A Sampling of Your Comments to our Petition:
- We are already zoned for growth. Please vote no for MHA-R. Consider better alternatives, such as those in the Community Housing Caucus report.
- No upzones until the City has laid the groundwork of necessary infrastructure, keeping affordable and low income housing in each neighborhood with one for one replacement and impact fees so developers pay their fair share of the impacts of growth - don't displace neighbors, don't erase neighborhoods, don't lay the costs of growth on the taxpayers.
- The city needs to use developer impact fees to help pay the costs associated with increased growth not have taxpayers pay for growth while developers pocket increased profits.
- Citizen input is critical for issues which have such huge and lasting input on neighborhoods. Urban villages especially should have a voice in how development happens. The current method of on line survey and focus groups is not effective representation.
- Please place yourselves on the side of the people. Quality of life issues for now and future generations (including environmental considerations) must be the priority over profits. Getting re-elected with a fat campaign treasure chest is a shameful consideration. We need Statesmen (& women) not hacks.
- Given the possibility of upzoning and what that will me for allowable building heights in formerly single-family residential areas, the lack of protection for those who have invested in solar energy is a sorry oversight. We need solar easements in our city now. Those who took the next step to make Seattle greener should not be punished.
- Thank you for your service. Please help support neighborhood involvement. Lets preserve the character of this fine city through careful Planning. Please be wary of the statistics that are being used to enforce change. Confront the mayor's top down decision making. I am one of hundreds of Wallingford residents who is considering moving because of increased traffic, noise, unsafe conditions for walking, and the threat of these things worsening with the implementation of HALA's up zones. Please drive around and see for yourselves. Learn from other cities mistakes and successes. Encourage our state legislators to slow the growth by reducing the enormous number of tax incentives for businesses that are coming to Seattle and not supporting the infrastructure cost.
- I'm disturbed by the level of density occurring across our communities and neighborhoods. Having one single family home on a small city lot replaced with 75 apartments and 3 live work units (with no parking included whatsoever) is simply one example (from Roosevelt) of many that things with development have gone too far. I see too much benefit to developers and not enough benefit to those living in the neighborhoods (both those there now and those who move there in the future). Please don't upzone the city and please listen to the voice of the community and incorporate our input so it's not just developers who win.
- Develop the 220,000+ existing unit capacity before giving handouts to developers please. Let them earn their money. Much of it is already near existing light rail.
- I'm in total agreement with all points of this petition. Please, maintain the neighborhood flavor of Seattle with common sense, realistic urban policy, not policy giving large land owners/developers a free hand at the expense of neighborhoods, its residents & small businesses! Seattle, a beautiful, diverse "neighborhood" city, is one of the main reasons I remained in Seattle in 2001 when my company work group moved to its home office in Texas..after I had relocated to Seattle from Houston 6 months prior to take a position with that company. The current proposals in HALA and the Comprehensive Plan will undermine or, at least, will not effectively maintain what makes Seattle very special--prior smart urban policy and its NEIGHBORHOODS. This includes neighborhood planning with our 13 neighborhood councils, unfortunately, which our Mayor has dissolved by executive order. I applaud the Mayor for wishing to bring in more diversity into that process and the neighborhood councils need to address this. But, the Mayor's executive order 2016-06 to cut ties to the neighborhood council planning system and force some type of arbitrary process to create diversity is heavy handed, overreach and a power grab. BTW, I'm not a property owner..I'm an affordable housing renter.
- As a resident of south Ballard / Sunset Hill since 2003 and a Phinney resident from the 1990s-2000s, I have been a proponent of the urban village goals in the past but dismayed at the actual implementation overseen by the city: the lack of concurrent infrastructure and public safety, overcrowded schools, the general level of chaos and the lack of attention from the city in listening and learning from neighborhood voices as major changes evolve. With all the focus on equity and justice, please remember Seattle's values for livability and environment and family-friendliness, as well.
- I love the 100-year-old homes in Wallingford and think it would be shameful allow them to be bulldozed to build multi-unit buildings that will destroy our community and make us the same as Ballard.
- Please follow the Growth Management Act like other communities in Washington and use reasonable impact fees instead of giving corporations and developers huge financial gain at the expense of residents.
- Before implementing the plan we must reconcile the inadequate infrastructure; roads in particular.Cars are nor going away as rapidly as planners are predicting.
- The super rich of the world are now parking their money on Seattle land. They don't have to live here to use Seattle real estate as a bank. Please do not make Seattle even more attractive and lucrative for them.
