Seattle City Council Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan Public Hearing 2/5/2025

All right, we are live.

Can everyone hear me on my microphone?

Because we are starting the meeting now.

So I'm going to ask everyone to settle down.

I don't want to slap the gavel, but I will if I have to, and I have a judge to my left who's really good at it.

or more, would you like to slap it?

No need.

Awesome.

Good evening.

Welcome to the February 5th, 2025 meeting of the Select Committee of Comprehensive Plan comes to order.

The time right now currently is 5.04 p.m.

My name is Joy Hollingsworth, your favorite chair of the Select Committee.

Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Strauss?

Present.

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Moore?

Present.

Councilmember Nelson?

Present.

Councilmember Rink?

Present.

Councilmember DiVetta?

Present.

Councilmember Sacca?

Here.

Councilmember Solomon?

Here.

Chair Hollingsworth.

I am present.

I am present.

Awesome.

Thank you to the best clerk in the United States.

Appreciate you.

The world.

We could do universe.

Just want to thank you all for being here for your attendance today on a Wednesday night.

Just a couple housecleaning things before we jump into the agenda item, which is obviously while everyone is here, which is the public comment.

I'm going to read things about a little bit about the weather, kind of how we're going to go through tonight to hear everyone's comments and kind of just set the table.

Is that okay?

No, it's not okay?

Oh, okay, okay.

I just want to make sure.

All right, awesome.

Okay, so ever since this weekend, emergency management team issued inclement weather warnings over the weekend.

So our office has been in constant contact with the mayor's office, SPU, emergency management, and our clerks to understand options for meaningful public hearing and safety, or a meaningful meeting tonight to make sure that our staff and everyone is safe.

We received also a snow and cold briefing as well.

So I'm going to ask for your patience and understanding tonight as we're going through this.

Every hour on top of the hour, we're going to be keeping updated with what the weather is going on.

So just know that that's just going to be constant and we're just going to take this as this is.

Our intentions is to listen to everyone tonight, whether it's in person or online.

Sometimes the weather changes things, but just know we don't have a set time.

We're just going to go ahead and go with the flow until we're going to just navigate the weather piece.

But just know that you returning home is a priority of mine, our staff, and my colleagues as well, okay?

Also, today's meeting is intended to provide Council with the opportunity to hear from you at an early stage in the process.

The mayor released his plan about a month ago and we are holding currently a number of briefings to understand the plan.

We will be considering your comments today as we are navigating the comprehensive plan and understanding all proposed layers.

However, the comprehensive plan adopted by legislation that will be adopted by legislation has not officially been in front of council.

And so we're still waiting on the executive to send a lot of pieces as well.

Also wanted to note as well is that when we are doing our public comments, one thing we're going to ask, super simple, it's what they teach everyone in kindergarten is to be respectful.

for everyone's comments.

No matter where someone's talking about, which side of the aisle, whatever it is, we're just asking for everyone to be respectful.

Everyone has a different perspective.

And so just asking for that.

We know it can get super spicy, so if you want some plant-based milk, I got you.

That was a joke that I didn't think someone was going to laugh at.

I appreciate that.

I love hearing people clap and cheer and all those beautiful things, but it does slow down the time just a little bit.

So we're just going to ask people to use the favorite Councilmember Kettle spirit hands.

Councilmember Kettle, can you demonstrate what spirit hands are right now?

Strauss?

Jazz hands.

Oh, I thought they were spirit hands.

I'm sorry.

Jazz hands.

Thank you.

snaps, all good stuff.

We also have childcare downstairs in the Birth of Nights Landis room downstairs as well, so you're more than welcome if you have I lied, and this is the only time I'll lie.

It's not downstairs.

It's in the council reception area, my apologies, which is on the second floor.

So if you go right down this hallway and take a right all the way down, that's where our childcare is being held tonight.

Thank you so much.

Please be respectful to our security guards.

Our security guards, they work very, very hard.

I know we have a couple of them in our room.

Sometimes they'll ask you for certain things or they'll just, you know, just try to keep the crowd calm.

Please be respectful of our security guards.

They work really, really hard.

I also want to note sometimes you'll see our colleagues sometimes stand.

Sometimes we'll be stretching.

We are still listening.

So just want you to know that we're not trying to run or anything.

We're stretching and standing.

We will still be listening.

Some of us do run, but we're listening.

We're going to be recognizing in-person speakers starting right now, 5 o'clock, all the way up to 7.30.

So it's in-person speaker only.

At 7.30, we're going to transition for hybrid public comment.

That means that we're going to go back and forth.

So we're going to recognize people in chambers, and we're also going to recognize people that are online as well.

We'll also be calling people up by five folks.

So we're going to just call up numbers one through five, and then obviously six through ten, and we'll continue those numbers throughout the evening.

Other than that, let's...

My apologies, I lost my thing.

Other than that, speaker, will you please read item agenda into the record?

Agenda item one, public hearing on the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan.

Awesome.

And how many speakers do we have signed up tonight?

Currently, we have 120 and continuing registered public comments are downstairs in BKL.

And then remote speakers, we have 69.

Got it.

Awesome.

120 in person so far.

BKL still accepting public comment sign-ins right now as we speak.

And then 69 remote.

Perfect.

Also, a little housekeeping here as well.

We're asking that after you do public speak here, that if you don't mind giving up your seat, you can go.

We have an overflow room downstairs in Bertha Knight's Landing, so you can go downstairs, so those people who have not spoke can come up here and be recognized, because we are at maximum capacity, and we want to make sure that we stay within fire code as well, okay?

We're all good to go.

Everybody's good.

Happy to be here.

Chair.

Thank you.

I'm happy to see y'all.

We're really happy to hear from y'all.

Yes.

On a personal privilege, Chair, I just want to recognize what I see.

I think Girl Scouts in the front row and some other young people, jazz hands for our young people who came to show out and give public comment.

I always love and appreciate hearing from young people, our future leaders.

So shout out to all young people.

I see you.

Go ahead.

We can clap for our young people.

Let's go ahead.

We can clap for our young folks.

Thank you, Chair.

Y'all get all the love.

It's all about our young people.

We've got to focus on our young folks.

Really appreciate y'all coming and being able to give public comment for what's important to you all.

You all are our future, so thank you.

All right, so everyone's gonna get two minutes to speak tonight, and I think we are ready to go.

If y'all are ready to go, I'm ready to go.

Does anyone have any question, my colleagues, at all?

No?

All right, awesome.

We're gonna jump right in.

So we're gonna start.

Oh, and our clerk's gonna read the instructions.

I was so happy to call one through five.

Go ahead.

The public hearing, the public comment for public hearing will begin, and will be moderating in the following manner.

The hybrid public comment will begin at 7.30 p.m., alternating between sets of in-persons and remote speakers, and in the order of registering.

For remote speakers with approximate numbers 1 through 50, please call into the meeting by 7 p.m.

If you have not registered to speak but would like to, you can still sign up before the end of the public comment period at the Council's website or by signing up on the sign-up sheets outside of chambers.

The public comment period begins with in-person speakers.

Speaker numbers will be called in the order which they registered.

Numbers will be called in groups of five at one time.

Please line up in numerical order.

There are two microphone podiums.

Please adjust the mics when you approach the microphone.

Please begin your comments by stating your name.

A speaker will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of your allotted time.

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time period, the speaker's microphones will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Awesome.

Okay.

So we're going to first call speakers one through five.

You are, please start coming up and then speakers six through 10, if I can count correctly, six through 10, please be on deck to get ready.

So one through five and you can use both mics.

We just ask that you line up at both mics and we'll get started.

Hello, Ms. Black.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you.

My name is Cecilia Black.

I am a wheelchair user and community organizer for Disability Rights Washington.

The housing that is most successful, four-, five-, and six-story buildings, is prohibited in the majority of the city, which means that I am not welcome in so many neighborhoods.

We should be embracing the opportunity to create a different city.

Neighborhood centers, more housing, and more retail have potential to create communities and change lives.

I know because I've gotten to live in Roosevelt, one of Seattle's most recent rezone neighborhoods.

It has changed my life.

I can easily get groceries, grab a coffee, or hop on a bus or light rail without consuming my energy or my entire day.

As Roosevelt has grown, I have watched it become more accessible.

Living in a world that is not built for you is exhausting, and I can't fully explain the relief when leaving your house is just easy.

Seattle is a growing city and what gets built in the next decade will last generations.

And I'm urging you to ensure that that includes people with disabilities.

This means keeping our neighborhood centers that will allow for multifamily housing that will be accessible means easing restrictions on stacked flats, which will be one of the only accessible options in neighborhood residential zones and easing restrictions on on corner stores and making sure that all multifamily housing has the potential for retail so we can create accessible and walkable city.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Ana Zivartz.

I also work for Disability Rights Washington, and I want to echo what Cecilia just said.

I also want to share my perspective as a homeowner in a neighborhood in Hillman City that is getting upzoned as part of the comprehensive plan from a neighborhood residential to a low-rise two, which means four-story apartment buildings.

And I know my neighbors and I know people, everyone is a little scared about change, but our block, our neighborhood is changing anyway.

Already too many of my neighbors have been priced out.

One of my next door neighbor was my age.

She had a kid that was my kid's age and they had to move to Federal Way because they couldn't afford housing in Seattle.

And so I'm excited about this change.

I'm excited to welcome more people to our neighborhood because it will mean more amenities close to us, more stores, more coffee shops, more activities, more friends for my kid.

And so I hope we can make our city accessible for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Callie Nichols, and I'm a teacher and a renter in District 3. I'm a proud graduate of Roosevelt High School and the University of Washington.

Currently, I'm student teaching at Lowell Elementary, where about a third of our students are unhoused.

I'm deeply passionate about this city and believe it should be a place where young adults, service workers, teachers, and growing families can afford to live and thrive.

However, Seattle's restrictive single family zoning laws limit housing options and drive up the cost of living, making it increasingly difficult for many of us to afford to live here.

Please strengthen the one Seattle plan to create new neighborhood centers across the city in both the wealthy and lower income areas.

This would not only expand the housing supply, but also prevent displacement in vulnerable communities, which many of my students have experienced.

By promoting growth and inclusivity, we can ensure that Seattle is a place where people from all walks of life can live, work, and thrive, including me and my students.

Thank you for your time and consideration in making this vision a reality.

Thank you.

Just to clarify, you were Callie?

Callie Nichols.

Got it.

And so we're looking for Jennifer and Elle Harrison.

I'm Jennifer.

Jennifer.

Hi, my name is Jennifer Kohler.

My partner and I own a house in Mott Lake about a block and a half from the elementary school.

And we moved in there as renters and were able to ultimately buy in.

And we love this neighborhood.

It's a historic neighborhood with its parks and its lush trees.

AND WE ALSO RECOGNIZE THE INCREDIBLE NEED IN SEATTLE FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING.

AND WE DO SUPPORT DENSITY WHERE IT MAKES SENSE, SUCH AS ADUs, TINY HOMES, AND EXPANDING MULTI-USE RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL SPACE.

support drastically changing the entire concept of a neighbor overnight where people haven't had a chance and sufficient time to give feedback and propose alternatives.

I also want to raise a point that really aligns with some of what the speakers just said that's a great danger this proposal list accessibility for people with any sort of mobility or health impairments.

I am also part of a nonprofit that works with people with disabilities.

We help people train their own dogs and service dogs to increase their independence and access.

And as such, I'm really aware of the challenges for people with disabilities, chronic ailments, and frankly, any of us just aging as we try to navigate our streets, and our Montlake neighborhood in particular.

Our neighborhood sidewalks are dangerous to walk on, and in many areas impossible to navigate with a walker, a wheelchair, or unsteady legs.

It is already incredibly challenging to drive down our narrow streets with cars on two sides.

Or as a bike rider, it's absolutely terrifying to go through our neighborhood or down the main streets.

So the thought that public transit within a half mile is sufficient to say there's access is absurd.

That we don't need increased parking when there already isn't parking.

That presumes somebody has the ability to travel over half a mile on irregular, uneven hilly roads in any weather conditions when they need to get access to something, when they need to leave their home.

So that's absolutely not an option for many people.

So we need the city to address the present lack of parking and danger even being in our neighborhood right now before considering expanding density.

It's already not safe and the plan disregards that.

So we ask you please slow down, give time for counter proposals, and look at the ironic lack of access and equity in the proposal right now.

Thank you.

Speaker number five and then speaker six through 10, please, you're on deck.

Get ready.

We already have five.

Callie was five, but that was only four speakers.

I'm speaker number four.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker number four.

OK, go ahead.

Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I am Patience Malaba and I have the incredible honor of leading the housing development consortium.

And I'm here today because I know all of you believe in a future where everyone no matter their income, no matter their race, no matter their background, can find a place that they can call home in this beautiful city of Seattle.

And right now we are in a deep housing crisis.

One that demands bold action.

And the only way we get out of this crisis is if we build more housing.

And we are asking you to be bold with this comprehensive plan.

I want to be very clear.

The status quo is not working for far too many people in the city right now.

Rents are too high, home prices are out of reach, and far many people are being pushed out of this community that they have called home for decades.

And we are asking you to take this opportunity to right-size the restrictive zoning that has locked so many people out of the opportunity for too long.

The one Seattle plan that the mayor has put forward in front of you is a solid, strong start.

It's moving us in the right direction.

And what we're asking you to do is expand on the strength of this plan and not whittle it down.

We are asking you not to water down the plan in the name of process, in the name of outreach, because we all know outreach is an iterative process that will continue to happen as we grow as a city.

So I ask you once again to take on this once in a generation opportunity to move forward a comprehensive plan that meets the moment, that meets the scale of the crisis.

We are counting on your leadership in this very moment to lead us towards a path and a future where everyone can find a place.

Thank you.

Speakers 6 through 10, please come forward.

Stephanie, Phyllis, Susan, Saniya, Dilla.

Hello, Councilmembers.

My name is Stephanie Velasco, and my husband and I have lived and worked in Seattle since 2011. We now have the privilege of being homeowners and parents to two young kids, ages four and one.

We live in Squire Park, District 3, and our family thrives here car-free.

We are able to walk to daycare, to the grocery store, and to friends' houses and apartments for playdates.

We walk to the farmer's market most Sundays.

We ride the G to check out books at the Central Library or come down here, the streetcar to eat and shop in the ID, and the light rail to the kids' doctor and dentist appointments in Othello.

We love where we live, but we recognize that many families will never be able to afford to live in a neighborhood like ours.

Our lifestyle shouldn't be an exclusive privilege or a luxury.

Families of all incomes and sizes should be able to live in neighborhoods where everything they need is within walking, rolling, or biking distance.

We need to allow more dense and affordable housing options in more places throughout the city.

Mayor Harrell's draft plan does the bare minimum when it comes to planning for Seattle's future housing needs, and we urge you to go further by implementing the following changes.

One, mid-rise housing should be allowed in all residential areas within a five-mile walk of frequent transit.

Mixed-use development should be allowed in all residential areas, and the creation of small, affordable commercial spaces should be encouraged and incentivized.

The number of neighborhood centers should be increased and their boundaries expanded to encompass at least a five minute walk shed.

And finally, parking minimums should be eliminated everywhere to reduce housing costs and encourage more sustainable transportation options.

We should be planning for the next generations, not playing defense against the fears of change.

Change is already here.

This comprehensive plan is our chance to move away from the old model of planning for growth and move boldly toward an approach that will house more neighbors, help us achieve our climate goals and grow Seattle into a city where every family thrives.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Balancing a baby in public comment.

That was super impressive.

Phyllis, Susan, Senaya and Dilla.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I've lived in Maple Leaf since 1987 and I've worked on public policy issues longer than that.

I created the petition to remove the proposed designation of Maple Leaf as a neighborhood center.

Why?

to give voice to the residents of make-believe who had no idea the neighborhood center was proposed, have no confidence in or even knew about the mayor's engagement process, had no engagement whatsoever in informing the proposal, and were looking for ways to share their significant concerns.

In this small neighborhood, currently 1,060 people have signed this petition in a little over a month.

They are trying to tell you something.

I co-led a project funded by the state legislature where I facilitated workshops on what is working well and not working well regarding local comprehensive planning and growth management.

I put on workshops in every county in this state.

I am also leading a three-year project funded by and to inform the state legislature on housing policy.

The signers of the petition are echoing what I strongly heard throughout the state.

One, place matters.

It is critical to take into account the specific conditions in the neighborhood.

This designation does not fit this locale in Maple Leaf.

Two, planning needs to shift from the concept of land use to our relationship to the land, meaning that trees and the environmental health and mental health services they provide are essential to preserve.

Three, we can't build our way out of the complexity of issues related to housing.

And four, lastly, we need to stop objectifying people and their concerns and interests by labeling them like NIMBYs.

This is a control mechanism that stops real conversations or the ability to collaborate on solutions to the issues we collectively have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Speaking of crises, climate, and future generations, from 2005 to 2017, FEMA spent $37 billion on natural disaster preparedness and mitigation, and $81 billion on relief.

In other words, for every $1 spent on prevention, FEMA spent $2.19 on relief.

This seems like a very good way to make a less affordable world.

NYU recently set up Project Heat Wave, an initiative that treats extreme heat as a pandemic because they all have the same features.

Unpredictability, inequality in how they treat communities, and mortality.

We have a rare opportunity here in Seattle to focus on prevention by protecting mature tree canopy, but we seem hell bent on passing the cost of climate change onto future generations.

That is what 90% concrete coverage of residential lots will do.

As an ROI focused climate technology investor, a parent of young children, and a person whose own age means that I am going to be living through the worsening effects of climate change myself, I ask that you consider the long-term collective returns and your own legacy to your kids.

over short-term profits for developers who have co-opted the complexity of the housing market and people's desperation over private equity driven rents and mortgages in order to literally pave their way to an even easier way to do their own business.

The only way we will survive the now baked in changes that are coming our way are to work with urban forests, not further bifurcate into humans versus nature.

Please amend this plan now.

Thank you.

Please, please, please, spirit hands, spirit hands.

Hold on, please.

I just, I don't want to have to like say this over and over again.

I apologize.

Please spirit hands, spirit hands, spirit, or what is it?

Yeah, spirit hands.

Jazz hands.

Where'd I get spirit?

Jazz hands, jazz hands.

Thank you.

Sanaya, go ahead.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Sinaya Simone Parrott, and I have been fighting for the trees since I was in kindergarten.

I spoke to the city council about the last tree ordinance, and I was so disappointed and shocked that the adults that I trusted and relied on did not do what they needed to do.

I care about this so much.

Even though my grandma has cancer and is in her last days, I came here to protect our trees.

As you all know, Seattle has been known to be called the Emerald City because of its natural beauty and wonderful towering mountains.

Though, not anymore.

Just this past year alone, Seattle has lost 1,800 trees, which is too many.

I have asthma, and I usually start coughing really bad when I enter downtown Seattle.

Why?

Because of all the car exhaust and pollution.

Because there are not enough trees to help keep the air clean.

That is why we need more trees in this city.

When I go up to the east or the north of Seattle, I see way more trees.

big huge beautiful trees we need more of that here so that's why I'm begging you Seattle please make our future better for more people to come mother nature did not put us on this earth to destroy it she put us on this earth to help it because she believed that she could trust human beings but we have proven her wrong so that's why we need to do better Seattle let's go green together Thank you.

Thank you, Sonia.

And before you step up, please step up.

Can we get speakers 11, 12, 13, 14, 15?

Please stand up.

Come to both mics.

They're available for you.

Hi, Dyla.

Hi, my name is Delalia.

I live in Maple Leaf.

As a person with a limited income, I think it is critical to prioritize housing affordability.

I also think it is important to not just focus on the number of units housing built, but on how to design for enhancing community and safety.

