Today, anyone with $120 and a lawyer can appeal Seattle legislation that has an environmental review under SEPA (State Environmental Policy Act) to the city’s hearing examiner, which enables wealthy homeowners to entrench the status quo to their benefit. Councilmember Eddie Lin has proposed legislation, being heard by the full Seattle City Council on Tuesday July 28th, that would close this avenue of the appeal process.
You can read more about the proposal from The Urbanist.
Environmental review can still happen through the King County Superior Court and the Growth Management Hearings Board, though the bar to entry is higher.
Seattle’s comprehensive plan updates, which would legalize more housing throughout the city, are currently held up in one of these administrative appeals, and previous housing legislation (ADU reform and Mandatory Housing Affordability) have suffered similarly, delaying legislation for 7 months (ADU reform) or over a year (MHA).
The legislation does not affect project-based SEPA appeals, i.e. Burke Gilman Missing Link delays.
submitted by /u/calvinrjones
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