MHA citywide EIS Scoping Documents Posted

A series of documents have been posted on the “What’s Happening” tab, and under the “Growth with Affordability” link. In the Citywide Implementation of MHA box on this page are the following three documents related to the EIS scoping.

• EIS Scoping Summary
• Attachment 1: Determination of Significance and Scoping Notice
• Attachment 2: Scoping Informational Handout

---

---

The City of Seattle is proposing amendments to the Land Use Code to implement Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) for multifamily and commercial development meeting certain thresholds. MHA would require developers either to build affordable housing on-site or to make an in-lieu payment to support the development of affordable housing throughout the city. MHA is expected to create a total of 6,000 new affordable homes over the next 10 years for lowincome families and individuals. To implement MHA, the City would make changes to the Land Use Code to grant additional development capacity in existing commercial and multifamily zones and in areas currently zoned single family in existing or expanded urban villages. A summary of the current draft of the additional development capacity in each zone can be found here: 

---

Scoping is the process of identifying the elements of the environment to be evaluated in an EIS. Scoping is intended to help identify and narrow the issues to those that are significant. Scoping includes a public comment period so that the public and other agencies can comment on key issues and concerns. Following the comment period, the City considers all comments received and determines the scope of review for the environmental analysis. The City issued a Determination of Significance/Scoping Notice for MHA on July 28, 2016, and made it available to the public through a variety of methods (see Attachment 1). The Scoping Notice states that the EIS will consider potential impacts associated with land use, housing and socioeconomics, aesthetics and height/bulk/scale, historic resources, open space and recreation, transportation, public services, and utilities. The scoping period closed on September 9, 2016.