- Seattle does need to be for everyone--that does include home owners. With the tactics that the Mayor's office has taken to promote HALA and most recently cutting ties with existing Neighborhood Councils , as a resident of this city, I have never felt so disrespected and minimized. Here is city government asking for yet another Levy increase to property taxes, while the Mayor slaps home owners in the face. Seattle government leans pretty far left--thankfully we still live in a democratic nation and every vote counts!
- I believe Seattle's mayor is on the wrong track. We need parking to thrive as a business community as well as a living community. Some of us who have lived in Seattle for decades can not longer ride a bike to work or the grocery store. Buses are erratic and, given the long hours I work, not safe. I pay huge property taxes and wish the mayor would use the money for infrastructure so that our streets are safe, so that our parks are safe, so that our buses are safe, so that our sewers work. Building apartments/ condos with an expected occupancy of 100's of people in our neighborhoods with only 25 parking spots is simply nuts, pits neighbors against each other and makes the city unloveable.
- The Neighborhood planning was a critical part of having Wallingford and similar areas, represent the thoughts and need of those who life there It was a wonderful experience. I firmly believe developers should pay a higher percent of any project they build. Way below market. Sewer capabilities must be relevant to development. the developers will not care, not their deal. We already have overflow during a heavy rain. We don't have the capacity for the projected increase in density without considering this It is critical to preserve exiting affordable housing.
- I am really fed up with recent City policies and ordinances that are tending to destroy Seattle neighborhoods. Many of my friends are considering moving from Seattle - some have already left. I'd prefer not to join them.
- I understand that change happens, I do not agree that it must happen this fast and at the expense of everyone already living here in an attempt to accommodate people that haven't gotten here yet. I do not believe that the proposed housing to be built will be affordable. I also feel we, as a city, have a long list of other issues to clean up before we go running after this vision of giant metropolis where no one drives cars and everyone lives in 30 story high rises.
- You can get more flies with sugar than with vinegar, as my mom always said. Work together, not against the communities you WORK FOR.
- Our Mayor, Council Members and Senior Staff are not using public transportation as their main form of transportation. Before citizens are pushed into a car-free life, the Mayor, Council Member and Senior Staff should demonstrate whether they can do what they are trying to force our citizens to do. Better transportation options need to be provided before more density is allowed. You are ruining our beautiful city with the congestion you are causing.
- I believe community input is key to the successful growth of our city. Equally important, I believe that it is imperative to consider the current state of our city infrastructure prior to ignoring our current issues in an effort to push rapid growth and increased urban density throughout our neighborhoods.
- Please maintain the quality of our current neighborhoods-- this is why Seattle is such a livable city. Existing zoning can support projected growth. The environment should certainly be considered in all growth decisions.
- In addition to the above I urge you to eliminate the racist Payment in Lieu scheme contained in the MHA. I'm familiar with all the arguments in favor of these provisions but none of them trump the racist impact they will have on city wide diversity. Payment in Lieu needs to be thrown out.
- Please be considerate and respectful of the unique personalities and characteristics of our various neighborhoods. We deliberately choose to live in our neighborhood because of the charm and uniqueness of it. Allowing developers to take that away without giving the residents any say is wrong. Let us help plan what our community will look like.
- The advancement of HALA and the Mayor's unilateral proposition to disband the community councils reeks of either or both sociopathic indifference to the quality of our neighborhoods or frank corruption. Tune in to the pulse of our town or get your bags packed!
- Please, please.....Don't repeal neighborhood planning in the comprehensive plan. We are contributing tax payers and involved citizens in the city we love, we MUST have a voice in how we grow.
- Simply up zoning all single family neighborhoods will be an unmitigated disaster. You will force out families who wanted to live in single family neighborhoods without wall to wall cars and random multi-family developments. Schools will suffer, your tax based will eventually suffer when you destroy the livability of Seattle. When I was younger and working I did not live in as desirable a neighborhood as I do now, I didn't complain, I rode the bus for 45 minutes and worked my way up. I don't get why I should love my single family neighborhood willy nilly because some people "want" to live closer to their jobs. I am angry and backing this up with donating to the legal fund. I am also appalled by the Trump like attitude of Ed Murray in immediately disbanding the community councils. I regret my vote for Ed Murray tremendously and will never support him for any office again nor any council members who support this plan.
- Please work on infrastructure in partnership as density is increased. Ballard was promised more transit, if it accepted more density. The growth has come, but not the additional transit. Let's avoid this situation in other areas of our city.
