Draft EIS Phase: Seattle Alternative 6 Comment Helper

A Seattle Comprehensive Plan madlibs customizable by you. A project of Share The Cities.

Introduction

There are 3 important places to send comments during this Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) phase of Seattle's 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update. In this phase, the city wants feedback on the areas they’ve designated for more or fewer new neighbors.

Follow the steps below (in order of difficulty and time commitment) to comment in all 3 places. If you run out of steam, just do the first 2 (and don’t feel guilty about it - you’ve already done a lot!).

  • Step 1: fill in the blanks in the comment generator below to write a comment and then submit it to the Draft Plan portal.
  • Step 2: add a bit of pre-written text to the comment you already generated in Step 1 and email it to the mayor.
  • Step 3: using suggested talking points, draft and submit a comment to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement web form.
Our statement: We believe that the City of Seattle’s overall strategy in this plan is to put almost all new neighbors near or along arterials (loud, polluted high-speed roads), while leaving many of the underpopulated areas of the city off limits to more efficient and sustainable types of housing. Instead of imagining a future with more transit options and homes near our largest parks, they’ve doubled down on historical patterns of racist and classist exclusion. Their plan ignores the ongoing dual climate and housing emergencies, so let’s take this opportunity to let them know what we think of it!

If you want to learn more, check out these these additional resources.

Step 1: Generate comment & submit to Draft Plan Portal

Generate comment

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and I believe that the City of Seattle did not listen to the overwhelming majority’s call for an Alternative 6 vision, which would

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Instead the current draft plan will

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To create a more

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city, the plan should

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freeform idea of your own
In
in particular, I think that the plan should

If the City of Seattle adopted my above proposed changes, then we would be able to

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0/1000

Submit comment to Draft Plan Portal

Make any edits or additions (especially your personal story) within the box above. Then look at the instructions below and use the button to launch the Draft Plan Portal.

The location on the Seattle city page that loads the One Seattle Plan comment portal. This takes a long time to load and can look broken.

The comment portal will have a blank space that almost looks like the page is broken. Wait a long time (15 seconds or more!) for the comment portal to finally load. When it loads, you will see the Draft Plan document, and have the ability to click anywhere to "pin" a comment into the document.

B. Go to One Seattle comment portal

Go to One Seattle comment portal

Fill in your demographic information if desired (can also skip). You do not need an account to comment. However, you will be asked to input your name and email address.

To start a comment, you can click or tap anywhere inside the loaded Draft Plan document to pin your comment to that position in the document. We suggest (in order of preference):

  1. Pin your comment by clicking on your neighborhood on the Future Land Use Map (page 20), or
  2. Pin your comment by clicking on the most relevant section of the document (Land Use, or Housing, Climate, etc), or
  3. Pin your comment on the title page of the document, if you cannot decide.

Copy-paste your comment into the description box and click Post Comment. Note that there is a 1000-character limit! If you want to make a longer comment, you can email it (see instructions below).

Step 2: Add signoff to comment & send to mayor

Add signoff

A preamble has been added for you. Edit the end of the text box to sign off with your name and optionally add a personal story or experience about how planning for more growth and housing will benefit you.

Send email to Mayor Harrell

Copy paste the full text (the preamble + comment + signoff) into a new email to Mayor Harrell at bruce.harrell@seattle.gov. As a final step, be sure to come up with a catchy subject line for the email!

(We’ve heard that if you use the same email subject as others, they count the email as a “form letter,” but if you have a unique subject line, that’s less likely.)

Step 3: Write new comment & submit to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) web form

There are two goals for DEIS comments:

  1. To get the City to study environmental impacts of Draft Plan changes that we want.
  2. To tell the City what our Preferred Alternative is for the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). Here there is less need for personal experiences. The cool thing is that the City is required to respond to EVERY SINGLE COMMENT made on the DEIS.

Bonus for nerds: Citing state law (GMA), regional planning policy (PSRC's "VISION 2050"), and countywide planning policies will help increase the likelihood that the City actually follows your request.

We suggest the following format for your comment:

DEIS Comment Format

The city should study the impacts of <GOAL #1 EXAMPLES OF YOUR CHOOSING>. Of the available alternatives, I strongly prefer Alternative 5 with higher growth targets.

GOAL #1 EXAMPLES
  • Citywide elimination of parking minimums
  • Additional Neighborhood Centers in Urban Neighborhoods
  • Additional Neighborhood Centers off of arterials
  • Higher floor area ratios for Urban Neighborhood zoning
  • Higher growth targets for Alternative 5
  • Expanded highrise zoning in Regional and Urban Centers
  • Expanded highrise zoning in Urban Neighborhoods within 1 mile of parks >1 acre
  • Expanded highrise zoning in Urban Neighborhoods
  • Expanded highrise zoning at Neighborhood Centers
  • Expanded highrise zoning within a half mile of all light rail stations
  • Expanded highrise zoning around existing grocery stores
  • "Corner stores" allowed mid-block as well as on corners
  • Reforesting golf courses on tree canopy
  • Higher floor area ratios for middle housing in all residential zones, such as those corresponding to the state model code for middle housing
  • Social housing in every neighborhood on affordability
  • Greater height and density bonuses within a quarter mile of transit stops
  • Greater height and density bonuses within a half mile of transit stops
  • Increased building height allowances, in exchange for reduced lot coverage, on tree canopy
  • Granting tax breaks & fee deferrals to housing projects that include affordable units
Submit comment to the DEIS web form

Click here to launch the comment form: Go to Draft EIS comment form and submit your comment. You do not need an account to comment. However, you will be asked to input your name and email address.