Why do decision makers often make the assumption that people with lower incomes want to live in boxes, with no access to nature or space to grow our food?

Consider how these plans are taking into account the needs of women.

Walkability is talked about, but I don't feel safe walking at night.

You're wanting me to take mostly transit, but I don't feel safe riding the light rail or buses at night.

Besides, there is only one bus route in Maple Leaf.

Research has shown that women do more of the food shopping, dropping off kids, caring for elders.

They need to use cars.

Yet you are considering permitting apartments with no parking in Maple Leaf, assuming that we are able to walk a mile up and down.

a hill carrying our groceries.

I'm of the generation that understands we need climate resilience.

Dependence on nature, for example, the contribution trees make to drainage, wildlife, pollinators, shade, and mental health.

And we will need to maximize the energy efficiency and solar.

Right now, I don't see any of the new buildings in Maple Leaf being built with solar.

Now is not the time for fantasies regarding urban planning, especially when the marketplace is not controlled.

You have to look at what is actually happening on the ground.

Are there really conditions and amenities that support even more density than what is already being built in Maple Leaf?

Expensive fourplexes was minimal of any vegetation.

Constrained transportation infrastructure where pedestrians and bicyclists are almost hit by cars daily.

I am against the designation of Maple Leaf as a neighborhood center.

Thank you.

So next, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Tanisha, Sarah, Dinko, Brandon, and Tracy.

Please step forward, 11 through 15. Tanisha?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for holding the space.

My name is Tanisha Sepulveda, and I'm a over a decade-long resident of West Seattle, specifically Highland Park.

And a lot of the issues I've heard tonight, you know, resonate as far as, you know, needing better transit, needing our sidewalks fixed, and needing, you know, a healthy, beautiful tree canopy.

But the necessity for all of that isn't going to stop the moving train that is the people that we have coming into our city and needing housing.

The people that we have who are already here and need housing.

People like me, people with disabilities where we're already so limited in our access to housing and resources that without more improvement on zoning, without more ability to have accessible housing.

And oftentimes, we don't find that in single family homes and lots and these new homes that are being built.

We find that in multifamily housing, in condos, in apartments, in places that have elevators, and that often have closer resources to pharmacies, grocery marts, plazas.

And that's why we need to bring these services more into our towns and not just the neighborhood centers.

We need to expand past neighborhood centers and allow access for people in these communities, the elderly, people with limited mobility, people with children who maybe can't get that far, have limited time, who want to be able to enjoy the perks of living in a city while remaining in a neighborhood.

Living in Highland Park, I've seen my neighborhood grow.

I've seen unaffordable, inaccessible, expensive townhomes being built.

And that is obviously not something that I can grow or move into.

And I would love to stay in the city.

But without implementing a stronger change that is the Seattle One Plan, we're not going to get there.

So please urge you to support this plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sarah?

Good afternoon, Chair Hollingsworth, members of the committee.

My name is Sarah Clark, and I am here on behalf of the 2500 members of the Seattle Metro Chamber in strong support of Mayor Harrell's proposed One Seattle Comprehensive Plan, which is now before you.

We have a housing supply crisis in Seattle, and this plan is essential to fostering a vibrant, equitable and sustainable Seattle that benefits residents, workers and businesses alike.

Seattle's growth demands bold action.

The One Seattle Plan promotes mixed-use, inclusive neighborhoods where people can live, work, and thrive, critical for attracting talent, supporting local neighborhood economies, and ensuring business success.

Expanding diverse housing options, including affordable and multifamily developments, keeps workers close to jobs, reduces commutes, and strengthens our workforce.

Economic vitality and community well-being go hand in hand.

The planned strategic land use supports neighborhood business districts, innovation hubs, and commercial corridors, driving investment, entrepreneurship, and economic diversity.

We urge you to support Mayor Harrell's policies, including the 30 neighborhood centers, vital to creating equitable, walkable communities.

The business community stands ready to collaborate in making this vision a reality.

Together, we can build a more resilient, affordable Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Dinko Brandon Tracy.

Hi.

My name is Dinko DeForest.

I'm 20 years old, and I have lived in Seattle for most of my life.

the current status quo of our city is unacceptable.

The amount of people that are unhoused or very close to it is far, far too many.

And the idea that building more housing will not help alleviate this crisis is plainly ridiculous.

I fully agree it's not the only solution but is a massive part of it.

I am in support of the comprehensive plan and I am asking all of you to strengthen it, build more density.

I care deeply about nature and about trees and about climate and the massive suburban sprawl that is currently built and we are having to build the light rail around is costing us far more than the density wood and we can build with trees and homes.

Thank you.

Brandon Tracy.

Brandon then Tracy.

Hi, I'm Brandon.

I am 17 and I originally come from Carnation but I have recently moved to Seattle and there are so many new homes going up in Carnation and all throughout the valley and they're everywhere and they're very expensive and they're displacing the people and nature that are there and I believe that having more dense housing in Seattle would be wonderful.

I also I love living in Seattle.

It is so nice and accessibility is lacking.

Being able to take the bus is amazing and not having curb cuts on the streets makes it so that I have to navigate around that and I don't think that's okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Before Tracy, before you speak, can we get speakers 16 through 20 to step up, please?

You have two podiums, 16 through 20. Thank you, Brandon, and thank you, Tracy.

Hi, I'm here today to ask you to allow the new LR3 zone for the Holler Lake neighborhood to move forward as planned.

I live on Holler Lake and have been a part of that community for 24 years.

Throughout my 24 years, I've appreciated the convenience, the connection and beauty of this neighborhood.

The Holler Lake neighborhood is a treasure.

that should be open to more residents of Seattle.

It's a perfect location because there is so much to offer within a one mile radius.

We have quick access to I-5 and Aurora.

We have a brand new elementary school that's very large.

We have K eight and Ingram High School all within walking distance.

We have Northwest Hospital.

We have North Acres Park grocery stores restaurants clubs churches and all kinds of exercise facilities all within walking distance within a one mile radius.

The most unique part about Holler Lake is Holler Lake.

It's a place where people come to play and swim in the lake they float they fish they enjoy the nature and the beauty.

I fully understand why what an incredible neighborhood this is and I can empathize with my neighbors who don't want change for this very special community.

Our city needs to make room for more residents.

Holler Lake is the perfect location to welcome more residents so they can enjoy this treasured community.

Please allow the LR3 zone in the community of Holler Lake.

Thank you.

Don?

We have two mics.

You can be back and forth.

Go ahead.

My name is Don McFarland.

Maple Leaf was named Maple Leaf for a reason.

A Google Earth view of the proposed neighborhood center shows how many trees there are, but we wanted to demonstrate that with some numbers.

Would a neighborhood center at Maple Leaf affect tree canopy?

So let's take a look.

We had 10 citizen surveyors from Maple Leaf with a 40-year veteran of the Arboretum leading the survey.

We counted trees on private property greater than six inches in diameter and noted which trees were tier two, the giants that are greater than 24 inches.

We counted 784 trees, 96 of which were tier two.

It will be decades before replacement trees offer the same benefits as these tier two trees.

These large trees are usually inappropriate street trees.

Of the lots with new construction, 17 have no trees.

Three have preserved at least one tree.

We use the Seattle street tree map to look at places trees could be replaced on public land.

Only two of nine streets in the neighborhood center have planting strips where those planting strips are almost full.

The Maple Leaf Park has a reservoir, tree planting there is limited, and the survival rate of planted trees has been poor.

We observed that many tall trees were on the perimeter of properties.

With space care during construction, tall trees on the perimeter can be saved while also increasing density.

The value of trees, climate change, biodiversity, human health, both physical and mental, are all well documented.

This is an opportunity to both increase density and preserve trees with proper care.

Don't waste this opportunity.

We won't get this chance again.

Thank you.

You still have time.

Okay.

Okay.

Robin, Bob.

I'M SPEAKING FOR MY NEIGHBOR, ROBIN KING.

I KNOW A LOT OF CONCERN ABOUT THIS HAS BEEN VOICED FROM THE MORE SENIOR MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY, AND I WANTED TO ADD A VOICE AND PERSPECTIVE OF SOMEONE WHO HAS GRADE SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN AT OUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOL, SACAGEWEA ELEMENTARY, A SCHOOL WHICH WAS SHORTLISTED FOR CLOSURE RECENTLY.

We were rallying and made our voices heard from our small and mighty community, and it made a difference.

And so we realize that we need to do that for our neighborhood as well.

First and foremost, housing is desperately needed for our neighborhood and city.

That is not what I'm objecting to.

Instead, I dream of building a neighborhood for the future that reflects our neighborhood and the people in it, and those who want to welcome, retain, and grow with.

Tearing down trees and building expensive giant box housing does not serve people in our community, including teachers, librarians, social workers, firefighters.

not to mention anyone on a limited income.

In talking with other parents in our neighborhood and school, these are the concerns voiced with the current plan.

Transit is not adequate.

There's concerns for distance to link light rail, lack of buses, bus cancellation and parking, green space and tree canopy, up to 800 trees in current proposed area.

Even if new trees are planted, it will be decades before they can replace the value lost.

Actual affordable housing.

The bulk of my new neighbors have primarily been doctors and tech workers.

Mindfulness for future of neighborhood and city.

Building for the future.

Architecture, green spaces, community planning, and engagement.

I am Robin King.

I'm a Maple Leaf neighbor, parent of two Sacagawea Elementary students, and member of the Sacagawea Elementary parent.

Thank you.

Next we have Bob.

And we have two mics as well.

Both mics get the same amount of camera time.

Go ahead.

My name is Bob Morgan.

I'm one of four speakers representing the West Green Lake Neighborhood Center Group.

For us, the proposed changes would be devastating.

We know there's a housing crisis to be addressed, but we feel we're being thrown under the bus for nothing but the enrichment of developers and investors, because massive zoning increases will not make market-rate housing affordable in Seattle.

Land is too expensive, even up-zoned, and household incomes are too high, particularly near Green Lake.

Stick with HP 1110 and existing multifamily area redevelopment.

That'll address the variety of housing types needed.

Reject all neighborhood centers, and specifically we ask you to reject West Green Lake.

It does not meet the criteria for neighborhood centers as follows.

There's no proposed commercial core at this location.

It's divided by a dangerous, noisy state highway, the number one alternative to I-5 with insufficient buffers for pedestrians, and you should see it during the peak hour.

The E-Line bus does not provide a valid major transit stop at North 72nd Street.

It's northbound only.

A walk exceeding 800 feet is required to get to a bus bound for downtown for most of the neighborhood center.

East-West traffic along Winona and West Green Lake Drive has been intentionally constrained with large backups occurring at Winona and Aurora.

There are no scale transitions between the proposed five and four-story rezones and adjoining low-scale zones, as promised during the mayor's review last spring.

Surrounding Green Lake with five story apartments with no parking required will adversely affect a regional treasure in Seattle's most heavily used park.

Seattle, or the area, has century old sewers and water systems that are unlikely to be sufficient for planned development.

And of course the proposed up zone will be a tree canopy disaster.

If the neighborhood center is retained, which we do not support, at least provide scale transitions within the center's boundaries.

and move boundaries to within an 800-foot walk from the transit stop at 76th and Aurora.

And I would suggest considering the demand side of this issue, do we need more Google, Amazon, and Microsoft?

Bob, thank you.

Bob, thank you, Bob.

Go right ahead.

My name is Marie Morgan Riss.

I'm here today with other West Green Lake neighbors to voice our urgent request to slow down and fulfill HB 1110 and postpone the comp plan.

until more accurate studies can be completed.

My focus today is to raise grave concerns about the planned extinction of Seattle's charming old multi-generational family homes by nondescript five-story apartment buildings that all look alike, lack character, and breed isolation.

Many homeowners in Seattle have lived in their homes 40 to 50 years and have loved, contributed and provided stability to their community.

These residents expected to age in place and perhaps be taken care of in their final days by family in their familiar home.

It has been documented that multi-generational neighborhoods provide the essential ingredient of connection that contributes to a sense of wellbeing and mutual support to all.

However, if we ring our city with five story apartment buildings, we are developing an entirely different Seattle.

Since apartments often cater to stratified age groups, there's often a lack of social cohesion and commitment by renters to their community.

So, given that we have a state mandate to develop HB 1110, let's take a pause and see how building four to six units on a lot impacts the current lifestyle of our residents.

And let's keep working with city officials to plan for our multi-generational and elderly, as well as more housing with character in our city.

Why not scrap the five-story L3 apartments near current family homes and transition the height from NR to a lower L1 and L2 to stay closer to the character of our neighborhood?

Compromise by everyone is the best solution.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Hi, Ezekiel.

Before you start, my man, welcome.

Thank you for coming.

We can't wait to hear your comments.

Can I have speakers 21 through 25 please step up, come to both mics, please?

21 through 25. Ezekiel, you got this.

And make sure you speak into the microphone, so pull that microphone close so we can hear you.

Hi, my name is Ezequiel Lapis.

I am eight years old.

I love this city.

I live in District 6. Dan Strauss, you don't just represent the grown-ups in District 6, you represent the kids too.

All of the grown-ups in this room who give up and who grew up in Seattle grew up with trees all around them.

Why don't I get any?

I deserve to grow up with trees too.

My little brother deserves to grow up with trees too.

My friends deserve to grow up with trees too.

Please change this plan to protect what we love and what makes this city so beautiful.

Please protect the trees.

Thank you, Ezekiel.

Jeannie, so 21 through 25, please step in.

We have two mics.

It helps.

You could stay there, but people who are behind you there up from the queue, we have two mics.

Please help us out.

Go ahead.

Understood.

My name is Jenny Grant, and I have lived in Madrona for over 20 years, and I've worked there as a real estate agent for 10 years.

Over 630 Madrona residents and counting have signed the Friends of Madrona petition that asked the City Council to downscale the proposed one Seattle rezoning plan for our neighborhood.

WE ARE VERY SUPPORTIVE OF INCREASING AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND DENSITY THROUGHOUT THE CITY, INCLUDING MADRONA.

THAT'S WHY WE STRONGLY SUPPORT WASHINGTON STATE HOUSE BILL 1110 THAT REZONES SINGLE FAMILY HOUSING FOR NR3 ACROSS THE CITY.

However, we are asking the City Council to slow down the plans for additional rezoning and other measures that go above and beyond HB 1110. We encourage you to collaborate with Madrona and engage with us to understand our specific concerns and issues, which include concerns about steep slopes, and the slide prone areas, the lack of affordability of LR3 buildings on our steep slopes, lack of infrastructure, and the impact of new lot coverage, open space, and setback rules on our tree canopy.

You're about to hear more about these issues from other Madrona neighbors.

We would have a large group here to stand with us today, but due to the weather forecast, we have asked them to stay home.

We look forward to engaging with the council so it has the information it needs to make an informed and non-rushed decision on rezoning for our neighborhood.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Ms. Young, Leland Shields, and Katherine Parker.

My name is Lainey Young, and I'm here because I'm very concerned about proposals to upzone the steep slope and slide areas of Madrona.

Every spring, I venture down the slope of my yard to see how things survive the Seattle winter.

I see the chronic ooze as wet clay soil seeks to make its way down the hill.

We have friends who have spent thousands in an effort to prevent their yards from sliding onto the street below, not always successfully.

Friends on Grand Avenue had their uphill neighbor's yard wind up in our kitchen one wet and snowy winter.

Despite its name, Grand Avenue is actually a one lane street and it is a four story climb to their front door.

This is the reality of the geology of Madrona.

The fact is that some areas of Madrona designated for high density sit on some of the most unstable land in the city.

The city is well aware of this and has designated these as environmentally critical areas, which currently make it extremely difficult to replace even a cracked retaining wall.

Portland has banned higher density housing from their ECAs.

As the wildfires in L.A.

remind us that it is a mistake to build in places we can't protect, we should have some humility about the wisdom of allowing five story buildings and hardscape to cover our fragile slopes and narrow dead end streets that rescue vehicles can barely negotiate.

I strongly urge you to remove all LR zoning designations from Madrona's ECA steep slope and slide areas and find other places flatter ground in Madrona.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And before Leland, I want to hear from you, just a reminder that we're asking people after you speak to go downstairs because we're sending people up from the overflow room so they can speak as we are switching out.

So we're just asking you all to work with us.

Hi, Leland.

Go right ahead.

My name is Leland Shields, and I'm a Madrona resident.

The question before the council is this.

If more housing is built generally, but it does not lead to significant improvement in housing affordability, will you still support the current plan as it is?

This was a question I asked in the January 30th letter that I emailed to all council members, and it was hand delivered to each of you.

The one Seattle plan, while commendable in its goal of increasing housing supply, inadequately addresses the root causes of affordability.

The detailed research in the letter shows that the plan will not meet the goal of affordable housing.

I ask you to read it to see why.

I know it's intuitive to think increased housing supply will bring down price.

And of course it's true in some ways.

But this plan for Seattle will not significantly increase supply in the lower and middle price ranges in which it is most needed.

What the plan will do is radically change the sustainability and livability of neighborhoods throughout the city.

To truly address Seattle's affordability challenges, there are other solutions.

In my Madrona neighborhood, land prices are high, lots are designated as potential slide areas, and steep slopes require expensive geoengineering and foundations with pilings, as I have in my house.

With those costs to get a return on their investment, developers will only build expensive housing.

Please eliminate LR zoning in Madrona as it will not appreciably increase affordability.

It will likely only result in more expensive housing and will forever alter the livability and sustainability of the neighborhood.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Catherine and then Ron.

Good evening, council members.

My name's Katherine Parker.

I live in Madrona with my two sons.

I'm speaking tonight for my neighbor, Andrea Ostrovsky, who wasn't able to be here because she had to work late.

The council should reject parts of the One Seattle plan that will negatively impact tree canopy, including the revised lot coverage, open space, and setback rules.

Trees and urban forests provide critical public health and environmental benefits.

Sadly, we've been losing tree canopy in the city for years.

The 2023 tree ordinance and the One Seattle Plan will only exacerbate this problem.

Under the 2023 ordinance, even giant trees can be removed for development, and the One Seattle Plan's reduced setbacks and hardscape allowances leave little room for trees.

Residential areas with many trees like Madrona help contribute to the city's goal of 30% tree canopy.

My neighbors and I strongly support increased density, strongly in support increased density and affordable housing in our neighborhood.

But we can and should do better to ensure that these plans are green, livable and sustainable.

Again, please reject the portions of the one Seattle plan that would reduce our tree canopy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Ron Chambers.

And Ron, before you start, can we have speakers 26 through 30 please step up to the mic and get ready, just so you all know how we're moving.

Ron is number 25 and we're an hour in.

We have over 270 speakers signed up.

So that's why I ask if we just be able to get queued up first so we're ready to go.

Mr. Chambers, you are ready, sir.

Thank you, once again.

And my name is Ron Chambers, and I am in the, I guess, to be the West Green Lake Neighborhood Center, maybe.

What we don't know is these are, we haven't had a neighborhood center before.

It's a new thing.

So maybe we should just scale back from 30 and do two or three and see how they work.

You've got a thought of what they're going to do.

We have a thought of what they're going to do.

And unfortunately the developers gonna do what they gonna do and that's it so Let's scale it back Another thought back in 2014 the Seattle council here was voting on a proposal to up zone the Mount Baker station area and There was one dissenter and that man was Bruce Harrell was the dissenter.

He said no, he did not want to do uploads, wear up zones.

And his quote was, he repeated his policy of erring on the side of cautiousness.

Thank you for listening to the mayor.

And remember, cautiousness.

Thank you.

Next, Marty.

Yes, hi.

Hello.