- The above points pretty much summarize my thoughts. I am proud of the city council for questioning things, taking the time to research and study issues. You are independent thinkers, and not reflexively in the pocket of the office of the mayor. It takes courage, and much more energy. Thank you for being on the city council.
- If we have 13,000 apartment housing units in the last 2 years and 26,000 more in the pipeline, why are you opening up single family neighborhoods to more density? This is, plain and simple, a DEVELOPER GIVEAWAY.
- Please don't destroy our communities by dumping lot of big, ugly buildings into our neighborhoods that may not even do what you think they will to solve the housing crisis. Have you looked at some of the buildings? Just north of the Ballard Swimming Pool are a number of three story rectangular boxes that have whole walls of windows offering views of the other ugly boxes and really don't have enough room for more than a single person or a couple that gets along really well. All running together are a small kitchen with a bar and a couple of stools to sit on, maybe a small table more suited to a patio, and a living room that has no more room for anything than two small loveseats facing each other, again more suited to a patio with metal frames and seat cushions. No room to sprawl on a couch, much less take a nap! One bedroom may have a double bed and small dresser, nothing else; another may have an even smaller bed. Another "room" might have room for a desk. Again, these small units may be ok for a single person for a while, but if anyone wants to have a family, where will they go? And, oh yes, did I mention the price - $670,000!
- Do not up-zone our single family lots!, Do not OK plans that do not include parking! Do not do away with community councils! Listen to the PEOPLE who live and work here and pay property taxes......which you think is your personal gold mine to finance whatever YOU think is best for us.... without our input. Is that why Murray wants to get rid of Community Councils? So he can put in his OWN people who are like-minded and do NOT represent the community residents who live here.
- As a longtime Seattle resident, I believe one of the reasons our city is so treasured and admired is the unique character of our neighborhoods. I believe proposed zoning changes will irrevocably change this character and lead to massive redevelopment, destroying our neighborhoods for the benefit of a few wealthy property developers.
- The railroading of HALA is nothing short of insane, immoral and ridiculous. It is bad for the "soul" of Seattle. I am totally in alignment with the concept that developers need to pay a fair share (read: a lot more than they currently do) and to try and address the perceived run away cost of housing. But that is not being done in a fair and adequate way with HALA. In fact, the more density montra being professed by so many is NOT universal. Nor is it being addressed by many of DPD and/or the council's decisions. To allow most any variance for over size houses does nothing to address density in terms of people per sq mi, but does a lot for eliminating green space. This unfair, ridiculous practice needs to stop now! It feels like the city council is being blinded by the increased property values that this practice creates (read; more taxes).
- I have lived in Wallingford for 20 years and would like to keep living here. I would consider supporting an up zone if it were limited to major arterials (45th and Stone Way) and if it came with better transit. But I do not support the current proposal, which the mayor seems to be trying to force down citizens' throats without any say in whether we who live here want it. It would destroy the neighborhood that I have lived in for many years. The area between 45th and 40th should not be up zoned!
- If we have enough room to grow and create housing already why are you trying to upzone us? It does not make sense. And as a resident on Woodlawn Avenue North just south of 45th street - take the time to look at what we have been living with for over a year - a developer that bought 5 buildings that have been sitting empty with graffiti - ugly ugly and not the urban village the mayor talks about. We care about our neighborhood. What neighborhood do you live in?
- Seattle Fair Growth has clearly identified the seven most important issues about zoning change. Listen to them. I believe they represent the vast majority of Seattle citizens.
- The mayor's up-zoning plan for the U. District decreases the overall quality of life in this area in many ways. Much of the new housing which has already been built is apparently unoccupied. It is probably too expensive for most people. I fail to see any vibrancy around these units as advertised. Street level spaces remain unoccupied by any useful businesses. These newly built and ugly units are effectively dead zones. Streets are in shadow, and vegetation is sparse.
- This city is being sold down the river to line the pockets of developers and Investors. We can see what happened to Vancouver, where 70-80% of these units are empty. They serve no purpose, other than as a place for foreign investors to park their cash. As beautiful, historic, well built homes go under the wrecking ball, they are replaced with overpriced, shoddy construction that is a blight on our neighborhoods. Apodments are just another name for tenements.
- The city's own website shows @45 thousand empty units.
- We have already lost thousand of trees and yards. The Utopian vision of "density" seems to mean a wasteland; canyons of one bedroom condos and apodments the size of prison cells, the utter destruction of living situations for families, the middle class, the working class, and the poor.
