Court of Appeals Ruling Pushes Out Next Phase of Seattle's Growth Plan 'Significantly'
Eddie Lin, chair of the Seattle City Council's Land Use Committee, said Wednesday that consideration of the next phase of the city's growth plan "will be significantly delayed" in the wake of a recent ruling at the Washington Court of Appeals. That likely means that 30 new "neighborhood centers" and upzones directly along high-frequency bus corridors (a set of changes dubbed Centers and Corridors) won't be put into place until late 2026 or early 2027 – or potentially even later.
These zoning changes were the last vestiges of the overall growth strategy proposed by former Mayor Bruce Harrell in early 2024 and dubbed the One Seattle Plan. But a pair of appeals against that plan's environmental review under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) have been winding their way through the courts, with a three-judge panel ruling on June 1 that those appeals were improperly dismissed at earlier stages.
Lin's announcement comes at the same time that the city council is considering a bill that would limit the ability for such appeals to be heard at the city level, a move that would raise the bar on future appeal filings. The legislation comes too late to help the One Seattle Plan avoid SEPA entanglements, but likely could have avoided the current delay and turmoil if the City had implemented it earlier.
The Court of Appeals ruling affirmed a major loophole in a "safe harbor" state law, which had previously been believed to exempt zoning changes allowing more housing within urban areas from SEPA, finding that final actions are exempt but "procedural motions" like the issuing of a final environmental impact statement (FEIS) are not. That leaves the door open to challenges at either the Superior Court level or the state's Growth Management Hearings Board.
The Phase 2 "Centers and Corridors" rezone had been set to go into effect this summer, but now looks to be thrown into limbo. (City of Seattle)
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