As Ron Chambers just pointed out, in 2014, then-Counsel Bruce Harrell dissented on a proposition to upzone the Mount Baker area.

In his wisdom, he said, quote, Having talked to members of the community, I know that a zoning policy should be very tightly interwoven with an economic development policy, an education policy, and a public safety policy.

At that meeting, he also repeated his policy of erring on the side of cautiousness.

And just yesterday, we received a mailing from the mayor supporting Proposition 1B, citing the importance of transparency and accountability.

Again, wise man.

The current state mandate to increase housing to four to six units throughout the city on every residential lot and in every neighborhood, which is HB 1110, is a given.

We can fulfill the state's requirements regarding HB 1110 by their deadline and move cautiously on the dramatically more sweeping revision of the Seattle landscape that is the One Seattle Plan.

The One Seattle Plan is not sufficiently integrated with existing city systems, nor has it satisfied many important questions and concerns that citizens have, many which you are hearing here.

After citywide localized public hearings making all Seattle citizens who are your constituents aware of the plan and its ramifications, not just hearing their concerns but answering them in real time, and after prototype locations to determine whether or not there are the intended results from the one Seattle plan, we could consider citywide implementation.

We request a minimal comprehensive land use plan and zoning to meet the HP 1110 June deadline and a postponement of the sweeping One Seattle plan, which we believe...

Thank you.

Time's expired.

Thank you, Marty.

Next, we have Ruth, Renee, Ryan, and Rebecca.

Did I say that right?

Is it Ruth?

Ruta?

Oh, it's Ruta?

I can't...

Speaker number 27?

Awesome.

Thank you.

five was the preferred and highest growth alternative at 120,000 housing housing units two and a half times forecast growth the mayor's plan added 40,000 units for capacity three times forecast growth 40,000 is a big number that's about 7,000 units per district why was so much added over and above the chosen alternative five I asked this at a packed meeting on Queen Anne and And plenty staff's reply was, I'll have to get back to you.

I'm still waiting.

The city must justify this number and the up zoning it allows.

Nobody knows where the sweet spot is.

Nobody.

Studies say up zoning improves housing affordability.

Others find price shifts are minor.

Some even find up zoning makes affordability worse.

Before proceeding with a plan based on a popular but possibly debatable theory that could change what we love about our city, a degree of caution is warranted.

That's why we're forming a coalition of neighborhoods asking to return to the housing target outlined in Alternative 5, 120,000 units.

This will mean citywide zoning revisions.

This is a reasonable, justifiable position that does not alter the possibility for expanded housing options and more affordable housing choices.

You know, we're not NIMBYs.

Nobody in my neighborhood is a NIMBY.

We're really YIMBYs.

We have children.

We have nephews.

We know all kinds of people we want to see have affordable housing.

Breaks my heart to see housing assessment go up.

So our differences are a matter of degree.

Thank you.

Renee, Ryan, and Rebecca.

Renee, Ryan, and Rebecca.

Thank you.

Good evening, Chair Hollingsworth and council members.

My name is Renee Staton and I live in District 5 and I'm here to express my overall support for the proposed one Seattle plan zoning changes and to comment in support of two specific rezone proposals.

Number one, I completely support the proposed rezone for the Pinehurst Station area.

I live in the station area, and my home is proposed to be rezoned from neighborhood residential, that's single family, to LR3.

I've lived in and owned my home for 26 years.

I've raised my family there.

My children are now adults, and they're looking to rent and buy their own homes in D5.

I support the zoning changes so more homes are created, and my children and others can also have homes of their own.

Number two, I completely support the proposed rezone in Maple Leaf and around Maple Leaf Park.

I walk in Maple Leaf and spend time at shops and restaurants in Maple Leaf regularly.

My children attended St. Catherine's School for 13 years, and I was on the finance council of St. Catherine's Church and School for much of that time.

The people of Seattle invested millions of dollars to create Maple Leaf Park and to build the light rail station, both within walking distance of the proposed rezone.

areas like pinehurst and maple leaf that have benefited from major investments should be first to welcome new neighbors pinehurst and maple leaf should be prioritized for new density before other d5 communities like bitter lake and lake city which have already taken on major density but have not received the same level of investment thank you very much

Thank you, Renee.

And David, or excuse me, Ryan, before you start, can we have speakers 31 through 35?

David, Aria, May, David, and?

Speaker 35, I can't read.

Derek, I think it is.

Hi, Ryan.

Hi, thank you so much, council members.

As you know, my name is Ryan Donahue, and I'm the chief advocacy officer at Habitat for Humanity, Seattle King and Kittitas counties.

We've been building affordable homeownership opportunities for the city of Seattle for roughly 39 years now.

So we know a little something about what it takes to build a place where everyone has a safe, decent and affordable place to call home.

That is why I'm here today to tell you that we are at an inflection point.

We can continue down the path that we have been building housing, but not enough to be able to supply, be able to actually provide the supply that we actually need at all income levels.

We can continue to have our walled off gardens, preserving certain well off communities, rich in amenity and opportunities while forcing everyone else to live in more heavily polluted areas.

We can continue to focus on restricting housing types in favor of the most expensive, outdated and environmentally unfriendly types like single family homes to the exclusion of all else and leaving a majority of these cities of this city's residents locked out from even being able to dream about the opportunity to own their own home.

Or we can take the other path, the path of housing abundance, that using the zoning rules that you are all looking at today and the funding tools that you will be looking at come budget time to encourage more housing development at every income level.

We can open up our walled gardens, allowing for more people to have the opportunities that come with living in some of the beautiful, most brightest jewels that this city has to offer.

We can build more types of more housing, creating more opportunities for everyone in this city to be able to have a place that they can call their own that they own.

You've heard me and my team come up here and talk about the proposed comprehensive plan before.

And as you know, there's certainly areas for improvement.

But I also want to make sure to acknowledge that this comprehensive plan is a big step in the right direction.

Please keep in mind the decisions you make will have long lasting impacts on the future of the city.

You can try to preserve the city in amber, but that will only crack under the pressure of more and more people moving here for jobs and opportunity.

Thank you, Ryan.

Time's up.

Thank you, Ryan.

Appreciate it.

But you can send us your comments in as well.

Thank you so much.

Rebecca, you're up next, and then we'll kick it over to Mr. Hines.

Thank you, counsel.

Can you hear me?

Yeah, thank you for your commitment to supporting a plan that works for all of Seattleites.

I'm Rebecca Vaux.

I'm a mom.

I've lived in Maple Leaf in D5 for 22 years, and my home is on one of the blocks in the proposed neighborhood center.

I walk these streets every day.

And I just want to say that our location doesn't have the proximity to the services and transit that the One Seattle Plan calls for to support a dense neighbourhood centre.

And in addition, assuming that everyone who lives in that centre could walk or bus to access those services elsewhere ignores the needs of seniors, families and those with limited mobility.

And this is why.

Maple Leaf is the third highest hill in the city.

The proposed neighborhood center is right at the top next to the park.

The only services we have are a couple of coffee shops, a hardware store, a restaurant, and a toy store.

And that density hasn't changed in the 22 years I've lived there.

As density has grown, we haven't had more services come in there.

It's at least a mile downhill and over a major road in each direction to get to a grocery store, a doctor, a bank, a pharmacy, a library, a middle or a high school.

Two buses to either Nathan Hale or Ingram, ask me how I know, high school parent.

So it's a steep climb back home.

And for most people, it's not an option to walk that hill with or without groceries on a regular basis, especially parents, seniors, and as I said, people with mobility and health issues.

We now have only one bus, the 67 in Maple Leaf.

It runs between Northgate Station and the U District.

We used to have multiple buses, including an express downtown.

Since they were cut, it takes about twice as long using public transit to get downtown as it used to.

And more people who used to bus now end up driving.

Lengthier commutes are just not feasible for most people, especially working parents who are also getting kids to and from where they need to go, a burden that falls disproportionately on moms.

And so I would like to ask you to consider moving the proposed Maple Leaf Neighbourhood Centre to a more suitable location in D5, which isn't at the top of a hill, where the infrastructure services and transit can better support it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rebecca.

And just a reminder, after you all finish speaking, if you could clear the room, because we are constantly sending people back up.

I called you Hines.

I meant Haines.

Go ahead, David.

Hi, David Haines.

We can go a lot higher than six stories and save a lot of trees, creating a whole bunch of housing and offset the supply and demand squeeze.

But council wants to sabotage this comprehensive plan and play a race card and backstab a multitude of younger generations.

Leave no doubt there's a revolutionary bout to give true democracy a shout for a 21st century, first world quality, great American housing belt out for a better choice in home and real equity for a multitude of younger generations, not some racist, woke, tainted, and skin color priority that's built by unqualified, I'm going to talk to you about this.

I'm not going to talk to you about this.

I'm not going to talk to you about this.

I'm not going to talk to you about this.

I'm not going to talk to you about this.

I'm not going to talk to you about this.

I'm not going to talk to you about this.

I'm not going to talk to you about this.

I'm not going to talk to you about this.

I'm not going to talk to you about this.

I'm not going to talk to you about this.

The same people conspire to cheat the future and oppress the multitude of younger generations sold out by the hypocrites who need to check their privilege.

We need a great American housing build-out without low-level, low-quality restrictions that some people are fine with.

As long as you build something that's crappy that they don't want to live in, they're fine with that, as long as it's tainted and racism.

to move into their home or they're not their home but their house or excuse me their neighborhood they don't want the supply and demand squeeze competitions of other people offsetting the supply demand squeeze so that these baby boomer sellouts can sell out their multitudes of remortgaged desperate housing speculations at the expense of first-time homebuyers and a multitude of younger generations that people come here and sabotage and tread on talking about working class people and the small business who are being oppressed by the Chamber of Commerce banks who own all this rundown real estate that needs to be replaced with robust floor plans that offset the supply and demand squeeze of spit spray concerned pandemic closed real estate that's oppressing the working class.

Thank you, David.

Okay, next we have Aria.

Welcome to public comment.

Go ahead.

We have Aria, May, There you go.

And talk is Latin.

You can pull it down.

Yep, you're not going to break it.

Don't worry.

We have insurance.

Perfect.

Go ahead.

Hello.

I'm Arya Minga Shah, and I'm a sixth grader in Seattle Public Schools, and I'm here with my Girl Scout troop.

I first heard about the issue of saving trees in our city on a hot August day in 2023 when we were fighting to save Luma, a 100-year-old tree in northeast Seattle.

My troop and I talked in one of our meetings about the importance of protecting our tree canopy.

Our neighborhood still has a lot of trees.

They're being cut down due to development and unnecessary clear cutting.

It makes me really sad to see all these big, beautiful trees being cut down when they could have been saved.

I think there's a better way where we can have both housing and keep our tree canopy.

Trees are home to many wildlife and we will need them to keep our water and air clean, stop erosion, as well as stopping climate change.

And think about it, would you rather be baking in the hot summer sun or sitting under a tree in the nice cool shade?

Personally, I would rather be sitting under a tree in the nice cool shade.

So please save Seattle's trees.

Thank you, Aria.

Next we have May.

Hello, my name is May Prew, and I'm also a sixth grader.

In 1999, my father through-hiked the PCT 13 years before I was born.

After climbing through the Cascades, he discovered his intense, what I like to call intense fascination of trees.

After completing the trail, he decided to move out and start a family in Washington State.

Over the years, he and I have enjoyed our walks around my neighborhood on my way to school.

During these walks, he'd teach me and tell me about the unique art of identifying these trees.

I can't imagine growing up in a place where my children and the generations that come after that cannot enjoy this, where I can't see, smell, and appreciate these wonders.

People need houses, but they also need trees.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you all for coming and speaking.

Really appreciate y'all.

All right, next we have David and Derek.

David, thank you.

Hello, my name is Dave Gloger, I'm a Seattle resident.

On January 13th, Mayor Harrell made the following comments on KAOW, and I quote, We took it upon ourselves to talk about tree canopy and tree growth and tree preservation at a time where these are difficult conversations.

But to me, these go to the livability and climate change and environmental sustainability.

So you have a mayor and department heads that understands there is a balance.

We want Seattle to be a thriving Emerald City, unquote.

These are beautiful words and great goals for a sustainable Seattle.

But Mayor Harold's legislative agenda doesn't align with his words.

Starting in 2023, a tree protection order came out of the mayor's office that provided virtually no protection for trees.

In fact, in 2024, over 2,000 mature trees were cut down in Seattle.

And I'd like to understand how little protection the trees receive from the ordinance.

The One Seattle plan has come out of the mayor's office, like the tree ordinance, allows no room for trees.

The new neighborhood residential zoning will now be zoned like South Park's small lot residential.

This allows up to six buildings on the property with no room for trees, no room for children to play, and no room to enjoy your yard.

This was featured in a Seattle Times editorial a couple weeks ago.

This can hardly be called affordable housing.

So back to Mayor Harrell's comments about livability, sustainability, and the Emerald City.

The mayor's one Seattle plan doesn't leave up to those standards.

Council members, it's clear that it's up to you to follow through with these ideals.

Seattle residents deserve them now and in the future.

Please create a comprehensive plan for all of Seattle and not just those that help the mayor write legislation.

Thank you.

next we have Derek before you go Derek can I get speakers 36 through 40 to start lining up right here in the middle again 36 through 40 speakers 36 through 40 please stand up and start lining up right here and Derek the mic is yours hello members of the City Council my name is Derek and I'm here of interim CDA and the CID Equal Development Coalition I work I

have been with my nonprofit for over four years now, and we have been providing community services to the CID for over 50 years.

The comprehensive plan needs to do what others have not.

It needs to promote equitable community development strategies that help not harm communities like Chinatown International District.

Past comprehensive plans have privileged wealthier, wider communities, and we need you to improve this plan further and not water it down.

We need intentional planning for our housing and other amenities in high displacement neighborhoods and transit districts.

Too often housing is too expensive for people in these communities or does not meet the needs of families.

These must be addressed in order to meet the needs of communities like ours.

We need to focus on anti displacement policies and investments.

Our communities face mounting pressures from citizens of the past and the present realities of the market.

They have remained resilient and developed beautiful communities, opening small businesses, establishing community-based projects like the Landmark Project, Uncle Bob's Place, and the Ang family home.

We need to do everything we can to bring projects like this to scale and ensuring we can meet the needs of our small businesses and residents, especially those suffering from displacement.

Finally, we need supply.

Our community has been punished for other people's priorities more times than I could count.

We hope that the composite plan can make a different choice by channeling growth towards areas of low displacement.

We see progress in the plan so far, but more can be done.

Thank you for your time.

Our coalition has outlined our asks in the composite plan to city officials in multiple letters and look forward to working with you to improve the plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're good.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Eunice Howe, and I'm a renter in District 2. I represent Unite Here Local 8 hospitality workers who are majority black, indigenous, people of color, and women.

We have many members who live and work around the Trinatown International District.

I'm also with APALA, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance of the AFL-CIO.

We belong to the Trinatown International District Equitable Development Coalition, and we hope you will include our recommendations in the comprehensive plan, including requiring the implementation of intentional affordable housing in areas of high displacement risk and transit districts, prioritizing the building of family-sized housing, three to four bedroom units, Many of our members, and especially our members of color, work in the city but cannot afford to live in the city.

We experienced displacement due to skyrocketing cost of living and lack of affordable housing.

Rents are rising, and although we bargained for higher wages, it's often not enough to keep up.

Working families deserve an improved comprehensive plan to meet our needs.

Please add the aforementioned points outlined in the letter that Derek sent over into the document.

Thank you so much for your time and good night.

Thank you.

May I'm Mary Brown Mary connect up trail.

I've got here a planned up zoning in North Magnolia and what's going to happen to it and that the mayor and the city I don't know how they're going to plan to do this but my magnolia is a small area it's a place where seniors can go down the street and the kids can go to the parks on their own and they don't have to worry about.

homeless and people with needles and things like that and it's not a big community like Ballard so it can take the overflow but to say that they can come in and rape my neighborhood and take my house.

I've spent 30 years there and I recently lost my husband and that's all I can afford and what's going on here right in here property tax will increase we got enough problems with just the Magnolia Bridge and trying to get that fixed but there is no requirement here for affordable housing and the affordable housing that is there is roughly $750,000 for a small unit 850 up to a million.

And now I have neighbors that just were able to buy into their homes a few years ago and they have young children and it's a safe block but to kick us all off of that block and not put us anywhere and say we'll just get out.

I mean maybe not everybody can have a home and I understand that our private home or I mean a single family home but for us that we paid the price we paid our taxes and so we have a little part of the American dream.

It's just something that belongs to me.

And I didn't do a damn thing not to deserve it, not to keep it.

I worked hard to have it.

And it's all I got.

And to have them come in and take it with not even, it's just not right.

And I disagree with Harold and his whole thing.

He said he wanted safe communities and safe neighborhoods, and now he's reneged on everything he ran on.

And I think he's a disgrace.

On a scale of one to 10, he's a zero.

Thank you, Mayor.

Hold on, hold on.

Please, please, please, please, please.

I want that to be my first and last warning, because the more that we clap and all that stuff, we extend time.

There are hundreds of people waiting downstairs, and we are trying to move as fast as we can, please.

And there's also people that are online right now, over 70 folks, people online, okay?

So please refrain from clapping.

It's the only time I'll ask from clapping.

Thank you.

Jeff, Carolyn, and Rachel.

Please, you all are next.

Jeff, Carolyn, Rachel.

Jeff, before you start, I also want to call up speakers 41 through 45. William, Andy, Sandy.

Oh, William, Andy, Sandy.

camille judy kind of rhymes it does rhymes andy and sandy okay go ahead uh jeff thanks my name is jeff briggs i am a lifelong seattle resident i am pro-housing pro-density and i am a member of the seattle aia

but today I'm here to testify for the trees and open space.

Despite having been part of the design and construction community my entire adult life, I did not realize until recently how underhanded and duplicitous is our so-called tree protection ordinance.

I stand witness to how every developer-driven project in my neighborhood results in scraping the lot, including majestic mature trees that can usually be saved, only produce new units that are more expensive than the modest homes that are unnecessarily bulldozed.

This leads me to examine what happened in other areas already up zoned for more density.

I found expensive condo villages with no open space except for paved driveways and parking courts or massive apartment blocks with no open space at all.

This is no way to prepare for a hotter and more crowded future.

It goes directly against our goals for a sustainable, healthy urban environment.

is it does not have to be this way.

We have the opportunity to correct those mistakes and invest in the neighborhoods of tomorrow and in our future neighbors who live and work there.

This means protecting large mature trees wherever possible, the same way we protect wetlands and riparian areas.

And we need to plant trees, lots of trees, all across the city.

AND THAT MEANS INTERWEAVING OPEN SPACE AT ALL LEVELS OF ZONING.

REAL SPACE THAT ALLOWS LARGE NATIVE TREES TO GROW TO MATURITY.

TREES THAT KEEP OUR CITY COOLER, PROVIDE HABITAT, CLEAN THE AIR AND WATER.

SPACE FOR TREES IS SPACE FOR WILDLIFE, PETS AND PEOPLE.

THIS IS HOW WE BUILD AN EQUITABLE EMERALD CITY WHERE SHADE AND GREEN SPACE ARE SHARED BY ALL RESIDENTS.

The first order of business is to rewrite the tree protection ordinance and move its enforcement out of SDCI.

The City Arborist and Urban Forestry Commission are better stewards.

Secondly, the comprehensive plan must be modified to mandate trees and open space on both public and private property, including pocket parks, courtyards, streetscapes, and sensible limits on lot coverage.

Density and open space is not a binary choice.

We can and must have both.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Caroline and Rachel.

Caroline and Rachel, you are all up next.

And then speakers 41 through 45, please be ready on deck.