- Who benefits? Not the minimum wage worker, who can't afford to spend half a months salary on 166 sq feet. Not the middle class, who flee to the suburbs in order to raise families . Not the environment, as our tree canopy and yards are lost forever. Not the working class, who can't afford a 750K one bedroom condo. Not the poor, who were sold a bill of goods about "affordable housing".
- Who benefits? Developers, foreign investors and their cronies, who are paid under the table for " soft lobbying. "
- Our once beautiful city is being gutted. What was once voted "The Most Livable City in America" has become one of the least livable. Judge Burke was once called "The Man Who Built Seattle. Mayor Murray will go down in history as " The Man Who Sold Seattle. "
- The least you can do is get a count of the rentals that exist in single family homes and their average rent. Most of them are probably affordable compared to the new ones you are encouraging to be built by exploitative developers. This is completely inefficient and unlikely ever to provide affordable units as long as so many high income earners are willing to pay their prices. Look at San Francisco if you need a real world example.
- We want to put on the brakes a bit _ see how some of these city ideas play out before such wholesale changes cascade and destroy why Seattle is so attractive and livable.
- It kind of feels like the City is handing the neighborhoods to developers on a silver platter to do with what they will. And the plan seems to favor future residents with no thought for residents who are already here and have invested their lives in their neighborhoods.
- It will be my pleasure to not vote for any of you or mayor Murray. You should all be ashamed of what you are doing to Seattle. Somehow you have forgotten that you are supposed to be the voice of the people, not a dictatorship.
- I'd especially emphasize the impact fees: The businesses driving and profiting from all of this growth clearly need to help mitigate the damages.
- Seattle is special because of the quality of life you see in the neighborhoods. People want to be here because of the parks, paths, beautiful houses with lush lawns and landscaping, access to nature and majestic vistas. Please do not sacrifice these rare treasures and become a city indistinguishable from concrete jungles like Houston. Preserve character and respect the opinions and values of the people who already live here, not the people who may theoretically come here.
- The City Council must represent all neighborhoods; dismissing their concerns outright is unproductive. Listen attentively and without preconceptions to their input, while acknowledging that just perhaps they have productive contributions to make. Furthermore, given the bold claims made by their city, their grand goals and promises, any legislation must provide a means of independently and honestly assessing the actual results going forward. The city must be required to justify their goals and provide evidence that these goals are being reached! Words may make for good feelings, but only actions count!
- All new residential and commercial buildings should be required to have an on-site, off-street loading zone or driveway for use by vehicles making deliveries to that building. Trucks and delivery vehicles blocking city streets and alleys are a severe problem in urban villages and urban center areas. This problem is compounded by the relaxation of parking requirements. At the very least, require on-site driveways or loading zones for new development.
- I no longer feel the city has my best interests at heart. I am very skeptical of the new public input campaigns. I think the developers are getting a 'bargain' at the expense of longtime residents. I do not believe we can build our way to affordability and instead risk utterly changing the form, function and livability of our neighborhoods and communities without concurrent neighborhood based planning and investments in schools, infrastructure, and amenities (where will the children play?!).
- Slow this out of control train. You have destroyed any history of the city of Seattle and replaced it with steel and glass, and no sunshine and poor air quality.
- You have created a monster that is kicking out those that provide you with basic services because this city is UNAFFORDABLE! WHERE IS YOUR HEART?????!
- Please place a moratorium on building permits until developer impact/linkage fees are enacted. Also do not rezone all single family zones in urban villages in one fell swoop. Rezone along arterials first and in urban villages that receive fast train stops first. Then slowly rezone radiating outward one block at a time until the last single family home is bulldozed. That will reduce the amount of homes that have to live with large overshadowing structures next to or surrounding them. It will place density near fast train stops. Please only rezone single family areas when necessary. According to the 2035 plan, there is still undeveloped land to accommodate over 200,000 homes/housing units. Make use of that land to build the required housing instead of forcing Seattle neighborhoods to take all of the density.
- The Mayor, City Council members, and Senior Staff should lead by example in living the car-free life they are trying to impose on the citizenry by continuing to eliminate off-street parking requirements for new development. These leaders should be prohibited 24/7 from using any transportation except bicycles, buses, trains, and feet. No excuses! Only after our leaders have shown they can live the car-free life, should they dare to suggest that lifestyle ti the rest of the City.
- Don't relax the rules on accessory housing. Owner need to reside on the property. We need more on and off street parking not less. Fix the roads and sidewalks.
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