Priorities

Create a more vibrant neighborhood

Increase homeowner flexibility

Housing for working and middle class

Increase accessibility

Improve infrastructure and character

Improve pedestrian safety

Expand Tree Canopy

Improve Transit

Responding to real concerns about development

Madison Valley is already rich in frequent public transit, beautiful parks, and great schools. A denser neighborhood center would enable residents to walk or roll to a wider range of businesses to reduce the need to drive to other neighborhoods for things like medical appointments and grocery shopping. Increased density would also increase the number of eyes on the street, improving public safety.

An expanded neighborhood center would provide homeowners greater freedom to do with their properties what they want, including keeping their single-family house or building a wider variety of housing options and styles based on their needs and goals.

Many working class and middle class Seattleites would love to buy or a rent a home in Madison Valley due to its proximity to the Arboretum, RapidRide G line, and great schools. However, restrictive zoning has severely limited the number of more reasonably priced apartments, condos, and townhomes allowed in the area, leaving their dream out of reach. An expanded neighborhood center would eventually increase the number and variety of housing options for all Seattleites.

Madison Valley is a historically under-resourced community with the lack of curb cuts making it difficult to push a stroller or use a wheelchair in the neighborhood. Let’s push for a portion of the development fees to be allocated to adding curb cuts everywhere within the new neighborhood center’s expanded boundaries. Let's also allow stacked flats with elevators everywhere, which allows residents to age in place on one level, a huge benefit compared to townhouses and ADUs with stairs.

Let's push for a portion of the development fees to be allocated to burying overhead power lines underground everywhere within the new neighborhood center’s expanded boundaries, as has been done in parts of Capitol Hill that have been upzoned. This will reduce the risk of power outages during storms, providing a meaningful benefit to residents in exchange for the upzone. This will also improve the character of the neighborhood and eliminate the need for unsightly tree pruning around power lines.

Let's push the city to improve pedestrian safety along Madison, MLK, 23rd, and 32nd in the area that is upzoned by increasing the number of painted crosswalks with light-up signs, reducing the speed limit, and adding other speed controls. Let's also push the city to require all new midrise buildings to include continuous rain awnings to protect pedestrians from the rain.

Strengthen Tree Protection Code and Reduce Lot Sprawl. Let's require developers to expand our tree canopy as they increase density. Let's push the city to:

Increase height limits on stacked flats in neighborhood residential lots from 3 to 4 stories to ensure we can build family-sized units without paving over the entire lot.
Eliminate side yard and front yard setbacks: The only way to prioritize abundant open space, contiguous open space for trees and housing is to eliminate side-yard setbacks. Side-yard setbacks place buildings sprawling deep into the lot and perpendicular to the street – with homes looking directly into adjacent lots. In the rest of the world, eliminating side-yard setbacks places the building parallel to the street – with homes looking over the street and backyard. It’s better for privacy, for embodied carbon, for energy efficiency, and for open space.
Require shared walls: Shared walls promote lot density, which is better for trees and housing. Every time two homes share a wall, 10 feet of land is gained from not needing to have two 5-foot setbacks, enough to save a tree.
Require more greenspace: Follow Portland’s existing code and increase greenspace requirements to 20–40% of trees for every property, depending on the number of homes being built.
Require impact fees: Create impact fees like 70+ Washington cities to add parks in frontline communities.

See Mike Eliason's Op-Ed: Harrell’s Growth Plan Shorts Housing and Tree Canopy and Tree Action Seattle's "Five Ways the One Seattle Plan Could be Better for Nature and Trees" blog post for more information on the importance of increasing unit density and reducing paved lot sprawl to ensuring every lot has greenspace and trees for its residents.

Seattle made a huge ($144 million) investment in the RapidRide G connecting Madison Valley to Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Downtown. Let’s allow additional housing and space for small businesses and community organizations within a 6-minute walk (or 1/4 mile) of the MLK stop and additional housing within a 12-minute walk (or ½ mile) of the MLK, 24th Ave, and 22nd Ave stops.

As the number of bus riders increases in the neighborhood due to increased density, let's push the City to increase the frequency and reliability of the 8, 11, and 48 buses and eventually extend the RapidRide G bus to downtown Madison Park to provide D3 residents more frequent and reliable car-free access to Lake Washington. To increase the number of bus riders needed to justify an increase in the number of buses per hour, let’s allow midrise housing of 6 stories and mixed uses along the MLK and 23rd Ave frequent transit corridors, and lowrise residential housing of 4-5 stories within a 6-minute walk (or 1/4 mile) of the 8 and 48 bus stops, not just within a half block of these arterials.

In the near term, let's also push the City to implement the changes requested by Central Seattle Greenways in its Fix the L8! campaign to prolong the eastbound bus-only lanes throughout Denny Way in SLU from 1st Ave to Fairview to increase the 8's speed and reliability.

Fear of displacement. Many long-time residents on fixed incomes are understandably concerned that upzoning their lot will increase the value of their land and thus their property taxes, forcing them to sell their homes due to an unforeseen change in zoning. To avoid displacement, let's push the city to to allow homeowners in the upzoned areas to defer the property tax increase connected to the change in zoning until they sell their home or pass it on to their descendants. This balances the need to avoid displacement while ensuring residents pay their fair share of taxes on the increase in their property values once they realize the benefit of that increase upon sale or transfer. Let's also provide income-restricted property tax relief upon transfer to homeowners of color in historically-redlined neighborhoods who were themselves or whose parents or grandparents in Seattle were restricted to redlined neighborhoods due to their race. This will empower survivors of redlining to be able to choose to pass on their homes to their descendants while building wealth through the upzone.

Fear of parking issues. If zoning does not change and developers continue to tear down single family houses and replace them with four houses, our neighborhood will be dense enough to have parking issues but not dense enough to have a more complete and frequent public transit system. While street parking may eventually get tighter with additional upzoning, new residents moving into stacked flats will be much more likely to get around via public transit, biking, walking, or rolling, and with increased density, we can push the city to increase the frequency of non-RapidRide buses. One possible fix during the transition period where density is increasing and bus frequency has not increased across all lines is to push the city to limit side street parking in the upzoned areas to cars with permits held by residents of that block.

Fear of liquefaction. Part of Madison Valley lies in a liquefaction zone and most of the older homes in the areas were not built to modern earthquake code. By upzoning and slowly replacing older homes as owners choose to sell, we can increase the number of homes that are built to modern earthquake code and much more likely to survive the next Big One.

Fear of change. Even if the boundaries of Madison Valley’s new neighborhood center are expanded, change will take decades and occur slowly lot by lot as homeowners decide whether to build up or not. These changes will eventually lead to a more complete, walkable community. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to walk to more of your medical appointments, grocery stores, and other small businesses?

Fear of shade from neighbors. Even under current zoning any neighbor can tear down their existing house and replace it with a massive mcmansion and plop 2-3 tall ADUs in their backyard. Expanding the neighborhood center’s boundaries would simply allow you or your neighbor to build slightly taller stacked flats to build up not out. This may mean gardeners have to shift to more shade tolerant plants on certain lots. Similarly, allowing sixplexes and not just fourplexes outside of the neighborhood center would also provide more flexibility and housing while complying with applicable height limits.