Caroline.

Good evening.

My name is Caroline Ullman.

Thank you very much for holding this public hearing.

I live in Maple Leaf in the mayor's proposed neighborhood center that allows five and six story apartment buildings on side streets.

Our community strongly supports thoughtful density that actually does provide affordable housing for people of all income levels and family sizes.

And we would very much like to be part of the solution, but so far we have not been.

I am among the 1,000-plus neighbors who have signed a petition opposing the neighborhood center designation.

You have heard many reasons from my neighbors tonight why Maple Leaf is an ill-conceived site, but I'm here to talk about one of those reasons, which is the neighborhood center site includes the city's recently completed 12th Avenue Northeast Greenway.

which runs 15 blocks north of the Maple Leaf Park to about 103rd.

Greenways are designed to be safe, calm streets for pedestrians and dog walkers and parents with strollers and kids on bikes, and ours is hugely popular.

We live on 12th, a block from the park, and we see multitudes of people using the Greenway every afternoon and every morning.

Why would you want to turn a tree-lined community corridor into an apartment building-lined concrete canyon and add dozens of cars to a greenway designed for pedestrians and cyclists?

It just doesn't make sense.

So please relocate the neighborhood center, slow down the process, adopt the state requirements for HB 1110, and then give your constituents the opportunity to be part of the solution to successfully increase density.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Rachel, followed by William, Andy, Sandy, Camille, and Judy.

Rachel.

Thank you.

I'm Rachel Nathanson, and first of all, I want to say thank you, Seattle.

You have shown up, and I'm really impressed with our city.

This is obviously a lightning issue for all of us who live in the city.

And I believe there's a way to build more housing, denser housing, without eliminating every single tree to do so, as I've seen on many lots in my neighborhood.

So I urge you as our representatives who we voted for, who are asking you to represent us, to now use that power and hold it wisely.

Please find it in your hearts to do the right thing and ask your staff to go back, find better solutions, ones that allow for more density while saving legacy and tier two trees.

There's a way to support those folks here who speak to wanting more density and at the same time support those here who are asking for some tree protection.

I'm moved here today by the people who are asking for more denser housing.

But again, we can do that as well as protect our green space so that we don't live in concrete jungles.

So far, this plan has been in the hands of your staff.

As it comes to Council, we are urging you to ask questions posed in this very room.

Can we have density while protecting our green space and protecting our climate conditions?

In 10 years, in 20 years, you will all be out there in Seattle looking at the outcome of your efforts here today.

Will you be proud of what you do?

Thank you very much.

Next, we have William, Andy, Sandy, Camille, and Judy.

William, Andy, Sandy, Camille, Judy.

Thank you.

William, go ahead.

Hi.

My name's Bill Loebert, and I live in Maple Leaf, and I was part of the group that Don described that measured the trees in Maple Leaf.

We came up with 784 tier two and tier three trees.

Please speak in the mic as well.

Okay, we did a tree survey and came up with 784 tier two and three trees and maple leaf in the proposed zone.

The full development of the lots within Maple Leaf Center Zone would eliminate many of these mature trees that provide significant benefits to the neighborhood.

The One Seattle Plan and existing urban forest ordinance promote replacement trees for tree removals.

Research indicates that replacement trees, if they live, will take from 20 to 40 years to provide the similar ecological and social values.

of the mature trees.

It appears that the mayor office did not deliver this plan to you with sufficient time to make informed deliberate decisions.

This lack of sufficient review time seems to be a recurring problem.

In 2023, the Volunteer Urban Forestry Commission was not provided sufficient time to review the urban forest ordinance update, which was over 10 years due at that time.

I agree with previous public testimony that suggests proposing postponing designation of some or all neighborhood centers subject to a more thorough deliberate review process.

In addition, I would include strengthening the urban forestry ordinance at that time.

At this point, adopt only what is needed to comply with House Bill 1110 and revisit the process with neighborhood input.

I will close with the following quote from page 128 of the One Seattle plan.

Trees and vegetation buffer the impacts of extreme heat and poor air quality.

Climate change also affects the health and sustainability of these resources.

Preservation and restoration are necessary for a healthy, Thank you, Bob.

Next we have Andy, Sandy, and Camille.

Go ahead, Andy.

Thank you, Bob.

Bob, we have other people.

Please, Bob.

Thank you so much.

Andy.

Hi, I'm Andy Stewart.

My wife and I were property owners in the Wedgwood neighborhood.

We moved there to raise our children.

It's safe.

There's clean air.

There's wildlife.

There are some trees.

So I'm here just to stress that if the goal is to make sure that a small number of already advantaged people are able to profit from unchecked development, then you're fucking killing it.

Keep it up.

This is great.

You're good.

Just carry on.

Well done.

But if you care about literally anything else in this city, like community resilience, public health, our environment, then you got a little bit of work to do.

So I think you guys know how this works.

You've been doing this a while, but maybe the rest of the room doesn't know how this works.

We have a housing crisis, homelessness.

So what we end up with is a developer lobby that provides these guys with the language that they want to see in these pills.

And then they say, just tell them that it's a housing crisis.

We need affordable housing, and this will solve it.

And what they're really doing is passing laws that protect the ability for these developers to build cheap places, easily cut down trees to make it a quicker job, cheaper for them to do.

And in the end, they don't build affordable housing.

You've lost 2,000 trees in Seattle the last year, and the housing crisis is getting worse.

So look at your own numbers.

How are you doing?

i want you to hear it's a laughing matter all the permits in the city of seattle for years he was like the top guy he's on our team now and guess what when we call and try to get stuff through permitting and talk to the people permitting this is the guy that used to all work for right right so it's a big deal now we had to pay this guy because he you know if there's a property he knows if that tree can come down or if it can be built this is the ceo of legacy group capital bragging about corruption in this city and his ability to do whatever he wants

um i'm literally we cannot have outbursts like this we have so many people downstairs and we have to get through and the more i'd stop and talk like this the longer it takes we have people with child care i'm just gonna go on my little rant right now okay because if it happens again we just have to start removing folks if people are out out bursting we have child care we have a garage that closes at 10 we have people that are waiting online And we have 270 people that have signed up, have taken off work, have done what they can to come down here.

So the more people clap and do that, the more the times I have to address you for this.

And I'm the nicest person in the world.

I promise you that.

Maybe the nicest person on council, okay?

Seriously, my colleagues can ask, please don't do that again.

We have to keep going through this, okay?

Please.

And snow is going to come, and I just want to make sure that we get through folks so we can listen.

This is a very spicy subject, and you can get plant-based milk.

And also, I want to also remind people, profanity is not tolerated in here.

So dropping the F-bomb, the S-bomb, cussing like a sailor.

Trust me, my mom taught me all the curse words in the book.

It's not welcome here, okay?

So please.

Sandy, thank you.

Sandy, and then Camille, and then Judy.

Go ahead.

Hi, I'm Sandy with Tree Action Seattle.

Thank you, council members.

This plan guarantees that over 90% of each residential lot can be covered with buildings and pavement.

It even allows a concrete patio to count as open space.

Seattle is ranked five in the nation for urban heat, not because we're hotter than cities in Texas and Arizona, but because we've added so much pavement.

200 people died in the 2021 heat dome.

But even if a heat dome doesn't kill you, living in an urban heat island does lasting health damage.

The body's inflammatory markers spike, bad cholesterol spikes, and kidney function deteriorates.

High ozone levels in heat islands cause asthma and heart attacks.

Chronic heat exposure is even linked to decreased mental health.

Trees are the answer.

You knew I would say that.

Other cities like Boston and Paris are desperately trying to achieve the cooling green canopy that we are ripping out, even though we could build the same amount of housing with trees.

Seattle's new tree ordinance is filled with loopholes that allow developers to remove all trees, even heritage trees.

This comp plan literally cements in deforestation.

It will hit frontline communities first and hardest because most of their trees are on residential lots.

This is not just Mayor Harrell's plan.

It is yours.

This council will be forever associated with your action or inaction.

Please amend this plan to include trees and green space for everyone.

Thank you.

Camille then Judy and then I'm gonna ask that the next speakers between 46 and 50 please step up 46 and 50 please step up Camille and Judy You are ready.

I'm Camille Zahaiko and I've been here before in front of you and when I spoke last time I looked at you all and you all had the same look in your eye and I was asking you to save our trees and our urban forestry and the look you were giving me was understood and you felt bad about it, but you almost like you couldn't really do anything about it.

And I'm here to tell you that you can together, if you work together, you can defeat the developer lobby, save Seattle's forestry, build new homes, if you do it together, and I'm asking you guys to do that.

I went back and I reviewed your study of what people want for housing in Seattle.

That was done in 2020 before you started writing this.

And most people want open green space.

they would like to see adus dadus in their yard but they didn't think that the yard was going to go with that um so if you really want to give people what they want you need to save the tree canopy and the trees and the forest tree and don't pave seattle and since i acted up and whatever andy said i'm 100 behind him and i was going to say the same thing we know what's going on it's the developer lobby and this is your valentine to them don't give it to them

Next we have Judy.

Hi, thank you for listening.

I have a bag of apples in my purse if you need to raise your blood sugar.

I really appreciate this.

This is hard for you.

I want to point out that I think we're all on the same page, that we all know that people need housing.

What I have seen for 20 years is The there is the developers are making the housing expensive and we have a plan here that somebody made that is allowing all lots to be covered with 90 percent hardscape.

How many of you could not afford daycare?

Right here.

Right here.

So I tried to work from my computer, and I sent my kids outside.

And the 98-year-old man across the street would watch them.

That's a community.

And they played in the dirt.

If that were if I lived in one of those flats, where would the kids be playing?

And I want to bring you back to January 27, 2023. Does anybody remember that day?

It was 106 degrees.

We didn't have air conditioning and a lot of people do not have air conditioning.

It will keep happening.

It will keep happening if we go with this plan.

I am pro-housing.

I ask you to look at other cities like Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, where there are shared walls and there are stacked flats.

In Boston, they're double-deckers.

There's double-deckers, triple-deckers.

And guess what?

There's a tree in the backyard.

for kids to play with.

For people like me who could not afford daycare, working from home sent the kids outside because we can't afford everything in this city.

One more thing.

I am on the same page with Ezekiel and I want my kids to have trees and get SDCI out of tree protection.

Get the developers out.

Thank you.

Next we have Sarah Swati.

I'm sorry if I butchered your name.

I apologize.

Margaret Go ahead.

The words already came up, so I just have you guys to remember this.

Legacy developer group.

Please remember that.

They are now in my neighborhood.

Monday, they're going to cut down Kramer Brook Street.

My neighborhood already have four apartments.

I'm not against developer, sorry, I'm not against density, but I'm 40. This tree, Grandma Brooks tree is more than 100 years old and right in the corner and they're gonna cut it down Monday.

Please, please help me.

And this is important.

They already talked about why we need three, but for me, it's very urgent.

It's gonna happen Monday.

Please, you guys.

Support us.

65th, 23rd, Saturday, 1 o'clock.

Let's gather and celebrate Crema Brook Street.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Please, please, please.

This is important.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Margaret?

Hi, my name is Margaret Porter Lance, and I live in the Ravenna area.

I've lived there for 27 years.

And I agree with so many of you here.

And so I won't belabor the point about why trees are important.

But this is just a cautionary tale.

I'm sure you've heard them before.

I'm also an educator in Wedgwood.

And in 2014, we decided to do some renovations.

and we had one of those grandmother trees on the property of the school, and we were building a new gym.

So right now, Fast forward to 11 years later, that grandmother tree was gone.

We put in a rain garden and got a rebate for our building.

But that tree would have provided so many ecosystem services for our school, for our community, and it's down and it's gone and it can't be replaced.

So now the students on that side of the building, they are slumped over on their desks.

They are so hot because the tree is gone.

And now we're thinking about it putting in air conditioning.

is expensive for a school.

And we're a small private school.

And I'm thinking, you know, that tree would have saved us a lot of money.

So I know that we talk about ecosystem services as being free services.

And so we should keep that in the back of our mind.

Now, Saraswati talked about our tree that's in our neighborhood.

And that's the only tree that I can see around the apartments.

It's a grandmother tree, too.

And like she said, they're going to cut it down.

And now I'm fighting for one tree again.

And I know what the impact will be because I've seen it.

And I would just like you to think about just how one tree has made an impact on a community and how we need to save it.

And think about the permitting process.

Put a red flag on legacy and say, don't hand out a permit to this group if they're going to cut down a tree.

Thank you.

Next we have speaker 48, 49, 50. A reminder, if you've already spoken, please, so we can replace you like a, what do you call it, vending machine?

Not like that, but you know what I mean.

So you all can leave the room and we can invite more new speakers as well.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Susan Fedor.

I'm a third generation Seattleite, and I'm here to speak for the trees like most everyone else here.

Trees are essential to the health, quality of life and climate resilience of our communities.

I am quoting Mayor Bruce Harrell, who indicated the tree ordinance would save 100,000 trees and more would be planted in areas of need.

Almost sounded too good to be true, but it turns out it was because last month I heard a report indicating that trees that were never at risk of being bulldozed by developers were being falsely designated as protected trees.

So I'm here to call out how deeply disappointed I am that city officials would deliberately deceive the public on this important issue.

In the past three years, I have watched seven modest homes within a four block radius of my home get bulldozed.

In their place are massive multi-million dollar homes that fill the entire lot.

Directly across the street from me, $2.5 million property now stands.

All trees were completely ripped out.

And the only reason the $2.2 million house right next door to me spared a small blue spruce was because it was negotiated into the sale of the home.

I'm here to demand accountability with regard to the well-being of our communities by preserving the tree canopy that so many of us rely on for health, quality of life and climate resilience.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Speaker 49 and Speaker 50.

Hi, my name is Eve Tai.

I'd like to talk about why we need to improve the comp plan to better protect our city trees from developers.

I live in Lake City, and real talk, it's not what realtors would call a desirable neighborhood.

Many of us earn modest incomes and live in aging apartments.

People speed through our streets on their way to somewhere more interesting.

But I've lived in Lake City for over 20 years, so something's working for me, and that something is our community.

Right now, we are battling to save a few large trees from removal by a developer.

These trees provide the only shade for about two dozen apartments and homes.

And imagine how hot it gets in a fourth floor apartment in the summer with a west facing exposure and no air conditioning.

We support building new homes, but this developer is worried that saving even one tree, which we know is possible, will dent their bottom line.

The proposed units will sell for $750,000 each.

Does this price point really make home ownership more accessible?

There is no profit sharing with our community in this business model.

The developers make all the money, but we are the ones who pay the cost.

The comp plan as it stands makes it too easy for developers to cut down our trees.

Please consider revisions to protect them.

Thank you.

Next, we have Karen.

Karen, before you start, I'm going to invite speakers 51 through 60 to stand up.

51 through 60. Calling you in groups of 10 now.

51 through 60. Please stand up and get ready.

Karen, go right ahead.

My name is Karen DeLucas, and I'm a homeowner and business owner in Madison Valley.

I strongly support the One Seattle Comp Plan, and I urge you to approve it, including all 30 neighborhood centers.

Over the past 29 years while living in Seattle, I have seen zoning restrictions limit growth and drive up housing costs.

As an architect, I have witnessed previous mayors and councils yielding to NIMBYs, worsening our housing shortage.

This is not just the mayor's plan, but one shaped by citizen input over the last three years.

It aims to build housing near jobs, transit and small businesses, promoting sustainable and inclusive growth.

I always think Seattle Snow Day is a great example of a walkable neighborhood, what a walkable neighborhood looks like.

But if the people who work in the nearby cafes, grocery stores and coffee shops can't afford to live close by, we have failed as a city.

The neighborhood centers already exist.

This plan aims to expand them to welcome more residents.

Development takes time, and this plan sets a framework for gradual growth over decades.

Without your leadership, we risk higher land and housing prices, closing the door on future generations of Seattleites.

I urge you to approve the One Seattle Plan.

and ensure that all 30 neighborhood centers remain a part of that plan.

Please don't let this opportunity pass.

Thank you for your time and leadership.

Thank you, Karen.

Next we have speakers 51, 52, 53, 51. Awesome.

Hi, everyone.

The comprehensive plan, as written, sets a dangerous path forward for eroding Seattle's climate resilience.

Seattle is fifth in the nation for urban heat islands, which are caused by the removal of green space.

During our last major heat wave in 2021, 200 people died.

Yet, the comprehensive plan makes no plan for how it will meaningly achieve an urban forest that will shade our frontline communities who already bear the brunt of our failing tree code.

We can absolutely build housing densely and keep our trees, but we won't with the comp plan as written.

Housing versus trees is a false choice, full stop.

The recent hurricane in Florida and wildfires in LA should be a wake-up call for city leadership that we need to build our climate resilience as a city now to buffer against extreme weather events that are sure to come.

Please rewrite the comp plan to reduce hardscape allowances from 90% pavement and buildings per lot, mandate shared walls or stacked flats on new developments, and require green space on all new construction.

Thank you.

Next, we have Kippy, Sherry, and David.

Hello, my name is Kippy Irwin.

I'm representing many members of Haller Lake Community Club, which has been running by community volunteers for 103 years.

We ask that the City Council consider not allowing LR3 zoning on the Haller Lake Loop Road.

We understand that this is a transit route, but this is also a small road in the middle of our community.

There is great concern about the impact of the health of our Howler Lake, the potential loss of many mature trees, and the negative impact on many of the creatures that depend on the natural environment surrounding this area.

This includes long-term nesting bald eagles and many other land, water, and air animals.

We ask that you recognize that we have significant up-zoning growth coming around our area.

We will have the Northwest Regional Center at Northwest UW on our south side, Bitter Lake Urban Center on our west side, LR3 zoning on north 130th on north 145th, and the Pinehurst Haller Lake Urban Center on the east side.

These are all within a two square mile area.

This is a lot of growth for our little area.

We ask that you please make sure that our community and our lake are not destroyed by overgrowth.

Please do not approve the LR3 on our Howler Lake Loop Road.

Speaking for the whole city, I guess I just want to say global warming is happening now, and it is our job to think about the future, about our children's future, and trees are our global warming heroes.

So remember, they are such an asset and value to me.

Please save the trees.

Thank you.

Next we have Sherry.

Thank you, Kippy.

Next we have Sherry, David.

Speakers 53, 54, and 55.

Thank you for this opportunity.

My name is Sherry Newbold and I support the mayor's plan developed with public input over the past three years and support all 30 neighborhood centers.

I'm speaking as a Seattle resident for the past 30 years and as a person who's lucky enough to be a Greenwood D5 homeowner for the past 15 years.

I'm also a small business owner and an architect.

the status quo does not work we need to increase the ability to add more types of housing in more places all over Seattle especially neighborhood centers change is life there are people who need a place to live now and there are more people coming who need one also this needs means we need to make space for them even if there are some people who are resistant to change It's up to you, the City Council, now.

Looking back, there were neighborhood anchors in drafts of the 1994 comp plan that were not adopted.

Many of those anchors are the neighborhood centers that are proposed today.

These are places that are already set up for success to make space for more housing.

Please adopt the plan with all 30 neighborhood centers.

We've been waiting 30 years for them.

Thank you.

Speaker 54 and 55. And then we're on deck 56 through 60.

Hello.

The draft of the Seattle plan document boasts that full implementation of the plan would double, i.e. increase by 100%, the current residential capacity of Seattle.

Such an ambitious bold goal is neither practical, necessary, or wise.

It is unsupported and reckless.

Consider the following.

The rate of increase of the US population, including Seattle, is slowing down.

The US Census Bureau estimates that the rate will be zero by 2080, after which the population will start going down.

The Bureau estimates that the population will top out at about 370 million people, less than 9% above our current national population is about 340 million.

