Day 4/15 - Seattle, WA

This article is part of a series where we release all City Council + Planning Dep. decisions for the top 15 cities tracked nationwide. You can find all decisions for Seattle, WA here.

Welcome to city 4 out of 15. In the future, you will be able to find all other cities (see footer) on our Substack.

TL;DR

• Rezones: 66+ acres across 37+ parcels, unlocking capacity for ~34,818 homes.*

• Funding: $268.5M approved, including $54.5M directly for affordable housing.

• Code overhaul (effective Jun 30, 2025): Up to 4 units per lot citywide (6 near transit or if 2 units are affordable); adjustments to lot coverage, height, and setbacks.

• ADUs: Up to two accessory dwelling units (ADUs) per lot now allowed.

• Pipeline relief: Automatic 24-month extensions for projects vested to the 2015/2018 building codes; estimated 3,000+ projects / ~34,000 units impacted.

• Downtown activation (interim): Broader street-level uses for 36 months; permitted uses continue as nonconforming after expiry.

• Event prep: Additional funding approved to support street/sidewalk upgrades, park maintenance, and public-safety risk mitigation ahead of FIFA 2026; Memorial Stadium redevelopment agreement advanced.

*Capacity reflects city projections enabled by policy changes, not guaranteed delivery.

The reason the number of new housing units is so high is that Seattle has recently massively overhauled its zoning code, effectively ending SF zoning. The ordinance was implemented to align with recent Washington State land use mandates (House Bill 1110, House Bill 1287, House Bill 1293, and Senate Bill 6015). Effective 6/30/25, it allows up to four dwelling units per lot in Neighborhood Residential (NR) zones and up to six units near major transit stops or if two units are affordable. It also modifies minimum lot coverage, height limits, and setback requirements.

This was also coupled with allowing up to two ADUs per Lot.

Seattle’s City Council also realized that they had a stalled development pipeline and the only way to fix that was to grant an automatic 24-month extension for building permit applications vested to the 2015 or 2018 Seattle Building Codes. This ordinance specifically targets projects that have been delayed due to “financial hardship”, a direct acknowledgement of the challenging high-interest-rate environment.

The city estimates that this extension could benefit over 3,000 distinct projects, representing ~34,000 housing units.

Seattle’s Planning Department also introduced an ordinance with the goal to active their downtown. It introduces interim provisions to activate street-level spaces in Downtown. Now, a broader range of activities such as offices, research and development labs, arts facilities, and food processing are permitted street-level uses. The legislation is temporary and is set to expire 36 months after its effective date, but permitted uses under it can continue as non-conforming uses.

Seattle is also preparing for the FIFA 2026 World Cup. Last week, they approved $4.4M of additional budget to support various city departments, including $2.12M for Street and Sidewalk improvements, $780k for Park Maintenance and Improvements, and $2.42M for Public Safety Risk Mitigation, including the purchase of chemical weapon detection equipment. They also approved a development agreement for an extensive redevelopment of Memorial Stadium.

Methodology

ReZone tracks all CRE-related City Council and Planning Department decisions. We meticulously categorize them (see data dictionary) and record decision details such as Size_Dollars, Size_Units, Size_Acres, Asset_Class, Property_Type, Long/Lat, Owner, Developer, etc.

It’s important to state that we only focus on City Council & Planning Department data. For example, if a developer were to build 1M+ SFR homes by-right (and thus wouldn’t have to appear in front of the City Council), then we wouldn’t track that.

However, we believe that zoning, which is mostly controlled by the City Council & Planning Department, has an incredibly large impact on local real estate markets and want to highlight some key decisions and accentuate some major trends/directionality.

We’ll be continuing to monitor the City Council & Planning Department decisions and if you want to get email alerts every time new CRE-related decisions in Seattle happen, then feel free to sign up here.

Bye now,
Daniel Heller
[email protected]

Our publishing schedule:

Day 1: Denver, CO
Day 2: Phoenix, AZ
Day 3: Louisville, KY
Day 4: Seattle, WA
Day 5: San Francisco, CA
Day 6: New York, NY
Day 7: Houston, TX
Day 8: Atlanta, GA
Day 9: Charlotte, NC
Day 10: Chicago, IL
Day 11: Columbus, OH
Day 12: Jacksonville, FL
Day 13: Los Angeles, CA
Day 14: Nashville, TN
Day 15: Philadelphia, PA