Queen Anne Must Embrace New Neighbors!
Seattle City Council
1. Sign the petition for Queen Anne housing for all today by following the prompts below. Please join us in ensuring that Queen Anne can grow into vibrant neighborhoods where everyone has a place to call home. Let’s join together as neighbors to tell our City council that we support neighborhoods that are affordable, sustainable and inclusive. The petition below concerns advocacy for supporting housing opportunities in the Queen Anne neighborhood. This proposal is the minimum we should be doing!
2. Email the following members of City Council about your thoughts on allowing more opportunities for housing in Queen Anne. You are welcome to use the text of the petition in your email; please personalize this letter as you see fit, including adjusting the content and subject line to support your interests and priorities. Copy and paste these addresses: Robert.Kettle@seattle.gov, AlexisMercedes.Rinck@seattle.gov, Sara.Nelson@seattle.gov. They represent: Bob Kettle, D7; Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Position 8/Citywide; and Sara Nelson, Position 9/Citywide respectively.
2. Please consider attending and speaking at upcoming opportunities for public comment. The Select Committee on the Comprehensive Plan is expected to cast final votes on the proposed Comprehensive Plan package in May or June 2025. This includes decisions on Queen Anne’s Urban Village expansion. The next public hearing is at City Hall, February 5th at 5:00 PM.
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Background:
Please read about three Queen Anne neighbors who support this effort.
Under the proposal, the “Upper Queen Anne Urban Village” would get expanded boundaries and housing capacity, which means a few more blocks with the potential to add apartment buildings with first-floor storefronts. Such an expansion has been proposed before, but was shot down by vocal resistance. We cannot let that happen this time.
We are the residents and neighbors of the Queen Anne Neighborhood Center and surrounding area. We are fighting for a neighborhood that meets all of the needs of our community.
State law requires the City of Seattle to develop a new growth strategy, also known as the Comprehensive Plan or One Seattle Plan. The Comprehensive Plan is a roadmap for where and how our city will grow and invest in our communities over the next 20 years and beyond. The plan allows for additional types of housing in neighborhoods that have historically been exclusively or primarily single family zoned. The proposed neighborhood center in Montlake would allow for increased opportunities for affordable and market-rate housing, though the needs of our community demand even greater upzoning.
The petition emails City Council member Bob Kettle who has jurisdiction over District 7 where this new housing will be located. The petition also emails the two at-large Seattle City Councilmembers, Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Sara Nelson. A small but loud group of long-time neighbors are lobbying elected officials to prevent this needed housing from being allowed in our neighborhoods. Your voice is needed to fight back to affirm our commitment to the values of affordability, sustainability and inclusivity. We need to design a Seattle with all residents in mind and grow to meet the demands of our city. Seattle should be for all of us.
Sponsored by
To:
Seattle City Council
From:
[Your Name]
We strongly support the proposed Queen Anne urban village expansion and the zoning changes as proposed in the One Seattle Plan.
This new housing capacity will help grow the community in a more sustainable, affordable, and inclusive way. Solely making zoning changes won’t ensure the new housing will be built, but we need that capacity so there’s a chance we will have more housing for our growing community!
We agree with our neighbors in this article: https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/12/09/op-ed-queen-anne-must-embrace-new-neighbors/
Upper Queen Anne deserves a robust space for families to thrive. We need a large area for new housing, not a narrow corridor that mostly includes streets with a lot of traffic. The families expanding or returning to Queen Anne deserve housing options off of major arterials and we need more pedestrian-only zones which would benefit the school-age children who are thriving in this community.
Seattle is facing a lack of available housing due to many years of record levels of new residents mixed with under construction of new housing in the city. It seems like we’ve built enough, but rising rents, rising homelessness, and increased displacement leading to long commutes for workers is the proof that we still haven’t made enough room in our city!
The changes proposed in the Queen Anne neighborhood would allow for more people to live within a short distance to the heart of Seattle and Downtown.
Anything we can do to help people live close to a major employment hub, South Lake Union, will keep cars off the roads. Helping people reduce their carbon footprint by allowing them to live right next to the densest, most economically active, part of the city should be a key component of the current comprehensive plan.
A few fearful neighborhood groups are lobbying the city’s elected officials to prevent sorely needed housing from being built in the neighborhood. Enough is enough. We need to design a Seattle with all residents in mind and grow to meet the demands of our city, the neighborhood groups saying no to new housing do not represent the majority of the city. Please listen to us now, and when we show up to speak in the coming months at council!