And once the population starts going down, we will have a surplus of actual housing units and much more zone capacity than we will never use.

So why are Seattle planners shooting for city housing capability above increases of 100%, 11 times what would be needed nationally?

I don't have a good answer to this question.

It is my understanding that recent state law makes singles family zoning extinct, and all new primary property development must now allow for at least four dwelling units per lot.

not just in Seattle, but statewide.

Consider that single-family houses are the dominant residential units in Seattle, we already have the ability to spread out future residential growth without building five-story apartment buildings to be my new neighbors in Howard Lake in what used to be a relatively peaceful, beautiful, area along the perimeter of howler lake they would have a huge impact with the effect of housing costs the house tiny houses would provide could provide enough economical and minimal negative time's up thank you so much sir appreciate it thank you david speaker 55.

Thank you so much for sticking this out.

This plan is overkill.

Why cause three times as much displacement as what's required by the Growth Management Act?

Why upsowing for 333,000 new units when we're being asked for only 112,000?

Why?

Because that's what the builders and their minions want, under the guise that building more density creates affordability.

The plan rises or falls on this unfounded assumption.

But that's a lie.

And lying to your voters is really not a good look.

Affordability is nowhere in the plan.

In reality, and clearly here in Seattle, new tech jobs and our building boom have doubled housing costs.

The mayor says he's complied with the missing middle housing bill, but there's nowhere in this plan is the definition of affordability.

So how can we possibly measure it?

That definition is less than 60% of AMI for renters and less than 80% of AMI for owner occupied units.

Without that in the plan, there's no accountability.

And I don't know how we're going to manage.

Taxpayers have invested billions in rapid transit.

Nearby land is greatly increased in value.

The MHA requires a give back.

So we've raised up their height by a floor, giving them more property to profit from.

And yet in this plan, when we upzone around the transit centers, There's no give back.

We're giving away value and asking for nothing for the common good.

I really ask you to reconsider that.

The transit-oriented development bill, House Bill 1491, is coming down the pike.

It's one of the top priorities of this session.

We will see it.

So you might as well look at it and accommodate it.

It says that we will upzone within a quarter mile of transit centers and a half mile.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Speakers 56 through 60 Number 56 and before you speak just asking it once you speak, please Transition downstairs.

We're bringing more folks and there's seats in the front.

That's all right here So if you're standing, please feel welcome to come and grab a seat next to folks their seats Please do not block the seat next to you if you are blocking that seat.

We have people that are standing that need a seat.

Thank you.

All right, and thank you, and good evening, yes, and for your patience with all of us here.

My name is Martha Baskin.

Affordable housing, public health, climate resilience, can we have it all?

not in this comp plan, which lacks any proposal and analysis of how the city will meet the housing needs for those who are the backbone of our communities, educators, health care and hospitality workers, garbage collectors and blue collar apprentices.

The housing goals of the Growth Management Act directed local governments to plan and accommodate for housing that is affordable to all economic segments of the population.

HB 1220, passed in 2021, went further by mandating that the city must identify the need for housing at every economic level below 30% area median income, less than 60% AMI for renters, 80% for owner-occupied and low-income family.

The comp plan does none of that.

We're always told that market rate housing is the answer to affordable housing, that trickle down economics will save the day.

This was a theory for the mandatory housing affordability program, which also ramped up in 2021. Was there a surge in affordable housing?

According to the Seattle Times of 282 market rate projects subject to MHA's requirements, developers chose to pay fees 269 times, while 13 chose to include units on site.

In addition, we're told that trees and space to plant more get in the way of all housing, that density and trees cannot coexist.

And when developers engage in doublespeak by claiming they support both They undermine it by demanding 90% hardscape on all property and cutting setback requirements by over half, leaving no room for a mighty evergreen or oak, even it's in the corner of a lot.

I don't think that any of us want to live in that environment, especially in a climate emergency.

Thank you so much.

It's 7 p.m., so it's a reminder to our online speakers that you can now log in, and we will begin to recognize you at 7.30 and bounce back from hybrid, in-person to hybrid.

Gail?

No, I'm 48. 58?

Oh, I apologize.

Okay, Gail, 57, 58, 59, 60. You're up.

Thank you.

Two days before Christmas last year, I heard chainsaws early in the morning, and later in the day, much to my horror, I discovered that three large healthy fir trees had been cut down one street over.

All that was left was a huge pile of root balls and limbs.

These trees were on the very edge of the property on the alley side, so it seems like the developers could have planned the new housing without removing them.

More loss of homes for wildlife and shade for the neighborhood.

There is little, if any, incentive for developers to save large trees, as the city makes it so easy to just cut them down.

I hope that you modify the proposed comprehensive plan and make saving trees a priority.

We can build more housing and save trees if there is enough political will to think outside the box when developing lots.

City leaders always say they want to increase the tree canopy, yet their words ring hollow since the reality is that 1,000 plus trees with trunks over six inches in diameters were removed on private property in 2024 alone.

Of these, 121 were extremely large trees with trunks measuring over two feet in diameter.

At the rate we're going, maybe Seattle should be renamed the Heat City Island instead of the Emerald City.

Thank you.

Susan Dawn and Nancy before Susan Donna Nancy's jump up and speak can we have speakers 61 through 70 that are signed up 61 through 70 please stand up and you can line up here and in the middle both on either side whichever is your good side middle face or left face all right Susan

Okay, hi.

My name is Susan Campbell, and I'm a part of 500-plus neighbors supporting the preservation of historic Queen Anne Boulevard Olmstead Parkway.

I want to be clear for the council and the gallery that there's no confusion.

Queen Anne Boulevard is not part of the urban center.

It is not Queen Anne Avenue.

It's something different.

Queen Anne Boulevard Olmsted Parkway is a Seattle historic landmark.

It was established in 1907. It runs around the perimeter of Queen Anne's east, west, and north sides at the crest of the hill.

The boulevard is 3.5, excuse me, 3.7 miles of peak view vistas, beautiful old growth trees, wide leafy canopy, and quiet, calming respite from the hectic city.

Known as the Crown of the Hill Walk, Queen Anne Boulevard was established as a gift of land from private property owners for the express purpose of the scenic parkway.

And it is used.

There are joggers, dog walkers, kids on bikes and scooters, young families walking with strollers, retired residents maintaining their fitness, young people on wine walks, teenage groups roaming around.

It's all there.

Based on a poll that was done on social media, 49% of respondents use it daily in this neighborhood.

Interestingly, it is also a part of the business because Seattle historic tours go through there as well.

Currently, it is slated to be LR3.

We really ask that you preserve this.

We want to make sure that The housing is here for the city, but ultimately we also want to preserve the city and our historical landmarks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Dawn and then Nancy.

Okay.

I'm Dawn Seiler.

I live on North Queen Anne Hill.

Tree Action Seattle reports that Seattle has lost more than 2,000 trees this year.

The World Economic Forum report that one hectare, two and a half acres of canopy will produce or will reduce pollutants by 400 tons, 400 tons.

The three ordinance passed in 2023 that was supposed to protect and grow Seattle's tree canopy.

But the ordinance was actually crafted by the master builders of King and Snohomish County.

It's a copy of the amendments who made 103 lobbying trips to City Hall.

Quoting Investigate West, the tree ordinance includes a sweeping provision to let builders and homeowners remove any tree for any reason as long as they get permits and pay the SDCI tree fund.

The tree ordinance is in sync with the comp plan, which allows SDCI developers to hardscape 85 percent of the property.

And this is what it looks like.

You've seen it in the newspaper.

There is no comparative equivalence between replacing a 60 year old oak tree with a tree growing between two five story buildings.

OPCD states that it will take 25 years, that's 2050, for new up zone trees to reach even a 19 to 26 percent canopy coverage.

But the canopy coverage will never recover because you can't produce canopies on hardscape.

Once you get rid of the dirt, the trees are gone forever.

Please pause and work with the Urban Forestry Commission to bring common sense density density to the Emerald City.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tom.

Nancy, go right ahead.

Good evening.

My name is Nancy Gentile, but I'd like to read a letter sent on behalf of a neighbor of ours whose name is Alexandra Streamer.

Alexandra lives on West Way Street in Queen Anne right on 6th Avenue West.

She writes, I'm a young professional who rented for many years.

I know that I'm lucky to be a homeowner at 31 years old.

I work hard for this privilege as a public engagement consultant.

On December 2024, I signed a letter to Councilmember Kettle expressing my opposition to upzoning 10th Avenue West between West McGraw and West Fulton Street to LR3.

I recognize the desire to upzone areas where transit access is frequent, but extending LR3 zoning this far north on 10th Avenue West is a big mistake.

North 10th Avenue West is a historic boulevard, and there is no commercial center north of West McGraw Street.

Streets also become much narrower north of West McGraw.

I signed this letter in support of my 10th Avenue West neighbors because a better alternative for adding density to Queen Anne is 6th Avenue West, adjacent to where I live.

The number two metro bus travels on the street directly to downtown Seattle.

It has a commercial hub that includes a very walkable grocery store and other businesses, several multifamily homes, a well-regarded public elementary school, and is a straighter street than the portion of 10th Avenue West.

It has no claim to the historic Queen Anne Boulevard.

If the city had truly engaged homeowners in this process, we would have offered suggestions on the best way to add density where we live.

We're not anti-density, but the way OPCD has specifically left homeowners out of this conversation has made us feel like we're playing catch-up to provide guidance and feel heard.

My neighbors and I have repeatedly voted to increase our taxes to benefit transportation, housing, and school levies.

We're your partners in pursuing what's best for the future of the City of Seattle, and we share your goal of improvement.

Please listen to us now and engage us more fully in final decisions before irreparable damage is done.

Thank you.

Thank you, Nancy.

Next, we have speakers 61 through 70, starting with speaker number 61, Carol.

June, we have Carol.

Carol, are you here?

No, I don't see her.

Is June here?

Right here.

You are the lucky winner.

So June, Karen, Jasmine, Vanessa, then Iskra.

Go right ahead.

Hello, I'm June Blue Spruce.

I'm a resident of Southeast Seattle and a grandmother with a strong background in public health.

I may not be around 20 years from now.

I'm speaking to benefit those who come after me.

We all want our city to be healthy, livable, affordable, and diverse.

The proposed One Seattle Plan will not get us there.

The plan would allow cement and buildings to cover large areas of Seattle's remaining open land.

That will result in more displacement, heat islands, more illness and death from heat waves and chronic conditions like asthma and heart disease and worse mental health, all of which will disproportionately affect people of color and people with lower incomes.

The data are clear.

The Seattle City Council has the power to change this trajectory and must act.

Pass a tree protection ordinance that truly protects trees on lots under development.

The 2023 ordinance does not.

SDCI uses false data to convince you otherwise.

Their deception was recently exposed in Investigate West.

Each council member received an email from the Trees and People Coalition outlining beginning tree protection steps.

Enact those.

Allow experts, including the Urban Forestry Commission, to be involved in writing legislation, not the Master Builders Association, which has a flagrant conflict of interest.

Diversity and inclusion make our city strong, enact effective anti-displacement measures.

The mayor has acknowledged that the city's policies and programs fall short, and his recent executive order does not fill the gaps.

None of its measures would change anything in the One Seattle Plan.

It contains no mention of community input.

Some of you may be familiar with the core anti-displacement agenda.

I have copies for all of you.

It contains detailed recommendations from community organizations.

Enact those.

To quote from the document, anti-displacement is about more than adding housing stock.

Thank you, June.

We have Karen next, Jasmine, and then Vanessa.

Hello, thank you for taking my comment.

My name is Karen Davis.

I understand and appreciate the need for more housing.

I'm a realtor and every day I experience the impact of our housing crisis.

However, we are also facing a climate crisis and that will only worsen if we continue to ignore our environment.

Growing our city and being stewards of our environment must go hand in hand.

It's an undisputed fact that large trees help cool our planet.

They sequester carbon, provide habitat, clean the air, and absorb and filter rainwater, preventing flooding, landslides, and water pollution.

They also improve our health.

It's a fact that people who live among trees are mentally and physically healthier.

We must make our green canopy a priority.

This plan gives lip service to that but fails to provide meaningful protection to our existing large trees or make accommodation for growing our tree canopy to meet the 30 percent goal.

Seattle actually lost 255 acres of tree canopy between 2016 and 2021, and this plan will continue that decline.

Also, let us not forget our beloved southern resident orcas who are sliding towards extinction.

They are being profoundly harmed by the toxic runoff from our city, and that is one of the three main threats to their survival.

Seattle needs to follow the federal NOAA Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Plan, which states, areas of higher population must take greater measures to reduce toxic runoff.

That's trees.

We humans have a terrible track record of caring for our environment.

Since we clearly don't have the good sense to take care of it for ourselves, thank goodness there are laws in place that make us do it for the species that we have driven to the brink of extinction.

Maybe someday we will all realize that what helps our environment helps us too.

Thank you.

Thank you, Karen.

Next we have Jasmine, Vanessa, and Iskra.

Welcome.

Thank you, council members.

My name is Jasmine Smith from FutureWise and a proud Queen Anne renter.

As we sit in a heavy moment with a lot of uncertainty and a lot of work to do.

The shoulders were building for another generation.

to come and just like how the decisions of the 1923 zoning ordinance has outlasted any decision makers, the ones made here will either be a big step to rectify them and commit ourselves to climate action or set us back.

Transit-oriented development is necessary to our climate goals and ensuring that we have vibrant, livable communities around our transit networks is key.

Dense housing in Seattle reduces sprawl in our neighboring communities, where it comes at the cost of destruction and overdevelopment of our natural resources.

Likewise, reducing vehicle miles traveled through land use is a critical part of protecting our wildlife and their habitats, and they go hand in hand with protecting our orcas and salmon.

from discovery park to seward park loyal heights to high point lake city to columbia city by providing the flexibility and options for all of our community members to have those vibrant livable communities with enough housing for everyone we can build a city that goes beyond what we deserve and goes for what our next generations deserve thank you thank you jasmine nice we have vanessa iskra and jeannie

Hello, my name is Vanessa Bohm.

I'm a renter in the Greenwood neighborhood, and I'm here to express my unconditional support for legalizing more homes and more types of homes in my neighborhood and across all of Seattle.

I was rent burden for many years as a researcher and educator at a public university, and the high cost of housing made me give up my public sector career.

I'm in my mid-30s now, at a time when many start a family, but home ownership is still a distant dream.

Many in my generation are looking for homes close to amenities.

We are happy to trade cars for walking in public transit and parking for a home in our community.

Most importantly, we don't disappear if no housing is built for us.

Instead, we are forced into car-dependent ex-urban developments far away from friends and family, increasing our environmental impact tenfold.

Middle class younger generations already feel left behind and alienated.

We are caring members of our communities and we are tired of being told we are not welcome.

Seattle is far behind meeting its housing needs.

The inevitable result of not passing this plan is that housing costs will keep rising and trees will be cut down elsewhere.

There's no more time for delays.

We need more homes now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Iskra and then Jeannie.

followed by, I can't read your name, I apologize, number 68, followed by Abigail, then Andrew.

Hi, my name is Iskra.

I'm a late-in-life homeowner.

It took 45 years to save up the money.

The One Seattle plan was sold to us on the premise of market urbanism.

Density equals affordability.

The most recent studies show the exact opposite, particularly in cities like Seattle with an urban growth boundary.

Density leads to gentrification, the loss of affordable housing, and small businesses.

I sent these studies to the Council, and I hope you read them.

In just the last 15 years in Seattle, we've added over 105,000 units of housing.

Zoning for urban villages added tens of thousands of new apartments.

The result, rents are up 50%.

Housing prices and property taxes have more than doubled, and middle and low income people have been priced out.

Adding density is clearly not working to bring down costs, and yet we're told the cure is more.

The result is diabolical.

A one Seattle plan sold as equity and social justice, which is a plan for the 1%.

Private equity has banking.

For the last year, they banked Blueprint and Legacy Capital, who have been mentioned.

They have banked over 1,000 single-family home properties.

They're going to tear down the existing homes, and they're going to build what's happening in my neighborhood, homes that are going from 1.3 to 2.2.

From my back porch, I can see three rental houses.

They have an average rent of $3,500.

They house between four and eight people.

If you maximize the plan and you enlarge the footprint of housing, those will be torn down in six months.

all that rental housing will be gone.

There is no displacement plan for rental housing.

And you need to take a beat, do the least harm, and choose option one.

Because the real key to affordability is not building more housing right now.

It's fixing our property tax situation.

It's working with the state on condominium law.

Why do I, an older person, get a tax rebate when younger people should all get tax deferments if they want to buy a house?

other things that take time to develop.

So breathe, take a beat, slow down, do no harm.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Jeanne.

Hello.

My name is Jeanne Warren and My family moved to Queenie Ann in 1929, and I'm the holdout.

I have seen a lot of changes, but the last few years, like when they built the Safeway, and I agree with trees, however, we've had five trees come down in the park in the last two years.

One was an 85-foot evergreen that totaled a neighbor's car, and these are not coming up by the route.

They were over 150 years old, most of them, and it's dangerous.

Also, I found this on the sidewalk.

I never got anything about it, and neither did anybody in my neighborhood about tonight.

And I do have a problem with housing when we have taken down and are building a five-story Apartment house where the parking lot is or was for a retirement home So people coming to visit people there have to park on the street Safeway went in with 300 Apartments with 80 parking places for them then the developer cried moaned and now had we have 400 apartments and I want to walk with the developers and find out where they're going to put all this housing.

I'm not opposed to housing, but I don't know where you're going to put it.

I only have three feet on each side of my house, and it's a craftsman, and in the back.

I'm part of the apple orchard from the farmer that lived behind us.

and the house was built in 1916, never moved during an earthquake.

So what are we going to do?

Thank you, Ms. Jean.

Speaker 68, then Abigail, and then Andrew.

Hi, I'm Hilde Ko.

Thank you for convening this today.

Everybody's looking a little tired up there.

And I just want to thank everybody that's spoken so far.

I've learned so much today.

I've lived in a nationally historic home on Queen Anne, the Wilkie Farmhouse, since 1982. What I'm concerned about in all of what I've been hearing is the infrastructure in these historic neighborhoods.

The setback for not allowing any trees.

I went out on my property today.

We have a lot and a half.

I'm very blessed to be able to live in this home for so long.

I worked in a nonprofit with my husband, raised three children.

We have 28 trees on our property.

a third of which are mature.

We have been offered over and over by the developers that want to come and tear down our house, our historic house, and put in more density.

I understand that there's a need for that.

I see it every day when I am in Seattle and I just think that we need to slow down a little bit.

What I've heard tonight is the affordability factor isn't in there.

What I'm seeing on Queen Anne, which is a very gentrified neighborhood.

I'm very fortunate to have lived there for so long because I'm not rich.

I would really like to see you define what affordability is and then craft a plan that can really help people, help these renters.

My daughter's had to move a number of times because she can't afford the rent.

Our son moved out of Seattle because he couldn't afford the rent.

This is a real, you know, these are working people.

These are people in their 30s.

I just want you to slow down a little bit, take time to consider what you can do for the children, the elderly, make it safe for us.

Thank you.

Next we have Abigail and then Andrew.

Abigail?

Hello, City Council members.

My name is Abigail Bee, and I'm here to encourage you to take action on two critical issues, housing and trees.

And we desperately need housing, yes, but not by sacrificing the very lungs and air conditioning of our city.

Last year, we lost nearly 2,000 trees, and that's on track of 20,000 trees lost by 2035. Your own website claims a goal of a 30% tree canopy by 2037, yet you have adopted a tree ordinance that practically celebrates clear-cutting.

