Speak Up About the “Grand Bargain”

This next week the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee will consider a proposal for Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning (MIZ), also called the Grand Bargain. The MIZ proposal would require the inclusion of rent restricted housing in all new housing or payment of a fee. Smart Growth Seattle has asked some very specific questions about this proposal and how these recommendations would work. Will it make new housing projects infeasible? Will it add more costs to housing? The proposal has no specific numbers and the City has not answered these questions.

The Mayor and Council need to hear from you. Urge them to respond to our concerns, answer our questions, and engage the builder community to find real solutions to housing issues in Seattle.

Fill out the form below to send an e-mail message to the Mayor and City Councilmembers now!

Speak Up Again About the "Grand Bargain"

First Name

Last Name

Street

City

State / Province

Post Code

Greetings Mayor Murray and City Councilmembers,

I am writing you to express my concerns about the proposed Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning legislation (also known as the 'Grand Bargain') under consideration by the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning Committee on August 2nd. I'm concerned because this legislative proposal,

--adds extra costs, complexity, and delays to the production of housing; 
--potentially makes many projects infeasible because of these costs, complexity, and delays; 
--when housing can be built under its requirements, will make housing prices higher; and
--has no specifics about how much value builders get and how much they will pay for that value.

We have submitted 10 questions about the Grand Bargain to City staff and have head back in writing from them. Our questions are substantive and even technical. Our representatives attended one meeting to talk about more details, but there has been no subsequent meeting scheduled. Here is a link to the questions we've asked: http://www.seattleforgrowth.org/grand-bargain-10-questions-mayor-city-council-city-attorney/

I was not a signer of the Grand Bargain, and many of us are skeptical about MIZ, but the builder and developer community that creates the majority of housing (single-family, townhomes, small apartments, multifamily housing) in Seattle wants to be supportive of ideas that work.

Before you move something permanently into our already complicated code, we urge you to direct staff to work with Smart Growth Seattle and the wider builder and developer community on how we can efficiently and effectively address housing issues in our city.

Sincerely,

[signature]

Sign Now

32 signatures

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Seattle For Growth

Speak Up About the “Grand Bargain”

Speak Up Again About the "Grand Bargain"

Leave A Comment