Seattle Growth and Affordability I had Presentation to UDI Victoria - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Seattle Growth and Affordability

Presentation to UDI Victoria

Nathan Torgelson I City of Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) | March 6, 2019

I had

Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections WHAT WE DO:

• Permit review and issuance—

implement 17 City Codes

• Design Review on major projects
• Inspections
• Code enforcement
• Tenant protections and rental

inspection program

• Zoning code revisions
• Community engagement

SEATTLE: BOOM CITY

• One of the fastest growing cities in USA
• 2010 Population: 608,660
• 2018 Population: 730, 400
• Multifamily Vacancy Rate: 5-6%
• Office Vacancy Rate: 9.4 % (lowest since 2001)
• Center City Seattle: 50 million square feet office space, 7.4 % vacancy, 82,000

residents; 300,000 jobs; 6.4 million square feet under construction (66 projects)

• Amazon 10 million square feet; up to 4 million planned or under construction

U.S. CRANE TALLY

City January 2019 Crane Tally Seattle 59 Los Angeles 44 Portland 30 San Francisco 29 New York City 28 Washington DC 28 Chicago 26 Denver 17

Source: Rider Levett Bucknall Crane Index, January 2019 *Toronto: 104, Calgary 33. (No data for Vancouver or Montreal)

Seattle construction still booming and won’t end anytime soon

Originally published February 19, 2019 at 6:00 am

RESIDENTIAL UNITS

4,355 7,845 6,569 1,519 3,912 4,603 8,313 7,800 8,845 11,905 11,576 12,100 8,353

• 5000

5000 10000 15000 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Net New Units Demo

Residential units reported in the year the construction permit was issued

(includes units completed and those that are permitted, but not yet built); 69,000 gross units in last 7 years

BUILDING PERMIT INTAKE 2007-2018

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Permit Count

SEATTLE’S HOUSING REALITY IN 2016

TODAY’S SEATTLE’S HOUSING REALITY

More than 45,000 Seattle households spend more than half of their income on housing 4,487 people are living without shelter in Seattle; 4,112 with shelter Average monthly rent for all types of rentals in Seattle is $1,945

2019 rent up 1.7%, but up 50% since 2010

WHAT IS HALA? Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda

65 recommendations from Housing Committee in 2015

SEATTLE HOUSING LEVY

35 Year History of Affordable Housing Investments

• 2016 Housing Levy passed by 70.6%, providing $290

million over seven years

• Subsidized housing designed for households under

60% of AMI, with emphasis on households under 30% AMI

• 50-year regulatory period
• Additional programs for Homeownership

Assistance, Homelessness Prevention, and Home Repair

INCENTIVIZING AFFORDABILITY

Creating affordable apartments in market-rate construction

• Multifamily Property Tax Exemption provides

affordability for up to 12 years

• Over 2,500 affordable apartments in otherwise

market-rate buildings, and 2,000 more in the pipeline

• Per-household rent savings average $6,000 per year

MANDATORY HOUSING AFFORDABILITY

Growth with Affordability

• All new multifamily and commercial

development must either build or pay into a fund for affordable housing

• Provides additional development capacity to

partially offset the cost of these requirements (zoning changes)

• Increases housing choices
• A state-approved approach other local cities

have used

• Adopted so far Downtown, South Lake Union,

Uptown Central District, University District. So far 15 projects, $13.3 million and 19 units

HOUSING LIMITED BY ZONING

Current Planning Area Boundaries, Urban Centers & Urban Villages

MANDATORY HOUSING AFFORDABILITY

Creating more affordable housing through growth We are enacting zoning changes so that new development will create income-restricted affordable housing. Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) lays the framework for how Seattle grows equitably and sustainably.

HOW WE ENGAGED COMMUNITY

• Nearly 200 in-person community “meet-ups”
• A nine-month facilitated community focus group

process with 160 community members

• Ongoing online conversation with 2000+ community

members

• “Telephone town halls” with 70,000+ households
• A translated mailer sent to nearly 90,000 households
• 10,000+ doors knocked to try to speak with every single-

family-home resident in every urban village, including in-language

• An email distribution list of over 4,700
• The HALA Hotline and HALAinfo@seattle.gov

COMPREHENSIVE REZONES

• All urban villages and urban village expansion areas
• All areas outside urban villages with multifamily and

commercial zoning

• Legislation transmitted in December of 2017

Propose comprehensive MHA rezones and new affordability requirements in:

citywide MHA rezones MHA already in effect Urban village Proposed urban village expansion

AFFORDABILITY REQUIREMENTS + REZONES

Without MHA: With MHA:

market rate building with current code no affordability requirement + additional development capacity + affordable housing contribution

MHA PAYMENT AND PERFORMANCE AMOUNTS

MHA PAYMENT AND PERFORMANCE AMOUNTS

Plaza Roberto Maestas El Centro de la Raza/Beacon Development

Liberty Bank Building Africatown/Capitol Hill Housing Mercy Othello Plaza Mercy Housing NW

AFFORDABLE HOMES THROUGH PAYMENT & PERFORMANCE

Advantages to both; 2 to 3 leveraging with LIHTC and mixed-income communities

USE GROWTH & EQUITY ANALYSIS

Vary scale of zoning changes based on displacement risk and access to opportunity

DIVERSITY

CITYWIDE MHA PROPOSAL

Primary principles:

• Bigger upzones were proposed, due to high access

to opportunity and low risk of displacement.

• The urban village is expanded to a10 minute

walkshed to frequent transit (future light rail).

Mappin ing Example le: : West t Se Seattle le Ju Junctio ion

THANK YOU

For more on Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA): seattle.gov/HALA Nathan Torgelson Director Nathan.Torgelson@Seattle.gov

City of Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI)