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Seattle approves tower height increase to spur downtown housing
Two high rises with between 600 and 1,200 units could now go up
Seattle will increase the maximum height of residential towers in part of downtown to tackle both empty downtowns and a significant housing shortage.
The City Council passed a bill last week to let towers on Third Avenue rise as high as 440 feet, up from 170 feet, the Seattle Times reported.
The zoning change could entice developers to build high-rise housing on the 11 parcels with the height increase. Council staff predict the development of two new high rises with 600 to 1,200 units and ground-floor retail – in the next 20 years — as a result of the update.
“We are not engaged in a project of restoring downtown Seattle to the pre-COVID status quo,” Andrew Lewis, a council member who supported the measure, said. Six council members voted for the change.
“Downtowns have to evolve,” Lewis told the outlet. “By putting a large concentration of residents in our downtown core, we are creating the demand for new storefronts.”
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s administration backed the measure as a way of revitalizing downtown as well as curtailing drug use in that area, since construction zones would close off sidewalks for months.
Three council members who voted against the rezoning said it didn’t adequately address affordable housing. Under Seattle’s affordable housing laws, the two high-rises would create 10 to 20 affordable units, or the developers would pay somewhere between $4.2 million and $8.4 million to build affordable housing elsewhere.
Like many major cities in the U.S., including Boston, San Francisco and Portland, the Covid-19 pandemic profoundly impacted Downtown Seattle, with vacancy rates spiking as employers adopted remote or hybrid work policies.
Housing, or the lack thereof, has also been a major issue throughout the country. In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams announced changes to the city’s zoning code that, if approved by the City Council, would be wide-ranging. By the administration’s estimates, they could create up to 100,000 housing units over the next 15 years.
— Ted Glanzer