The Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) Ruling

The Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) ruled that the City of Seattle must consider impacts of the full One Seattle Plan on the environment, including polluted stormwater runoff impacts on endangered salmon.

The Board is clear - the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) must "analyze the environmental impacts of 330,933 new units of housing” instead of the 120,000 that the City analyzed. This affects all parts of the FEIS.

Our view of the FEIS: In addition to failing to assess the impacts of increased polluted stormwater runoff on aquatic life from increased tree removals and hard surfaces, the City of Seattle multiplied the housing units without studying those impacts in the FEIS. 

The GMHB ruled that state law requires Seattle to study the 'maximum possible development' - like Bellevue and other cities have done. The City’s failure impacts all elements of the EIS, including salmon and the orcas that rely on them. The GMHB ruling gives the City up to a year to bring the One Seattle Plan FEIS into compliance. 

“[T]he FEIS failed to implement a comprehensive approach to managing fish habitat (EN-9). Specifically, the City’s incorrect use of the maximum likely development did not represent a comprehensive approach to protecting fish streams from runoff generated by impervious surfaces. The FEIS acknowledges impervious-surface runoff as a significant environmental risk, but it failed to grapple with the scope of the new development capacity implemented by the Update.” GMHB Final Decision and Order, p. 88

If the City had not delayed by improperly dismissing the Hearing Examiner appeal, there wouldn't have been a GMHB appeal, and this would’ve been resolved months ago. With the recent passage of CB121215 banning these types of citywide Hearing Examiner appeals, we can expect increased chances of delays like this.

With the recovery of endangered and threatened species being excluded from the FEIS - like chinook salmon and the orcas that depend on them - there is more work to be done for these keystone species. We can do better than the other Washington. We can protect salmon and orca from polluted stormwater runoff. The Nature Conservancy shows that there's no loss of density when protecting green space and trees. NOAA's Salmon and Orca Recovery Plans recommend salmon habitat be protected in both urban and rural areas. We look forward to working with the City to correct the errors described in detail by the Board. We will continue to fight for clean water for humans, salmon, and orcas. We are pro-housing and against pollution.