Investigative reporting reveals that SDCI released the numbers of trees that they saved when in actuality the number was 3% of the stated total.

The trees SDCI counted were not even in danger.

SDCI did not apologize.

They did not say they made a mistake.

They fell silent because it's not a mistake.

It's a cover-up.

And I believe Legacy Capital and other entities of influence are in the mayor's office, they're in SDCI, and they're also bullying you, City Council.

And that's why you're not taking action.

I also have one other tidbit that also supports my belief in corruption, and it's a video from the CEO of Legacy Capital who brags, quote, we have one guy here who was the top guy at the city who approved all the permits in the city of Seattle for years.

He was like the top guy.

He's on our team now.

And guess what?

When we call and we try to get stuff in permitting and talk to the people in permitting, this is the guy.

He used to work for all.

This is a big deal.

Now, we had to pay this guy.

If there's a tree in the middle of a property, he knows that that tree could come down or we could build around it or whatever.

These are the kinds of things nobody knows.

Community-minded builders who actually care about our trees are being overshadowed by this powerful mafia-like entity.

My request is that you stop hearing about trees and fix the ordinance.

Abigail, thank you.

Abigail, we have more people in here that need to speak.

I really appreciate you coming down for public comment.

You're more than welcome to send us your comments, and thank you so much.

Andrew.

Good evening, council.

My name is Andrew Grant Houston, and I come to you today in my personal capacity as an architect and resident on Capitol Hill.

When I decided to run for mayor in 2021, I was inspired by the climate crisis, but also by the recognition that those in power during this process would have to make the difficult decision of where more housing must be allowed in our city.

Because to be crystal clear, reducing the amount of potential housing in the current plan in order to protect certain neighborhoods from changing will not stop people from moving here.

It will not stop people like myself who moved to Seattle for an amazing job opportunity.

It will not stop people in my communities, Black, Latinx, and queer, who moved to Seattle to escape persecution from the communities that cannot and will not accept them.

And it will not stop people who will move to Seattle after each and every climate catastrophe elsewhere.

I recognize the change is scary, but cities, like people, must change and grow.

And in doing so, they become that much better.

Change is what created our waterfront park, an amazing new place that did not exist in old Seattle.

And that same old Seattle, the Seattle that you knew, no longer exists.

The Seattle that I knew from when I first moved here in 2016 and spent my days studying for my architecture exams in Kaladi Coffee, no longer exists.

And that's okay.

Nostalgia is nice, but it is a delusion and a distraction from our reality that the only way to ensure that there will be space for old and new Seattleites is by allowing more housing.

The plan, as delivered down to you by our current mayor, is already a Seattle compromise.

My simple request is that, should you make amendments to this plan, that you do not reduce the total amount of housing proposed.

Please do not lose sight of the long-term goal and the short-term political win.

This is your opportunity to embrace change and create the next Seattle, a future for our city where we all win.

Thank you.

Thank you, Andrew.

And if there's no objections because we need to have our we have to have we have to do a switch out.

If there's no objections, the select committee on the comprehensive plan will be in recess until 7.33.

That gives us about a five minute break for us to use the restroom and then also for us to make some staffing changes and then also to check the weather updates.

Okay, thank you.

Bye.

Thank you.

you

We get our Seattle channel back from budget so they might be stale.

You're good.

Do you all have the list of speakers online?

Cool.

All right, awesome.

We are back in action.

OK, I see myself on the screen there.

Awesome.

OK, so let's go ahead and start.

So right now we're going to be recognizing hybrid.

They're not hybrid.

They're online, our online speakers.

And we're going to go back and forth between 10 online and 20 in person.

That's because the garage closes at 10 p.m.

and we know that we're fighting against the weather that's going on right now.

So we'll recognize 10 people online and then we'll bounce back into 20 on person.

So right now we're going to be recognizing our speakers online.

Alberto Alvarez, please press star six to speak.

Following Alberto will be Reed Hampton.

Hello, is it my turn?

Go right ahead.

It's cold and it's freezing.

The housing crisis is an iceberg dead ahead.

On the Titanic, the working class was denied a chance to survive.

The upper class didn't want their top deck cluttered with lifeboats.

This is a citywide public council, not a private homeowners association.

The Comp Plan is designed to add density to a vibrant city in an ever-growing state.

Supply is the intent of the Comp Plan.

Supply to meet demand is the most basic principle of any market.

Queen Anne, Madrona, Green Lake, and yes, even Maple Leaf must provide a fair share to combat the housing crisis.

Rentals for the barista, a grocer, the line cook, waitress, the bartender, the dog and cat sitter, et cetera, et cetera.

Homes in the city for a young couple looking to start a family.

Keep density fair across all neighborhoods.

Do not let the wealthiest communities control the needs of working people.

Thank you and have a good day.

Reid Hampton, please press star six.

You're next.

Hi, counsel.

My name is Reid Hampton, and I am a resident and renter in District 6. I've lived in Seattle for five years now, so the duration of my residency shouldn't really matter.

And in that time, I voted in every election, volunteered for local nonprofits, and helped build community here at home.

Today, I am here not to ask, but to plead with this council to support the additional housing options provided by the neighborhood centers and the comprehensive plan.

Over these five years, my wife and I have lived in the same apartment in Ballard.

In that time, our rent has gone up by less than 10% over five years.

Why?

Because every other year, a new apartment building has opened on our block.

It has kept our rent low, allowing us to start saving for a home in our neighborhood.

We have only had this opportunity because of the new homes and new neighbors joining our community.

By removing neighborhood centers from this comprehensive plan, we would be condemning renters to a world of inexorably increasing rents, making it harder to save for a home, which are only getting more expensive.

Our new neighbors make our city stronger, more resilient, and more fun.

By supporting not just these neighborhood centers, but more of them, along with expanded density further from arterial roads, we would be contributing to that strength.

while giving the over 60% of the city who are renters the breathing room to save for a home, a children's education, and so much more.

Now, I agree with many of the speakers tonight regarding the importance of greenery.

The solution is to prioritize parks over car parking, building up on small footprint lots, and space-efficient public transit over asphalt parking lots and wide stroads in our communities.

The solution is not to deny housing opportunities to those of us who had the misfortune of being born closer to the year 2000. Please support a comprehensive plan which adds more neighborhood centers, creates more opportunities for housing growth, and allows more Seattleites to call our beautiful city home.

Thank you very much and best of luck for the rest of the night.

Thank you.

Next we have Alice.

Please press star six.

You are recognized.

Good evening.

I'm Alice Lockhart.

And when we bought our Lincoln Springs home over 30 years ago, we were a working class family.

It was workforce housing.

The mortgage was affordable with one person working and the other caring for children.

I'm concerned that the draft One Seattle plan fails to provide the same benefits and opportunities for the Seattle social housing developer to build workforce housing as it does for conventional deeply affordable housing.

We need both in all neighborhoods.

When Prop 1A, which funds workforce housing without taking tax dollars away from conventional affordable housing passes, the comp plan needs to be updated accordingly.

My kids, now working adults, won't be able to live in Seattle unless policies like the Seattle Social Housing Developer and the housing dollars provided by Prop 1A become available.

And we need a plan that supports that.

When it passes and when King County passes bonds for workforce housing, it will be clear the will of the people and the comp plan should be updated accordingly.

And we need much more land zoned for the four-plus storey apartments than enable social housing.

Only then will our kids be able to return to our neighborhoods and only then will we be able to curb the present climate-destroying urban sprawl that displaces young people to suburbs where farm and forest once were.

so that neighborhoods like Queen Anne can be preserved in Seattle.

We need to welcome our kids back.

We need big enough buildings to do it.

We need them in all neighborhoods.

We need the social housing developer to be supported in our comprehensive plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Iris.

Please press star six.

And Howard Greenrich, you are up next on deck.

Hi, this is Iris Antman.

Regarding the comp plan, I want to see housing developers, city planners, and environmentalists working together to incorporate into the comp plan denser housing and more trees.

This should not be a binary decision, trees or housing.

Developers can design using shared walls, no lot sprawl, and taller buildings to accommodate retaining trees on site.

It seems insulting to me at this point to have to point out to anyone the importance of big tree canopy for health and climate reasons.

We all know the scientific evidence.

And comparing the planting of new young trees with the retention of already existing older mature trees in terms of health and climate outcomes is like comparing apples and oranges.

We also know this.

Designers, developers, planners are smart enough to figure out how to have more and denser housing and maintain and increase our tree canopy.

Please consider the common good in order to build a healthy, safe, and beautiful city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Howard, followed by Dylan.

Please press star six.

We cannot hear you, Howard.

Are you there?

Just please press star six.

Is Howard present online?

He is?

Okay.

Maybe stepped away from the phone.

We'll come back to Howard.

Next, we'll hear from Dylan.

Please press star six.

You are recognized.

Hi, yeah, my name is Dylan Glasecki.

I'm an urban designer and a 20-year Seattle resident, also a father of an eight-year-old that bikes and drives and buses all over the city with me.

And I think about him and his future and how we experience Seattle together as I offer these remarks.

I share with many of my Seattle neighbors a long-term goal for Seattle, for every resident in the city, to live within a 15-minute walk or roll of their everyday needs and services.

Achieving this goal would be a significant step towards cutting local carbon emissions by reducing automobile reliance and the CO2 emissions associated with driving.

The One Seattle Plan moves us towards this goal by reintroducing the concept of the neighborhood center.

Our request is to keep all 30 neighborhood centers proposed in the One Seattle Plan and plant the seeds to add more with Seattle's next comprehensive plan update.

These neighborhood centers work together as part of a network of neighborhoods, a system of services and cultural elements, that serve both nearby neighbors, as we've heard about tonight, and neighbors from across the city.

The loss of a single neighborhood center has a systematic citywide impact beyond the effects felt by immediate neighbors.

At the commercial cores of our neighborhoods, our neighborhood centers are the hearts of the community.

They hold third places and provide nearby residents with access to everyday needs and services.

Since the 50s, it's been illegal to expand or create more of these commercial cores in residential neighborhoods.

Residents living close to a neighborhood center were lucky enough to be able to walk to it.

Those living far were dependent on their car to access the neighborhood center, and this is how we've lived in Seattle for 75 years.

Now we have the opportunity to re-engage with our neighborhood centers, to curate, to enhance our neighborhood centers, the small-scale commercial cores of our community.

The One Seattle Plan will allow more Seattle residents walkable, rollable access, the city's current and future everyday needs and services by enabling more residents to live near these neighborhood commercial cores by adding five-story multi-family apartments on adjacent lots.

Thank you.

Next up, we have William Scott followed by David Neiman.

William, please press star six and unmute yourself and your public comment starts whenever you start speaking.

William, star six?

If not, we'll come back to you.

Can we go ahead and unmute David Neiman?

Yeah, yeah, hi.

Hello?

I'm sorry.

We can hear you.

Go ahead.

This is William Scott, sir.

William Scott, right?

You want to hear from me?

Okay, so here's the thing.

We've got, what I'm about to tell you here is backed up by a petition on which we have, so far, 670 signatures.

We probably have more if it had been possible to know about this situation further in advance.

And we're asking to correct the planning error on the One Seattle Plan and remove a short section of Northeast 45th Street for upzoning to LR3.

Instead, it should be NR, the same as the surrounding Laurel Sears neighborhood.

And this is a planning error because zoning this segment LR3 conflicts with both the letter and the intent of HB 1110. For example, This segment has no priority rapid or high-frequency transit.

It is not, to quote HB 1110, compatible in scale form and character with single-family houses.

Upgrading this to LR3 is, because it's not a designated neighborhood, urban, or regional center or near-mature transit, and of course, to complement the comments of various good people on this call, it conflicts with the tree canopy objectives of HB 1110. And, you know, moreover, LR3-type developments in areas like this, and there are many of them, we've heard about Queen Anne and others here tonight, won't provide low or even mid-priced housing to address the appeals of many at this meeting, which of course we support because, as we all know, and the dirty little secret here is that the developers will just pay in lieu fees and get out from under providing low-income housing and sell market-priced condos.

On the other hand, lots of many attractive low-density alternatives do exist, such as empty sites in the University District.

Thank you.

Next, we have David Neiman followed by Megan Cruz.

David, go ahead and press star six and unmute yourself.

Hi, thank you for having me.

I am a partner at Neiman Tabor Architects.

We're a small architecture firm here in Seattle that specialize in urban infill housing.

The issue I want to talk to you about tonight is a little different than maybe what you're hearing.

I want to talk about the new design standards that are proposed for neighborhood residential and low-rise zoning.

These new design standards, they are of really widespread concern for architects and designers.

None of my colleagues think that they will make our projects any better, but it's clear to us how their rigid and prescriptive nature will handcuff us in ways that will really limit our ability to do good work.

Prescriptive rules in the zoning code, they amount to a series of thou shalt not statements.

If you string enough of those rules together, what thou shalt do once everything is left over, it ends up being a resultant.

It's a leftover, and that leftover is rarely something good.

The more rules you create, the more accidental the outcome becomes, and the more difficult it is for us to do good work.

As an alternative, I've sent the council a proposal for a menu-based system to replace the design standard.

The concept is that applicants score points by including beneficial features in their design, and you have to score a certain number of points to get approval.

This will allow designers to select from a wide variety of options that can accommodate different housing types and site configurations and architectural styles.

It will eliminate the kind of one size fits all cookie cutter solutions that the current proposal will impose and it will promote a higher level of design quality in new development.

There are a lot of people talking today that are worried about what all this change is going to look like and feel like.

So I implore you to work with Seattle's architects to make sure that we have rules that will allow us to design buildings that are thoughtful and contextual and worthy of a city that we all love.

Thank you.

Thank you, David.

Next, I want to see if Howard Greenwich, if you can do star six, we'll come back to you.

But if not, go ahead and press star six.

We see your present online.

Can you hear me now?

Sure can.

Can hear you now.

Oh, fabulous.

So I'm Howard Greenwich.

I'm the research director at Paget Sound Sage.

I had another set of comments prepared, but I wanted to call in my fellow residents who have come to a close-up zones in their neighborhoods.

What most have in common, in common with me, is we own homes.

Some have owned homes for decades.

I've owned mine for 15 years.

This means we also saw home values double in the last 15 years and maybe even tripled in the last 30. Not because of improvements we've made, it's because of immense demand for land driven by high-tech job growth.

And I ask how many of us are commenting tonight are actually millionaires based on home wealth?

What else do we have in common?

We're mostly white and older, and we think we deserve to freeze our neighborhoods in time so our families can enjoy its benefits forever.

But let us not claim climate resilience for trees before owning our privilege.

I'm not saying we don't have pain and tribulations, but the other side of the coin is that people without land, without money, who can't pass for white, have housing barriers like disability and larger families, face constant insecurity, constant change, constant relocation, and constant discrimination.

Land use in the U.S. has always been about wealth, race, and privilege.

Segregation is the same.

This comprehensive plan is no different.

Opposing neighborhood centers because of pre-canopy, affordable housing, lack of sewer service, wildfires, and existing bus routes relies on omission and a lack of real tradeoff.

I'm sure my fellow homeowners believe what they say, but it's what they're admitting that upsets me.

If we don't allow neighborhood centers, the up zones will happen, but they won't happen in places where people have less privilege.

I have one priority recommendation to make tonight.

It's time for low-density, well-off neighborhoods to experience change and take on their fair share of density.

At the same time, we need to halt up zones in high-displacement areas where working-class BIPOC households will need to give these neighborhoods a break from up zones that had more than their fair share for 30 years.

Thank you, next we have Megan Cruz.

Please press star six.

Good evening.

As a downtown resident, our proposed comp plan changes are scheduled for phase three and haven't been released.

Instead, I'd like to talk about what this neighborhood needs from the comp plan.

First, early engagement.

In the past year, zoning changes here have occurred in a piecemeal fashion, often top-down without opportunities for community input until they come before the council for a vote.

With over 100,000 downtown residents, we want early opportunities to share lived experience to plans to add 13,000 new homes here.

The ComPlan needs an element for proactive public engagement that considers all voices, not just select groups, early in the process.

Another key issue is encouraging essential retail to return downtown so it can again become a 15-minute neighborhood.

Finally, downtown needs more diverse housing.

Ten years since the city declared a housing crisis, the lack of homes for people earning 30 to 80% of AMI continues to erode public health, safety, equity, and resilience.

To revitalize downtown, we need to make room for people of all incomes.

Recently, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported that projections show Seattle is unlikely to build the affordable units it needs within the next 19 years.

The ComPlan can and should do more to fix this.

The current strategy is that building more and more market rate homes will result in naturally occurring affordable homes.

If so, how long will this take?

After seven years of up zoning and MHA policy, downtown still hasn't seen more affordable housing.

Instead, speculation has fueled a glut of small luxury units and increased land prices making it harder to build Affordably Hill.

Downtown's 400-foot up zones benefit from major public-funded transportation infrastructure.

Building here should come with public benefit.

It's time to consider inclusionary zoning to provide affordable units along with market rate development.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And before we, we have one more speaker on the line before we bounce back into in-person, which will recognize speakers between 71 and 80. So please get ready, 71 and 80. Adam Elner, please press star six to unmute yourself.

Thank you, council members.

My name is Adam Elner, a Garfield grad, commenting today about the proposed neighborhood center in Maple Leaf because it is completely misaligned with the fundamental planning principles of sustainable urbanism that I hope Seattle is striving for.

It's also out of touch with the on-the-ground realities of Maple Leaf.

I'm an urban studies graduate renter, a strong advocate for safe transit, and I've lived in Maple Leaf for much of my 29-year-old life.

as bus route after bus route has been cut from our neighborhood.

The buses I once took to get to high school are gone.

Now there is only the 67, which just shuttles a couple miles between Northgate and U Village.

That is not a level of transit connectivity that can support future and current residents.

So this transit devoid development will increase car trips and just work against the city's climate goals.

The real transit alternative is walking 1.2 miles from Northgate light rail to the proposed neighborhood center, and that involves climbing up a 200 foot hill.

That is not an accessible walk shed to base land use decisions around.

I also want to highlight that the proposed neighborhood center at Northeast 145th Street, which was cut from the draft plan, I believe, contains many features that make it a smart place for a neighborhood center.

The streets are wider than in Maple Leaf, so they can accommodate better transportation infrastructure.

There are many bus routes along 145th and 15th Avenue.

There's a QFC, a gym, multiple restaurants, and other amenities, schools, and several large green spaces within a quarter mile.

Meanwhile, as transit has been repeatedly cut in Maple Leaf, our neighborhood has added a lot of varied housing over the years, and our community has welcomed many new neighbors.

That is why I want to underscore a very important point that looking at me and my neighbors as NIMBYs is simply falling back on a stale overused reductionist trope, and it deflects.

Thank you, Adam.

Next we have in person.

We're going to bounce back.

We have speakers 71 through 80, and I know that there are some people that have left, so if you just confirm with me that your number will keep it moving and to make sure that we stay in order.

71.

Hi, my name is Kathleen Kirkhoff, and I am a native Seattleite.

And as we are considering what we're going to do, I want us to be sure that we create a survivable city.

And part of that, we have to really be serious about climate change.

And if you haven't read this book, it's in the Seattle Library.

I really recommend it.

If you're short on time, the prologue of 20 pages simply covers all of the impacts in the Pacific Northwest from our 2021 heat wave.

And if you read the chapter on Paris, that is another temperate zone city that did not build with any temperature extremes in mind.

And they had a horrific heat wave where they lost so many people, but that was in the 90s.

To read from this, now I've lost my page, what this means.

Here's one, it says, Vidic Sandras, a professor of urban studies and plannings in Portland State University, drove around in his Prius with his 11-year-old son, measuring the temperatures in different parts of the city.

