Over the last half year, Seattle for Everyone has been organizing conversations with a small group of architects, housing developers, land use attorneys, residents, environmentalists, and others who engage in Seattle’s Design Review process. An early takeaway from these workgroup discussions is that the Design Review process has systemic patterns that merit the City of Seattle’s attention and consideration. We believe it is time to consider administrative and legislative reforms to improve the process.
For now, we are able to share an ECONorthwest analysis commissioned by one of the stakeholders in our discussion, NAIOP Washington. This analysis includes an evaluation of how Seattle’s Design Review process has performed recently as well as stakeholder interviews with industry professionals who interact with Design Review consistently. Anyone who is interested in Design Review is welcome to reference this data.
We look forward to publicly sharing the full results of our conversations soon. It is our hope to start an earnest conversation with the City and a diverse set of other stakeholders to contextualize the impact of design review and meaningfully improve the process.
- Evaluation of Seattle Design Review Performance
- Seattle Design Review – Summary Key Themes of Interviews