Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has reportedly revisited his ambitious proposals regarding the dimensions of nine neighborhood centers and six urban center expansions he put forth last year.
Recent revised maps, which have surfaced among neighborhood groups and housing advocates, show a significant reduction in the boundaries of 14 centers, indicating a potential retreat from the Mayor’s initial plans.
Particularly affected are neighborhoods like Upper Queen Anne, Admiral, Endolyne, and West Green Lake, where the proposed centers have been notably reduced, with dozens of blocks being excised from the originally planned centers.
The Whittier center, located just north of Ballard, is an exception; its borders will be narrowed in width but extended further south, possibly overall resulting in a neutral impact.
The shrinking of these centers follows considerable public opposition to expanding apartment buildings in these areas.
Several online petitions have emerged, calling for a reduction or complete removal of neighborhood centers from the city’s growth strategies.
While the areas stripped from these centers will still be subject to state-mandated changes promoting middle housing, which necessitates fourplex zoning citywide and sixplex zoning near key transit stops, the earlier plans anticipated higher housing densities.
For instance, sections of Lowrise 3 zoning were initially set to allow five-story apartments.
Callie Craighead, a spokesperson for the Mayor, confirmed the authenticity of the revised maps and stated that they now reflect the Mayor’s active proposal.
Craighead mentioned, “OPCD and the Mayor’s Office will be presenting these maps to the Select Committee in June.
The initial draft of the Future Land Use Map did not reflect feedback from the fall 2024 community engagement process.
As a result of this engagement and discussions with Councilmembers regarding unique local circumstances, such as slopes and other limitations, OPCD proposed adjusted boundaries for some of the Neighborhood Centers.
Despite the alterations, no Neighborhood Centers have been eliminated.”
The reduction in center areas is critical since these designated centers are projected to be the primary sites for future apartment developments.
With the high cost of single-family homes in Seattle, apartments offered by nonprofits and market-rate developers represent the majority of affordable housing options available to the working class.
In summary, these centers are integral to driving the construction of affordable housing, and the recent contraction in their planned areas could hinder this effort.
Previously, the Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) considered adding as many as 50 neighborhood centers in an internal draft.
However, Mayor Harrell’s policy team ultimately reduced that number by half in the public draft plan, maintaining a total nearing 30 after a subsequent addition of five more neighborhood centers.
This evolution suggests an initial interest from Harrell toward moderately expanding apartment zoning.
Though, the recent revisions again demonstrate a rollback in that initiative.
The underlying concept of neighborhood centers is to cultivate small areas of multifamily housing density centered around existing small business districts.
According to OPCD’s guidelines, these centers typically extend 800 feet from their commercial core.
In these zones, zoning permits mixed-use midrise buildings up to six stories, tapering off as you move further away.
However, the proposed centers are inconsistent, varying widely in both size and shape.
For example, the Bryant and Endolyne centers cover merely eight large blocks each, while North Magnolia encompasses around 11, despite a recent reduction of four blocks from the plan.
Urban centers, meant to be larger, often showcase only modest increases in size, as illustrated by the newly reduced boundaries of Upper Queen Anne and Greenwood.
Historically, urban centers in Seattle trace back to the 1994 Comprehensive Plan, which introduced the “Urban Village Strategy.”
Since then, the Pinehurst/Haller Lake Urban Center is the only new addition, though borders have been revised several times.
Advocates for housing continue to urge the city to expand growth centers, not diminish them.
The Complete Communities Coalition—composed of various advocacy groups, including unions, nonprofits, businesses, and builders—ranked the addition of neighborhood centers as the second priority to enhance the growth plan.
The coalition also views extending the boundaries of proposed centers as the third priority to ensure access to essential amenities, such as grocery stores.
They propose expanding these boundaries to include areas within a five-minute walk from a central point.
Additionally, the Seattle Planning Commission echoes calls for a more extensive and larger neighborhood center footprint.
Feelings about the shifting borders vary among neighborhood organizers as well.
With light rail set to arrive at N 130th Street—adjacent to Pinehurst and Haller Lake—by 2026, residents have expressed a need for clarity regarding rezone plans for future redevelopment.
Renee Staton, a Pinehurst organizer advocating for zoning changes at the 130th Station, voiced her disappointment with the ongoing shifts in the plan.
Staton stated, “The original proposal indicated a commitment to creating much-needed new housing throughout Seattle.
I’m disappointed to observe this rollback; however, I appreciate that increased density is still on the table.”
Despite being nearly a decade removed from approval of the station via the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure, Pinehurst/Haller Lake is still without a rezone as its anticipated plan contracts.
The delay in rezoning has drawn criticism from former Sound Transit Board members like David Baker, emphasizing the need to maximize land usage around transit stations.
Staton remarked, “As for the Pinehurst Station rezone, our discussions have persisted since early 2015, when the community started advocating for the station.
We anticipated finalizing zoning this summer, and many residents are eager to see progress for clarity on their next courses of action.”
The Mayor’s team has characterized the map changes as minimal and a result of councilmember feedback.
They maintain that the plan roughly doubles the city’s zoned housing capacity, even with the scaled-down boundaries.
Councilmembers Cathy Moore and Maritza Rivera have expressed hesitations regarding the breadth of zoning modifications, particularly concerning encroachment into single-family neighborhoods.
Conversely, Dan Strauss has displayed enthusiasm for reforming neighborhood center boundaries, albeit with the intention of preserving the overall housing capacity from the original proposal—an approach that might clarify Strauss’s district’s only expansion (Whittier).
Craighead stated, “We believe these changes are minor and incorporate feedback OPCD gathered during the second round of community engagement, along with input and community walks with Councilmembers.
As the legislation is considered, Council members can modify and refine the boundaries as necessary.”
Despite pushbacks concerning zoning changes for all neighborhood centers and related transit corridors being postponed to 2026, the City aims to outline the centers’ boundaries in the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan later this year.
Zoning approvals for these centers will follow next year.
image source from：https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/05/23/harrell-chops-off-dozens-of-city-blocks-from-planned-growth-centers/