In Lentz, one of Portland's porous neighborhoods where trees are few and concrete is plentiful, Sandras measured an air temperature of 124 degrees, the highest temperature he had ever recorded in 15 years of chronicling heat.

When I stopped and opened my car door, the first thing I felt was my eyes burning, Sandris recalled.

My skin was on fire.

It just felt like you're melting.

He drove to Willamette Heights, a tree-lined suburb, et cetera, et cetera.

He measured the air.

Thank you.

Next, we have speaker 72, 73, 74. And you can more than happy to send us comments to our email as well.

Go ahead.

I'm 72. My name is Brittany Nicole Cox.

I'm a self-employed artist and conservator in Seattle.

I've been a renter in District 3 for almost 20 years, so I definitely understand the need for having density and affordable housing.

It's impacted me negatively over the last several years, but I don't believe this is a choice between trees and housing.

I think we should and can have both.

In this country, trees were our earliest cathedrals and city halls.

We gathered under them to sign treaties, trade, wed, take respite, yet here we are to talk about the future of these long-revered counselors.

Early American flags were decorated not with images of crosses, liberties, or kings, but were banners that honored the tree.

Even early minted coins created in the representation were embossed with trees, because what better way was there to demonstrate our wealth as a nation, because trees are an asset.

It takes a few hours to fell a tree that took a thousand years to grow.

Not one living person today would witness the equivalent of an old growth tree removed and a seedling planted in its place.

How can one not sense the imbalance of that equation?

Seattle is known as the Emerald City.

Our own stated goal is to achieve and maintain a 30 percent canopy cover.

We need trees for our own well-being as much as we need housing.

In King County, 837,000 gallons of polluted runoff enter the Puget Sound from storm drains.

We need trees to mitigate this.

What future are we building that doesn't have birdsong, tree canopy, or the icons of our Salish Sea?

Not only are our trees, our health, our happiness, our water and air quality at stake, but so are our birds, our orcas, and our salmon.

The giant Sitka spruce begins as a seed weighing 1 13,000th of an ounce.

800 years later, it is 300 feet tall, weighing 300 tons.

They are all gone now, these giants.

We will endure without them, but we will not long endure the practices and short-sightedness of those that robbed us of them.

Hopefully, this will be a reminder that we must be stewards of the land that provide for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Speaker 73. Sorry.

I drank water.

Hi.

So we can add housing without killing everything else in the process, like Portland and King County's affordable housing in Beacon Hill did.

Our critically endangered southern resident killer whales are at their lowest number in history.

These giants are telling us through their deaths that they need significantly more help, not more polluted runoff, one of their top three threats.

J35 lost her second baby daughter, and OPCD not only omitted the orcas from the DEIS, they've now added language on page 1139 of the FEIS.

Managing habitats in the city to maintain wildlife populations in numbers comparable to past estimates is not feasible.

NOAA's federal Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Plan states, because of human projected population growth in the region in coming decades, especially in Puget Sound and the greater Georgia Basin, greater efforts will be needed by governments, industry, and the public to minimize pollution.

Why isn't Seattle following federal guidelines?

Trees are powerful bioremediators, reducing and filtering polluted runoff, recommended and used by King County DNRP, the EPA, and the USDA.

I and over 750 petition signers ask Seattle to follow the federal NOAA SRKW recovery plan guidelines and preserve our bioremediators, large trees.

Other cities and our county densified without killing all big trees.

Here's a quote from wild orca scientist Dr. Giles this week.

We are losing our important breeding age males and females, and we are having even less babies being born and living.

The southern residents can't wait any longer.

We have to figure this out and do something massively different, even if only for a trial basis.

King County recently built affordable housing in Beacon Hill without killing the trees.

Portland found trees over 20 inches in diameter, contributed over 59% of the ecological benefit, and implemented a large tree amendment, shared walls, and eliminated setback reductions.

Maybe it's time to pause all large tree removals.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Jennifer.

And up next is number 74, Alex Brennan, followed by 75, Esmeralda.

Take it away.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Alex Brennan.

I'm the executive director at FutureWise.

I'm also a district three voter.

I'm here to urge you to move beyond the 1994 Urban Village Strategy to support the neighborhood centers, transit corridors, and changes to single-family zoning in the One Seattle Plan, and to build on those changes.

We need to do more.

I was planning to share a really compelling personal story about why this is important tonight.

But instead, I want to use my remaining time to urge the Council to switch to one-minute comment so more people can be heard tonight.

With over 200 people, at least in theory, having signed up to comment that are still to come, it would take over eight hours or two minutes for all of them to speak.

Many people will end up having to go home before they have a chance to speak and many already have.

I was able to get here an hour early to sign up for comment because this is my job.

And I'm number 74. The people coming later didn't have that benefit.

They've made the time to come here out of their busy lives.

Please consider switching to a shorter amount of comment time.

Thank you, Alex.

I'll repeat the comments as soon as the chair has returned.

Esmeralda, you're up next.

And also, everyone is welcome to only speak for one minute.

I second that.

One minute, please.

Okay.

Hello, council members.

Thank you so much for your time.

My name is Esmeralda and I'm an intern with Futurise and I live in West Seattle.

The city is growing and there are serious changes that need to happen across Seattle and in every neighborhood.

Without a change, displacement, cost of living and rising rents will accelerate even further as our community is pushed out.

The cost of housing and cost of living is a huge issue, especially for people with families that want to settle down.

I have lived in West Seattle for eight years and our rent has gone up approximately 90% in the past two years.

My rent for a two bedroom apartment is roughly $2,100 a month for an older style apartment.

The growing cost of rent is unsustainable and this is the moment to do something bold.

To prevent more of the neighbors from getting pushed out of our communities, I support many of the strong proposals in the Mayor's One Seattle plan, and we look forward to you take action, and I appreciate your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you, Esmeralda.

Up next is Michael Gillenwalter, followed by Kyle Paris and Marsha Peterson.

Michael, take it away.

Hi.

Thank you, Council members, for your attention and your endurance tonight.

This is my first time to comment in person because I'm very passionate about this issue.

I'm a District 6 resident.

I'm also a homeowner in the relatively wealthy neighborhood of North Beach.

Nonetheless, I ask you to upzone my neighborhood and to do so well beyond what is required in SB 1110. We should be welcoming a transition of our city to a more walkable, diverse, and mixed-use neighborhoods.

Please reject the perpetuation of exclusionary zoning and the unrealistic calls to preserve an unchanged Seattle.

Look at the leadership of cities like Spokane and what they're doing there, and recognize that votes to upzone and expand housing choice across all of the city including an expanded number of neighborhood centers, are votes to help reduce homelessness in the long term.

They're votes to help reduce inflation inequality in the long term.

And I've also been an IPCC climate scientist for the last 25 years, my entire career.

And I'm pretty confident in telling you that the research concludes that votes to upzone will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in aggregate across the entire region, and that smart density conserves forest areas and results in more climate resilience, not the opposite.

Please help make Seattle a more dynamic and vibrant city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Speaker 77, 78, 79, and 80.

Hi, I agree with Alex on the one minute thing, but I will use my two minutes.

My name is Kyler Paris.

I'm a member of the Seattle Transit Advisory Board, and I live in Capitol Hill and enjoy my small, cheap apartment and vibrant community.

My life is better since moving from the car-centric suburbs, and I hope that everyone gets the chance to live near frequent transit.

Frankly, Seattle is working well for me, much like it is for the many homeowners you've heard today.

But living in Capitol Hill means I also live alongside many homeless neighbors.

Being homeless in Seattle is a brutal experience.

Every time it rains, I see the soaked cardboard and personal belongings that had to be left behind.

I think about how our elderly homeless population continues to drastically increase.

I want to do right by them and do whatever we can to make sure everyone has a home.

The answer is building more homes everywhere as efficiently as possible.

Boots allowing new neighbors in every corner of the city from Madrona to Maple Leaf because the wealthiest neighbors can do their part.

When the mixed-use transit widen the mixed-use transit up zones so more people can afford to live near our phenomenal bus system.

Approve all 30 neighborhood centers so small businesses can thrive and apply the affordable housing density bonus to every neighborhood citywide.

There are other pieces to the puzzle of solving homelessness, but unless we can solve rising rents from under building housing, we will continue to see more and more people lose homes.

One note on trees.

I used to live in Snohomish County where we continue to clear cut because we under produce housing in the city.

We lose our forests when we don't build homes.

Seattle.

I urge you to not water down the One Seattle plan.

Thank you.

Thank you, Speaker 78, 79 and 80.

Good evening.

Good evening, members of the council.

My name is Marsha Peterson.

I've lived in my home in Maple Leaf for 30 years, raised my family there.

But five years ago, when my daughter and her husband wanted to buy a home here, they couldn't afford it.

They bought in Shoreline and my grandkids go to school in Shoreline.

They don't go to Seattle schools.

Is it any wonder that we're closing Seattle schools?

I've lived here in the area since 1962, and I've seen Seattle go through the Boeing recession when the city basically emptied out to the tech boom of today and the growth that has come with it.

But our housing has not kept up with the growth.

Seattle has always taken pride in being a city of neighborhoods and of single family homes.

But that version of Seattle is now past its poll date.

It's time for Seattle 2.0.

But our restrictive zoning laws have made it impossible to build anything else.

And this has been going on for decades.

We are in a housing crisis and a climate crisis, as so many people tonight have said.

We can't keep forcing people to find housing in the suburbs of Snohomish County and East King County and Pierce County.

and adding to our traffic woes and pollution if i have one message to the city council that is this we have to start making it possible for all kinds of people to live here and we have to do it now by approving the mayor's one seattle plan and especially by including all of the neighborhood centers you can strengthen it but do not water it down I mean, those who say we could just do the minimum and then we'll see how it goes.

Well, that is exactly what we've been doing.

And look where that has gotten us.

We don't have time for that.

We needed this kind of change 40 years ago.

We can envision a Seattle that has more and different types of housing in every neighborhood.

And we can build a Seattle that is more welcoming, more walkable, more inclusive, more diverse, and a lot better and fun than it is today.

Thank you.

Speaker 79, and then 80. Thank you.

79, please.

Thank you.

And then Speaker 80, please.

Let's go.

Speaker 79. All right.

We're going to start it off with, I got here at 337, and I'm Speaker 79. So I want us to be mindful and conscientious about those who are able to make it to something like this early on.

And I really appreciate you guys taking your time, letting us speak, opening it up to online comment as well.

There's a lot of people that can't make it, and there's a lot of people that can't make it really before 4 o'clock, right?

So I want to start with that.

Let's see.

I am Kevin Trout.

I live in D6, and I'm really excited to be here.

And I'm going to try to have a little bit of a different tact than some other folks.

There are times when leadership is doing the right thing, even when people are scared of change.

Seattle is in a housing crisis.

You have the levers to increase density while protecting green space.

That's you.

You can eliminate parking requirements, change the stacked flat bonus down to 5,000 feet instead of 6K, And we can encourage infill development.

This is your power.

Use these levers.

This is the time for leadership.

I hope you step up.

Thank you.

Thank you, Linda.

Oh, and before you go, Linda, my apologies.

We have speakers 81 through 90. You all are next before we switch back to our remote.

81 through 90. If you're 81 through 90, please stand up and start lining up and we'll get ready.

Linda, you're next.

My name is Lydia Hurd.

I'm a homeowner of a 1914 house in the Fremont neighborhood in the urban village zone.

I'm retired and I have two great grandchildren.

The one Seattle plan as presented to us is falling short in some ways and I would like you to tweak it to get more out of it.

I would like more housing of all types to house more neighbors of all types.

More neighbors will help to support more of the services, businesses and amenities that we are still lacking and make more wonderful walkable neighborhoods possible.

More housing will provide nearby places to live for the people who will work in our wonderful small businesses overall self-employed such as artists and other creators and makers.

They are our neighbors too.

More neighbors means more access to transit and even better bus service than we currently enjoy.

More also means less.

More building types on more lots, even the smaller ones, means less lot coverage.

Less parking means less lot coverage and more opportunities for green space and shared yards.

More lots where stacked flats are allowed means less concentration of neighbors along arterials.

My old house is on an arterial and I can personally testify to the long-term effects of breathing exhaust particulates.

More stacked flats means that one floor with two units, one family-sized, could house both me and my granddaughter and her family, and I could help to raise my great-grandchildren.

I ask that you at least make it possible for this plan to do more.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Speaker 81. 81 through 90, you're up.

Speaker 81 and then 82, I would kindly ask you to be at this mic.

Awesome.

Ready to go.

Awesome.

Go ahead.

Thank you, council members, for the opportunity to speak tonight.

My name is Evan Sexton.

I've lived in Bryant my whole life.

On my block, there is an older, small multifamily building on the corner.

On 35th and 68th, there is an apartment complex that serves the families of children being treated at Children's Hospital.

More apartments like that are not something the city needs to prevent.

On the corner of 35th and 50th, there's a building that used to be a corner store.

It was owned by the Gordons, who were immigrants from Lithuania that opened their store in 1919. Today, no immigrant can do the same thing because the city made it illegal, even on the site of that old shop.

What we see today with owner's restrictions on land use is not Bryant's historic character.

Bryant was founded along a train line near the University of Washington with mixed-use development.

A lot of discussion about the comprehensive plan has been about aging in place.

These concerns are important.

Unfortunately, for many of my peers, our approach to housing has not allowed them to age in place.

When they turned 18 or even 22 after college, they were not able to leave home and find an affordable place to live in their neighborhood they grew up in.

I know friends with full-time employment who've been forced to move as far away as Cottage Lake, if you know where that is.

This displacement disrupts the life cycle of our city.

It means young families are pushed outside our school districts, and kids growing up today don't have the same ability to make friends on their block like I did.

We're not asking for a subsidy.

We're asking for the city to stop banning the developments we want to live in that we can afford.

I started a petition to keep the Bryant Neighborhood Center in the plan because I grew up here.

665 people in Bryant, so far, have signed our petition because they know that the neighborhood center here makes sense.

In the center's proposed boundaries, we already have a fire station, senior apartments, a park, the Bulkerman Trail, and a grocery store.

It also has access to the bus route I took to Ingram, to UW, and now to work.

I've watched this neighborhood grow, and I plan to watch it grow even more.

Council members, please keep the Bryant Neighborhood Center with a comprehensive plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Speaker 82, then Speaker 83, you're up.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Sarah Morimoto.

I'm a D3 voter and renter, but to be very clear, I would be a homeowner if I could afford it.

I live car-free, a choice motivated by fear of climate change and a love for our planet.

I get around by bike and public transit, and the infrastructure that allows me to get around safely and on time only works when our cities are dense and we grow up and not out.

Let's not knock down another forest to build more suburbs.

Single-family zoning, parking minimums, and countless other backwards policies are to thank for Seattle's severe housing shortage and the growing climate crisis.

Will you, our elected officials, lead us into the 21st century and deliver on the promise of a brighter Seattle that you all campaigned on?

For the sake of the planet and the future of the city, let Seattle grow.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sarah.

Speaker 83. Good evening, Council.

My name is Sean Holland.

I live one block outside the Bryant Center, or the proposed Bryant Center.

Bryant Center should not be a neighborhood center in the new plan because it doesn't meet the base criteria.

The plan proposes creating neighborhood centers, quote, around existing commercial districts.

The problem is Bryant Center has no commercial district.

There are only two street front businesses within Bryant Center, a grocery store and a small restaurant.

When I saw the plan, I thought, well, what else is there in the neighborhood centers in North Seattle?

I went to the one to our west, Ravenna.

There were 30 businesses there.

I went to the one to our north, Wedgwood.

There are 28 businesses there.

There are 12 proposed neighborhood centers in North Seattle.

I went to all of them.

The average number of the 11 other centers north of the Ship Canal, besides Bryant Center, average number of businesses is 23 businesses.

The least number of businesses in any of the other neighborhood centers is 15, compared to the two in Bryant.

Bryant Center lacks a critical subset of the businesses that create foot traffic throughout the day, and into the evening.

That would be restaurants, coffee shops, taverns, bakeries, and other stores serving food and beverages.

Looking again to the other 11 North Seattle neighborhood centers, they have an average of seven restaurants or food service businesses, and none of them has less than three.

A neighborhood center should have a vital and diverse group of local businesses to serve residents' needs.

That is not Bryant Center.

New residents there will have to drive elsewhere to serve their basic needs.

They won't be able to walk.

Residents of the area will still have to go outside to make purchases of everyday goods and services.

A neighborhood center should have a commercial district large enough to survive the loss of one or more businesses.

That is not Bryant Center.

Loss of the grocery store, which actually happened for a year back in 2000, 2001, would eliminate virtually all retail activity within the neighborhood center.

The proposed Bryant Neighborhood Center would allow vastly increased density with no commercial district to serve the new residents.

Bryant Center should be deleted from the current plan.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sean.

Thomas, Speaker 84, followed by Speaker 85, Ethan.

Hi, my name is Thomas Kennedy.

I live in a neighborhood center as a renter.

We have trees.

The parks are great.

I have a disability.

I can get around because of my disability.

I can get here on the buses because I have access to them because I live in a neighborhood center.

I'm only able to live in this neighborhood center because my family is fortunate enough to be able to afford to live in the neighborhood center I live in.

And too many people can't afford to live in wonderful, vibrant, awesome places like where I live.

People have said tonight that building more houses does not Lower prices, that's just not how supply and demand works.

Supply goes up, it reaches demand, price goes down.

That's how that works.

So that's silly, and I wanted to address that.

I had a friend who had to leave earlier, and I wanted to speak for him.

He said the result of fewer neighborhood centers are making the poorer areas subsidized, the richer areas that have more roads per house.

And lastly, density is what makes cities cities.

That's like why I live here.

If you don't want density, don't live in a city.

Changing cities are cities that are alive and vibrant.

I love this city.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Speaker 85 is up and speaker 86, 85.

Hi, my name is Ethan Carlindsay.

I grew up in Kenmore and I've been renting in Madison Valley for one year.

My vision for Seattle is a place that is walkable where we have complete communities where we can walk to many different amenities, grocery stores, schools, hospitals, etc.

And where we have alternative methods of transportation to cars, like being able to bike safely, walk, and also take public transit.

And I also envision a city that's affordable.

So what can we do to achieve this?

First, I'd like to say the current plan is a good step forward towards this vision, but what I would hope for is a leap forward.

So I think we can take some things from alternative number five to get that.

For example, I hope that we can expand the stacked flats bonus.

I think that there aren't that many lots that are only 6,000 square feet.

So if we can expand it to 5,000 square feet or even smaller lots, that would be great.

I live in a townhouse, and I have to walk upstairs over and over again all day.

So I think I would appreciate living in a stacked flat instead.

Also, I hope that we can expand up zones along transit corridors.

So I know that we're up zoning just along one block of transit quarters, but people can walk more than just one block to get to the bus.

And then also I'd like for us to keep all 30 neighborhood centers that were proposed.

All right, some extras here, allow for more mixed uses.

So corner stores, I don't think they should only be allowed on corners.

I think people maybe took that a little bit too literally.

I'd love maybe corridor stores.

And then also if we wanna have affordable housing, I think we should have the affordable housing bonus citywide, not just in a few select areas.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Speaker 86.

Hello, my name is Sanatina Sanchez.

I'm here speaking on behalf of the Transit Riders Union.

We, the Transit Riders Union, represent hundreds of transit riders across Seattle and King County.

Most of us are also renters.

We are here to advocate for denser housing, more housing types, and mixed uses near transit in the One Seattle Plan.

We know the impact long commutes have on workers and their families, as well as our environment.

Seattle is currently undertaking the most ambitious transit expansion plan of any U.S. city, and without complementary land use policy, those transit investments will never reach their full potential.

