We Support the Madison Valley Neighborhood Center. We are excited about the City of Seattle's proposed neighborhood center in downtown Madison Valley that will create a more vibrant neighborhood, allow more people to live within walking distance of the Arboretum and 8, 11, 48, and RapidRide G bus lines, and increase the number of more affordable and accessible rental and condo units in the area. We are calling on City Council to go further and allow for taller and denser housing and more space for small businesses and community organizations near frequent transit while at the same time improving accessibility, infrastructure, and pedestrian safety, expanding our tree canopy, and preventing displacement of long-time residents.  If the City does not make these changes and individual homes continue being torn down outside of the neighborhood center and replaced by 3-4 separate homes rather than taller multi-unit buildings, our neighborhood will become dense enough to have parking problems and tree loss, but not dense enough to meet the demand for housing or to support a more robust public transit system. 

Top Three Requested Changes

Increase Height Limits and Allow More Mixed Uses in the Madison Valley Neighborhood Center. More specifically, please allow 7-8 story buildings to allow more people to live within walking distance of the RapidRide G, which is the city's most frequent and reliable bus line. The Complete Communities Coalition's green building bonus allowing 7-story passive house construction in neighborhood centers would be another excellent intervention. Relatedly, please allow mixed uses on the first floor within the Madison Valley Neighborhood Center to create a more vibrant business district.

Allow Multifamily Housing on Side Streets Near the 8 and 48 Bus Lines. The City's proposal to allow 5-story lowrise housing along the MLK and 23rd Ave frequent transit corridors is a step in the right direction. Please go further to let more people live on quieter side streets by allowing 4-story lowrise housing within a 5-minute walk of frequent bus stops, including the 8 and 48 buses, in line with the Complete Communities Coalition's plan. Additionally, these lowrise zones should allow ground-floor commercial uses so walkable retail can grow alongside new homes.

Improve Livability and Expand our Tree Canopy in Lowrise Zones. Please create a 5-story courtyard bonus in lowrise zones to replace narrow, useless side yards with shared rear courtyards, where trees have room to grow and families can thrive. Relatedly, please require unpaved, tree-filled amenity areas, replace the green factor with clear tree requirements, and create a flexible compliance option piloting public right-of-way pocket forests, in line with Tree Action Seattle's proposal. These changes will make blocks more livable as they grow and protect our tree canopy. 

Thank you! Thank you for making Madison Valley a more vibrant and housing-rich neighborhood and for providing homeowners and renters alike with greater flexibility in their housing options while improving accessibility, livability, and our tree canopy!

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Ways to Take Action:

• Email City Council. Copy and paste the above content into an email to council@seattle.gov, Joy.Hollingsworth@seattle.gov
• Speak at a City Council Hearing. Give a one-minute public comment at an upcoming public hearing either in-person or remotely. Meeting dates and times are listed here. Information on how to give in-person comment and sign up for remote public comment is listed here. 
• Learn More. Learn more about the proposed rezoning and other ways to take action at oneseattleforall.org​,  completecommunitiescoalition.org, and Seattle YIMBY

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Top Priorities that Have Already Passed (Thank you City Council!)

• Unlock the Potential of Stacked Flats. Please improve the stacked flat bonus to add gentle density and encourage the production of stacked flats, which are more affordable and more accessible than single-family homes, accessory dwelling units, and townhomes, and which provide more space for tree canopy. Specifically, please:
  • Pass Amendment 90 (Kettle) eliminating the lot minimum and proximity to frequent transit requirements, increasing floor area ratio (FAR) to 1.6, lot coverage to 60%, and max density to 1 unit / 600 sf;
  • Pass Amendment 78 (Hollingsworth) incentivizing family-sized units by granting additional height and FAR for stacked flats within 1/4 mile of a school in which at least 25% of the units have 3+ bedrooms;
  • Pass Amendment 79 (Hollingsworth) incentivizing developers to build more units that are accessible to people with disabilities by exempting “Type A” accessible units — the most accessible standard — from FAR and density limitations; and 
  • Pass Amendment 91 (Nelson) adding a new green stacked flats bonus that increases height to 42 ft, FAR to 1.8, lot coverage to 60%, and max density to 1 unit / 500 sf for stacked flats that retain one Tier 1 tree, two Tier 2 trees, or a 0.6 Green Factor.

Other Requested Changes in Madison Valley

• Improve Accessibility, Infrastructure, and Pedestrian Safety. Please allocate a portion of development fees to improve Madison Valley’s accessibility and infrastructure in the area that is upzoned, including adding curb cuts, burying overhead wires, fixing sidewalks, and planting and maintaining more trees in parks and parking strips. Please also improve pedestrian safety along MLK in the area that is upzoned, including increasing the number of painted crosswalks with light-up signs, reducing the speed limit, and adding other speed controls. Finally, please require all new midrise buildings to include continuous rain awnings to protect pedestrians from the rain.
• Improve Public Transit. In the near term, please implement the changes requested by Central Seattle Greenways in its Fix the L8! campaign to prolong the eastbound bus-only lanes throughout Denny Way in SLU from 1st Ave to Fairview to increase the 8's speed and reliability. As the number of bus riders increases in the neighborhood due to increased density, please increase the frequency and reliability of the RapidRide G bus after 7pm and on Sundays, as well as the 8, 48, and 11 bus lines. 

Other Requested Changes Citywide

• We would like to see similar changes across the city in the updated One Seattle Plan, in line with the Complete Communities Coalition's April 2025 Coalition Letter to Council on Draft One Seattle Plan, including making stacked flats legal on all lots near frequent transit regardless of lot size (to enable residents to age in place on one accessible floor), expanding the affordable housing density bonus citywide, creating an affordable housing density bonus for lowrise zones, removing all parking mandates for new housing in areas with frequent transit service or that are using the affordable housing density bonus, adding new neighborhood centers in neighborhoods like North Broadway, and allowing mixed use housing near frequent transit.
• Strengthen Tree Code and Reduce Lot Sprawl.  To promote lot density and ensure adequate usable backyard green space for residents and space for trees, please make the changes recommended by Mike Eliason in Op-Ed: Harrell’s Growth Plan Shorts Housing and Tree Canopy and Tree Action Seattle in Five Ways the One Seattle Plan Could be Better for Nature and Trees, including eliminating parking minimums, allowing stacked flats on smaller lots and raising the FAR bonus from 0.2 to 0.6 or more, increasing height limits on stacked flats from 3 to 4 stories to ensure we can build family-sized units without paving over the entire lot, eliminating side yard and front yard setbacks, requiring shared walls, and requiring 20% unpaved greenspace.
• Prevent Displacement.  Please allow homeowners in the upzoned areas to defer the property tax increase connected to the change in zoning until they sell their home or pass it on to their descendants. This balances the need to avoid displacement while ensuring residents pay their fair share of taxes on the increase in their property values once they realize the benefit of that increase upon sale or transfer. Please also provide income-restricted property tax relief upon transfer to homeowners of color in historically-redlined neighborhoods who were themselves or whose parents or grandparents in Seattle were restricted to redlined neighborhoods due to their race. This will empower survivors of redlining to be able to choose to pass on their homes to their descendants while building wealth through the upzone.