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Policy Goals

We seek to fulfill our vision of progressive urbanism for Seattle through a policy platform rooted in our core principles yet flexible enough to evolve to meet changing public needs. 

Waterfront for All

Seize on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reconnect the people to the waters of Elliott Bay and make the waterfront into a model of progressive urbanism, where mobility is centered on pedestrians and public transit and public gathering places are developed. 

• Prevent the Viaduct from being rebuilt or retrofitted.

 

Housing, Density, and Urban Design

Dramatically increase the housing stock to accommodate significant population growth in the next 50 years.

• Amend the Seattle Comprehensive Plan and change the appropriate zoning codes to allow for substantial increases in multi-family developments.

Keep housing in Seattle accessible to people of all income levels and to renters as well as property owners.

• Advocate for innovative methods for encouraging more housing for middle income and low income residents, such as inclusionary zoning
• Support the affordable housing levy.
• Support policies that result in the new development of apartments and condominiums targeted for middle and low income buyers.
• Encourage the Seattle Housing Authority and nonprofit affordable housing developers to build more of their projects throughout the city, not just the urban core.

Build multifamily housing with superb architecture that fits within the character of existing neighborhoods and that contributes to the vibrancy of street life.

Reform and streamline the design review process to achieve better design results and reduce the costs and time necessary to create new housing.

Adjust the multifamily housing zoning code to permit more flexibility while requiring designs that are friendlier to pedestrians.

Make neighborhoods more walkable and people-centered, even as population grows.

• Advocate for more pedestrian-only streets in center city and other neighborhoods.
• Develop more alleys as bright, open, and pedestrian-friendly walkways.
• Support adjustments to city ordinances and required sidewalk widths to allow more year-round sidewalk seating for restaurants and cafes.

Transportation

Build a thoughtfully-designed transportation network that enables and encourages dense and walkable neighborhoods.

• Support the Sound Transit Phase Two funding measure to be submitted to voters in 2007.
• Advocate for a new high-capacity public transit corridor connecting SeaTac Aiport, Burien, West Seattle, waterfront/Downtown, Ballard, and Northgate.
• Support streetcar network expansion.
• Support plans to reconfigure Mercer Street and lower Aurora to reconnect the Queen Anne and South Lake Union street grid.
• Make Downtown streets more efficient, eliminate choke points.
• Expand bike trail network city-wide.
• Support the formation of a King County Ferry District.

Develop innovative, lasting sources of revenue for increasing public transit that simultaneously raise funds and make it more likely for car users to utilize public transit.

• Study the feasibility of expanding the hours and geographic area of city parking meters and increasing city street parking rates.
• Study an urban core congestion fee and tolls on significant roadways.
• Study transit impact fees for new residential and commercial developments.

Parks and Open Spaces

Build a thoughtfully-designed park system that makes Seattle more livable as it grows.

• Support the Open 2100 process and goals.
• Renew and expand the parks levy.
• Transform Seattle Center into a downtown park, Century Park.
• Redevelop the waterfront to support a vibrant park system and a signature civic gathering space when the Viaduct is torn down.
• Study the possibility of building a green belt over a lowered Aurora.
• Study the viability and support the development of Green Streets through Belltown and other dense neighborhoods.
• Encourage the development of pedestrian-only streets in center city and other neighborhoods.
• Study the feasibility of implementing an unarmed park rangers force to serve parks in all neighborhoods, not just downtown as has been recommended by a citizen task force.
• Make more play fields for recreational sports, including in urban core.
• Support the staging of festivals and concerts in parks as a valid public use of our open spaces and an important feature of a livable city.

 

Sustainability

Rehabilitate the natural ecology of Seattle and reduce the city’s negative impacts on the environment.

• Reduce Seattle’s greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels.
• Advocate for Seattle City Light programs that promote energy conservation.
• Create incentives for property owners to implement strategies such as natural landscaping and green roofs to conserve water and energy and reduce pollution.
• Support Seattle Public Utilities programs to reduce waste, increase recycling, and provide clean water.

 

Governance Reform

Reform the structure of local and regional government bodies to better equip them to plan for Seattle’s – and the region’s – growth and to achieve our policy goals.

• Encourage the Regional Transportation Commission to study proposals to merge Sound Transit, Snohomish County Community Transit, King County Metro, Pierce County Transit, Kitsap County ferries, and Washington State Ferries operated in Central Puget Sound.
• Study City Charter amendments for increasing neighborhood representation on the Seattle City Council.