduction in size focuses development demand on the valuable community businesses that give the center its vitality. Go big!

Can housing keep up? Yes, if you embrace housing as the solution to the housing crisis. www.chronline.com/stories/tumw...?