Building denser neighborhoods with more multifamily housing will enable more efficient, frequent, and well-used transit in the future as well.

We urge the Council to expand the up-zoned areas around transit to allow for mid-rise housing in all areas within quarter mile of frequent bus service and half mile of light rail.

These zones should be mixed use to create accessible space for childcare, grocery stores, small businesses, and other essential services.

multifamily housing should not be relegated only to noisy and dangerous arterials we urge council to remove minimum lot sizes for stacked flats in neighborhood residential zones to increase total capacity and create more affordable homes and remove parking minimums the comp plan should align the affordable housing bonus with the seattle social housing developers mixed income model in order to allow for more socioeconomically inclusive neighborhoods The anti-displacement framework must include existing tenant services and rental protections to actually prevent rental displacement.

Finally, we ask that Council reinstate the proposed neighborhood centers from the original OPCD comp plan update that were removed during the previous phase.

all of Seattle needs to contribute to meeting our housing needs.

Otherwise, historically marginalized areas will be more vulnerable to displacement, while other neighborhoods will continue to become even more exclusive to wealthy households.

We believe these changes to the One Seattle Plan will create a more accessible, affordable, and healthy Seattle that serves everyone's needs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Brent, Holly, Galen, and Lynn.

Brent, is Brent here?

No, 87.

88.

87?

What number are you?

87. I'm number 88.

All right.

Awesome.

Holly, you're 88. You're good to go.

All right.

My name is Holly Kvalheim.

It's funny in my everyday life, I'm a real tree person.

I talk about trees all the time.

It's probably really annoying to my friends.

I'm not here about trees today.

I currently rent a unit in a stacked flat.

I agree, it's awesome.

I grew up in West Seattle, and I happen to come from four generations of West Seattleites, which doesn't matter, but I think is kind of fun.

I'm planning to have kids in the next few years, and my dream is to live in West Seattle and raise that sixth generation near my parents.

I picture living in a triplex stacked flat, condo, some other multifamily housing in a walkable neighborhood.

A city full of million-dollar single-family homes can't support my dream.

A slowed-down approach to growth can't support my dream.

We need expanded zoning to allow for more options for people to live and raise families in our beautiful city.

We need many more homes to welcome new residents as well as keep growing and aging families from being priced out.

I know there's a lot of resistance to seeing change in our neighborhoods, especially from homeowners, but our city has always changed.

I know this because my grandma would talk to me about what West Seattle used to look like when she was growing up, and it changed in my mom's generation and mine, and it's going to continue to change.

This comprehensive plan will help shape the future, and the change that I hope to see is more dense, vibrant, and affordable neighborhoods for all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Holly.

Galen Ward and Lynn Drake.

Galen.

Hey, good evening and thank you for your endurance.

My name is Galen Ward and I am here with other Finney Ridge neighbors to urge you to support the comprehensive plan.

The 30 neighborhood centers and in particular to support the Finney neighborhood center and the Maple Leaf neighborhood center where my mom lives.

Our city desperately needs more housing and I'm glad that so many people are out here to tell you about that and to talk about it.

And this proposal is a huge step in the right direction.

I especially love how this plan encourages open space and housing for families by making it easier to build stacked flats with shared yards.

And anything you can do to improve that and make that even easier would be very important to me and my family.

When I graduated from college, I was incredibly fortunate to be able to afford a place in Seattle on a minimum wage salary.

That opportunity changed my life, and it's an opportunity I want for my two daughters when they grow up.

I don't want them to be forced to commute from the suburbs just because they can't afford to live in the city they call home today.

By building more housing of all types, we can make that dream a reality, not just for my children, but for countless others seeking opportunity and all the amazing things that make Seattle special.

We have an incredible city, but it's increasingly only accessible to the wealthy.

We should be proud to build more housing and share it with more people, and this plan is a wonderful step in that direction.

Please support and expand the comprehensive plan and the 30 neighborhood centers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have Lynn Drake, and then we'll jump back online for Morgan Arillo.

Please be on deck to do star six to unmute yourself after Lynn speaks.

Thank you.

Good evening, I'm Lynn Drake from West Seattle.

Thank you all for being here tonight.

I support the boldest One Seattle housing plan so we can make Seattle affordable for families to live near each other and support our citizens of all income levels.

Housing at all economic levels keeps our city culture alive.

I told my daughter I was here tonight and she just texted me back and just says how super excited she is for this plan.

She lives in Finney Ridge.

I also support any effort to reduce the barriers to building housing, such as eliminating design review and parking mandates.

Please don't delay and pass this one Seattle plan.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you, Lynn.

Next, we have Morgan.

We're going to go to remote speakers.

Morgan Arillo, please press star six and unmute yourself.

Hi there.

My name is Morgan Arillo.

And I'm a homeowner across from Seattle Children's and I've been here for 15 years.

So one Seattle plan as it's currently proposed is excessive.

And who is this plan really for?

The developers or the current and future residents?

This plan should be scaled back.

Please remove the proposed plan from 38th to 45th Ave Northeast.

This is not a neighborhood center or the like.

The area has been incorrectly designated and its bus turnaround stop does not serve a high density population.

I stand alongside at least 600 neighbors in strong opposition to this portion of the plan.

Also, dense housing doesn't automatically create affordability.

If density is the goal, it should be concentrated around light rail stations where there's strict affordability requirements would be in place.

Seattle's unique neighborhoods deserve preservation, and that's actually required by state law.

When we erase neighborhood character, we erase communities.

I urge you to reconsider the plan scope.

Thank you, Morgan.

Next, we have T.

Bragdon followed by Colin McDonald.

Please press star six.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, loud and clear.

Oh, great.

Thank you.

Thanks for this opportunity.

Thanks for sticking this out.

I want to talk about supporting trees.

I don't have any super objection to increasing intensity, although I agree that it doesn't always make prices come down.

It costs $600 a square foot to build a building.

That makes houses, even small apartments, super expensive.

So I'm not sure that increasing density of the panacea to create making it more affordable.

This morning, we lost one of our big neighborhood trees.

It was over four feet in diameter.

And it shaded a bunch of other properties.

And so when trees are removed, it doesn't affect just the property on which the tree sits.

It affects the neighbors around.

And being up in the city, a lot of these houses are really old.

Some of them are uninsulated.

And when the tree's gone, and this one was a black locust and it was beautiful, the other houses that it used to shade are now exposed to the sun.

And so they're going to have to deal with shade and cooling and revising the plantings so that it doesn't get burned up.

I find that the developers are pretty good about externalizing those costs onto the neighbors and the neighbors don't get to say anything about it.

Also, there's a point, and I'm not sure this is the correct venue, but in the complaint section of the tree of SDCI, when you call, they try to send someone out.

By the time they show up, the tree's usually down.

And all you can do is commiserate over a stump.

So there needs to be some more rapid

um response to that thanks for your time thank you next we have colin mcdonald followed by deb lester colin star six good evening good evening council members my name is colin mcdonald i live on capitol hill and work downtown i'm a public servant so i understand the importance of process but i also know how it can be used to strangle progress the draft before you is the result of years of public engagement I urge you to adopt a comprehensive plan that maximizes the number of places throughout the city that will increase density.

There are many reasons for this, but I will focus on two.

First, in this process, I've heard a lot about what housing young people want.

I'm 35, and please indulge me if I still claim to be young.

My generation wants more of all kinds of housing.

Four years ago, I had the good fortune to scrape together a 5% down payment and buy a condo.

I like my apartment, I like my condo more, and I'd rather be in a townhouse than a condo.

I'd really like a mansion.

But I acknowledge that getting even one rung further up the housing ladder puts me in a much better position in terms of my current and future economic prospects and my ability to commit to staying in the community.

More options in more places makes that more possible.

Second, I encourage you to allow for a diverse mix of housing options in every neighborhood possible.

The more neighborhood centers there are, the less growth each must absorb.

People's lives change, and with that, so do their housing needs.

So that means a recent graduate getting their first apartment, a family expanding to make room for multiple generations, or parents downsizing after kids move out.

By allowing a diverse mix of housing options with new infrastructure and amenities to match, people can choose the housing option that works for them at each stage of their life without sacrificing the community connections that make neighborhoods vibrant and life worth living.

When I think about my forever home, I do not picture a building or a room, I picture Seattle.

Seattle is an incredible city that will continue to attract people from all over the world, And I encourage you to help it be a forever home for all those who want to build an even better Seattle, whether they live here already or not.

This comprehensive plan is your best chance to do so.

Do not let it slip by in the name of process.

Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good or the necessary.

Thank you.

Thank you, Colin.

Next, we have Deb Lester, followed by Irene Wall.

Hi, I'm Deb Lester, and I live in the proposed Maple Leaf Neighborhood Center, and I'm one of the 1,060 people who signed the petition to remove Maple Leaf as a neighborhood center.

We fully understand the dire need for affordable housing and more housing options.

However, I read the OPCD documents, attended their meetings, and still have no assurance the plan will resort in affordable or family-friendly housing.

A recent council comp plan meeting, OPCD staff indicated that five to six-story apartment buildings are the only option that pencils out for developers and neighborhood centers.

I'm very frustrated with the false assumptions about tree canopy and adverse stormwater impacts in the FEIS.

I was curious to find that the comments I spent hours preparing were not included in the FEIS response to comments.

The FEIS falsely states tree canopy loss will be mitigated by the tree ordinance, which is completely inadequate.

The FEIS suggests that we study its effectiveness.

We don't need a study.

We need a stronger ordinance, ASAP.

Last week we heard the city had been falsifying their protected tree data, so we have no faith in the city to protect trees.

The FEIS touts that tree trees will compensate for tree canopy loss.

I would invite all of you to take a walk in Napoli where the two-foot right-of-way in most of the neighborhood precludes planting tree trees.

Stormwater is the primary source of contaminants to Puget Sound and has significant impacts on salmon and orca.

The FEIS minimizes the increased input of stormwater from development and says, I quote, stormwater contaminants that enter Puget Sound and other marine areas are almost immediately diluted The concentration is too low to have any discernible effects on species in that environment.

That statement is absolutely false, and I was shocked to see it in the FEIS.

I've spent 40 years as an aquatic scientist working in King County in Seattle, and I can assure you that low levels of stormwater contaminants build up, most definitely build up in sediments and are accumulating organisms at toxic levels, impacting salmon and wildlife.

I urge you to listen to constituents and pass legislation to meet the needs of HB 111 I'll pause the other planned up zones until the issues you're hearing about tonight are resolved.

Thank you, Deb.

Next, we have Irene Wall, followed by Angelus McNally.

Irene, please pass star six.

Hello, council members.

My name is Irene Wall, and I'm a seven-decade Seattle resident.

I happen to live in Finney Ridge.

Under the proposed comp plan, zoning, Seattle's neighborhoods will become an all-you-can-eat buffet for developers and their private equity funders.

Despite widespread up zones, the preferred alternative will not produce the desired affordability.

As long as we are a city where income inequality grows every year, private developers will not build to rent for less and lose money.

As many have testified tonight, Slow down and focus on phase one only to see how House Bill 1110 plays out to generate the so-called missing middle housing and whether that housing meets the affordability levels desired.

The city's comp plan can be amended every year, so hold off on the unwarranted creation of neighborhood centers, which are the source of so much tension over the plan.

FEIS Exhibit 2.24-27, Housing Growth by Location in the Preferred Alternative, shows that 94% of the agreed upon new housing units can be met by a combination of the growth in urban neighborhoods under House Bill 1110 plus the regional and urban centers that already exist.

The passionate cry for more affordable housing everywhere assumes that a geographically compressed city like Seattle has the environmental and infrastructure capacity to accommodate everyone who wants to have housing here and for no more than 30% of their income.

You should consider that our Puget Sound joint planning region includes many other cities and towns that have plenty of capacity for growth for both housing and jobs without causing sprawl.

including those with new and future light rail stations and bus rapid transit service.

Please take that into consideration before you approve this comp plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm butchering your name.

I apologize.

Yeah, can you hear me knock on?

Yes, go ahead.

Okay, my name is Angeles, and I grew up in the Seattle area and came back here after college out of state.

because I want my future to be in this city.

However, I also want to be able to afford a home, and it's really hard to see how that can be possible without major changes to zoning.

I have a number of comments on the comprehensive plan, as the current vision is not nearly as ambitious as it needs to be to serve the needs of the city.

I hear the arguments against upzoning in certain areas as being incorrect, quote-unquote, because there's not enough infrastructure, parking, or because residents want to preserve character.

However, infrastructure can be built, there are ways to get around without cars, and preservation of neighborhood character is a thinly veiled way to keep the demographic of a neighborhood from changing.

At the end of the day, our city needs change, and we can't treat any one neighborhood as precious and untouchable by the gradual development that we need.

Notably, a major improvement to the plan would be to reduce or eliminate parking minimum.

Parking increases the cost of development dramatically, and the same space could be used for more housing, more green spaces, or more retail.

Additionally, lot coverage guidelines are unnecessarily limiting and prevent small loss and up zones in our areas from being developed in the first place.

If someone wants to turn more than 50% of their lot into housing, they should be able to.

Thank you for your attention and please keep our city moving toward the future, not stuck in the nostalgia of the past.

Thank you.

Next up we have John Ferguson, Melissa.

John, please press star six.

Good evening, council members.

My name is John Ferguson.

I'm a resident of Laurelhurst, and I've lived here for 25 years.

And I want to voice my support for the comprehensive plan overall, put my strong objection to one component of that plan.

And that's what I'd like to talk to you about tonight.

That is the up-zoning of Northeast 45th Street.

There are four reasons why I object to this.

One is it doesn't qualify.

House Bill 1110 requires that infill occur along rapid or high-frequency transit lines.

The bus route up 45th is neither of those.

It's actually a turnaround, a rest stop, or that bus for the bus drivers.

It's not even needed.

The participation, utilization is low, and children are served by buses that go along 40th Avenue and Sandpoint.

Secondly, Northeast 45th Street, as a up-zoning area, violates House Bill 1110, because it'll change the character of this street-lined single-family neighborhood.

Third, it's not needed.

House Bill 1110 requires Seattle to allow four units of development on a lot.

This could happen organically along 45th as market forces allow and not require draconian rezoning.

And fourth, there are a lot better options, for example, along the light rail for infill and development.

And if people think that the purpose, going back to the purpose of the bill, that have affordable housing, you won't have affordable housing based on lower hearse prices.

Thank you.

Thank you, John.

Next we have Melissa and followed by Colette.

Melissa, press star six and you're good to go.

Yes, thank you so much, council members.

In deference to others that are waiting, I'll limit my comments to one minute.

Thank you, Alex Brennan, for bringing that idea forward.

I'm executive director of AIA Seattle.

We are a 2,600-plus membership organization of individuals who are business owners, parents, families, and community-engaged folks who envision a livable city where diverse housing options, amenities, and transit are within easy reach for all.

Seattle is a city known for innovation and business.

Our housing and community should reflect and keep up with that creativity, and dynamism that's truly our identity.

So many topics have been raised tonight.

I will focus on the comp plan.

The One Seattle plan is not just the mayor's plan, but reflects multiple years of robust community engagement that are now behind us.

Council members, you may hear folks asking you to slow down.

The need for housing is not slowing down.

You have an opportunity as a council member to lead and shape the future of our communities over a 30-year period.

Neighborhood centers are places where organic growth is already happening.

Our members encourage you to approve the One Seattle Plan developed over multiple years and include all 30 neighborhood centers.

And I invite each of you to refer to our letter of January 22nd for additional supporting information about how neighborhood centers support economic growth, walkable, livable communities, affordability, and sustainability.

Thank you so much for attaining all 30 neighborhood centers.

Thank you, Melissa.

And before we do our last online speaker, before we bounce back, I want to call up speakers 91 through 100, starting with Patrick Taylor.

91 through 100, please get ready to do your public comment.

Colette, please press star six.

Hi there.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak today.

My name is Colette Abbott, and I'm in support of creating more affordable housing.

But this plan doesn't have protections in place to enable affordable housing with density as a goal.

It should be concentrated around areas with adequate transit or large transit potential and strict affordability requirements that don't allow developers to take a fee rather than creating affordable housing.

This plan, as it stands, in my opinion, wouldn't reach everyone that it should.

I'm also here today because this plan includes a portion on Northeast 45th Street from 38th to 45th Avenue Northeast.

It's not in a designated neighborhood center, urban center, or regional center, and it's not near major transit lines.

It's a neighborhood with a terminal bus line that is midway through this section in the plan, and it doesn't serve the high transit area and should not be included in the plan.

I'm joined by hundreds of neighbors in opposing this portion, and I request that you review and remove the small portion.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you.

Next we'll go to in-person speakers.

I'm assuming you're Patrick.

Awesome.

Start with Patrick, then we have Susan, Barbara, Rachel, Paul, and Jim, Keith, Jordan, and Darlene.

Patrick, you're up.

My name is Patrick Taylor and a home in North Beacon Hill where I live with my wife and two children.

I ask you to follow through your campaign talk of supporting more housing by passing the mayor's proposed comprehensive plan and bringing it closer to option five, which received overwhelming public support as well as that of many of you and has gone through years of public process.

According to the Seattle Chamber of Commerce's tracking poll, homelessness and housing affordability are two of the three top issues for voters, not trees or infrastructure or neighborhood character or any of the concerns some of you seem eager to use as excuses to allow less housing.

Examples from across the country show that cities that build housing have lower rent and lower housing costs.

cities that don't see spiraling costs.

So we want greater affordability and to see fewer folks pushed under our streets, we should be making it cheaper and easier to build housing now.

If we want to save trees and reduce our climate impacts, we need to build urban housing, not sprawl into fields and farms.

This is your opportunity to show what you meant when you ran for office, to be bold and allow more housing in our city.

Please support and strengthen the proposed One Seattle plan.

Thank you.

Thank you, Susan.

Then Barbara.

Hello, I'm Susan Mossberg, here from the great neighborhood of Montlake, one of the many great neighborhoods in our beautiful city.

Thank you.

I've lived in Montlake 35 years now and can attest the changes the comprehensive plan proposes are massive, but the changes feel incredibly, incredibly cookie cutter, as if imported from some generic city plan without feel for the place we actually live in.

We have no idea how the design decisions were arrived at, what concerns were taken into account, how they were mitigated for any particular place.

It fails to build on our neighborhoods, in this case Montlate's historic status.

We can all agree we need to accommodate more housing.

Every neighborhood needs to do its share.

We're not anti-change.

Yes, I have a house.

I'm sorry I worked for it.

I moved here as a young person.

I'm sorry I have a house.

I hope someday you get to have a place.

to own as well and not just rent, because rent is difficult.

But also one of the best things about Seattle is our distinct neighborhoods.

I think it's one of our crown jewels, how they're connected, how they play off of each other.

And that vibrant mosaic wouldn't be here without the stewards who've understood the place and have cultivated the communities, the trees, the gardens, and the good energy of this place over time.

Not just said, let's just change it every five years.

Okay, we're at a critical juncture, absolutely.

We can build something inspirational that serves as a model to other cities, or we can quickly rip a hole in the social and ecological fabric of our communities, doing irreparable harm to our neighbors.

We urgently need the leadership of the council.

Residents where I live were given no direct notice about the biggest change to Montlake in its history.

Please, please, please slow down your actions on this proposal.

We need time to engage the community and develop a proposal to an alternative plan to present to you, which we want to do.

We want to do.

Thank you.

Thank you, Susan.

Next we have Barbara, followed by Rachel.

Hi, hello, my name is Barbara Wright and I've lived in the Montlake neighborhood for over 35 years.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed comprehensive plan.

Seattle is defined by its unique and lively neighborhoods.