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The Seattle City Council has approved a bill to allow residential housing near Seattle’s professional sports venues despite pushback from council members.
Council Bill 120933 amends the city’s land use code to allow for workforce housing in the Stadium Transition Area Overlay District, which encompasses Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park.
The district was established with the intention to provide a safe pedestrian environment for people attending events, while minimizing conflicts with industrial uses that occur in the SODO neighborhood.
In 2023, the Stadium Transition Area Overlay District was rezoned to an urban industrial zone, but unlike other urban industrial zones, most residential uses were prohibited within the district.
According to a fiscal note, the intent of the bill is to create a livelier Stadium District by allowing residential uses that serve a mix of incomes.
Council Bill 120933 received pushback from some council members, Port of Seattle workers, and from the Port of Seattle itself, which threatened legal action if the bill is approved.
“For such a progressive piece of legislation, there is an uncommon amount of opposition, at least for Seattle here,” Seattle City Council Chair and sponsor of the bill Sara Nelson said during the city council meeting on Tuesday.
Nelson said the bill will help address the city’s affordability crisis and help small businesses. Planned privately subsidized housing and workspaces will be built using 100% unionized labor.
City Councilmembers Dan Strauss and Alexis Mercedes Rinck called for the bill to be rescheduled to mid-July in order to better understand the nine new amendments to the bill that circulated within the last week and were made public on Monday. The motion was shot down by the council in a 6-3 vote. Eight of the nine amendments were adopted.
Highlighted points from the approved amendments include limiting the total number of residential units in the Stadium Transition Area Overlay District to 990 units, stating the council’s intent to maintain industrial lands for industrial uses, and prohibiting housing in the stadium district unless indoor noise levels can be reduced to 45 decibels.
Strauss was a staunch opponent of the legislation and the amendments throughout the council meeting. He said that the package of amendments demonstrate the awareness of council members that the bill has flaws.
Strauss joked that the bill would lead to street and alley vacations as the next step. Street vacations allow property owners to petition the Seattle City Council to vacate the public’s right to use a street and return it to private property.
“I was going to bring it up as a joke that the next thing that we would see is an alley or street vacation – the fact that it is already being considered, it’s already being discussed –” Strauss said before Nelson interjected that he was impugning the motives of other city council members.
The final vote was 6-3 with Strauss, Mercedes-Rinck and fellow Councilmember Bob Kettle in opposition. The bill will now be sent to Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell for his signature. Once signed into law, it becomes effective in 30 days.