Next Monday, April 13th the Seattle City Council will vote on CB119769 an emergency ordinance to expedite affordable housing during the COVID-19 crisis. The bill curtails public Design Review meetings for the next six to eight months to accelerate project approvals. Instead the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) will conduct only internal administrative reviews.

This provision is over-reaching and reads like a developer’s wish list.  It reduces public participation and puts decisions in the hands of City planners whose job is working closely with developers to bring projects through Design Review and MUP. 

We share the priority to keep people safe and government working during the Corona crisis.  However, this “temporary” legislation needs modification to ensure due process and public participation won’t take a long term hit.  Consider these issues:

1)      Affordable housing projects are a priority but commercial projects should wait for public Design Review until meetings can be held in person or on-line.  The potential for COVID-19 reoccurrence is real. Virtual meetings need to be a priority. The bill recognizes this but offers no timeline saying only this will be complicated and require “many” months. Not a sufficient answer.

2)      Six to eight months is not a temporary response. It effectively shuts down the Design Review public process for the rest of the year, opening a huge window to quickly approve and vest commercial projects with little public oversight.  It has potential to produce a flood of inequitable and unsustainable commercial development proposals.

3)      Internal administrative review isn’t equitable and limits public participation. As this legislation points out, many community members aren’t skilled in or have ready access to technology. The City’s troubled Accela portal system makes it even harder for the public to track projects and voice concerns on neighboring development.

4)    Internal review has an inherent conflict of interest.  City Planners already have little time to communicate with the public.  Their job of guiding developers through the city’s MUP process makes it unreasonable to expect them to assume the Design Review Board’s role in considering adverse impacts on community stakeholders. 

If Seattle is committed to equity, projects need public review. With the anticipated budget shortfall, the pressure to approve unsustainable projects will be greater than ever.