Come join us in standing up for Seattle’s urban trees!
Seattle City Council Needs to Hear From Us
Speak Up for Healthy, Livable Neighborhoods in ALL of Seattle
Phase 2 of the One Seattle Plan would significantly rezone neighborhoods across Seattle under what the Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) calls Centers and Corridors. Please write to your Councilmember. The next public hearing will be held on July 23. We will post details before that hearing.
Below are Trees and People Coalition’s recommendations and key context for your advocacy.
Our Recommendations:
Study Vancouver and Portland. Vancouver shows how broad upzoning attracts speculative investment. Portland’s missing-middle approach reduced prices and preserved neighborhoods. Seattle should learn from both.
Pass two Dense Forests for Dense Housing measures: require tree canopy in exterior amenity areas and make tree requirements a prerequisite for Green Factor scoring.
Remove Phase 2 upzones of the Central Area and Southeast Seattle, with no more than an LR1 designation for those urban centers.
Retain the 14th to 18th Avenue area to protect historical institutions rooted in the Black community.
Create a real, community-led anti-displacement plan centering communities of color, the Black community in the Central Area, and working class families.
Remove barriers to adaptive reuse of existing buildings, especially downtown.
Engage communities meaningfully, not as a checkbox.
What You Need to Know:
- Active legal appeals challenge the plan’s failure to address impacts on endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales. The City must resolve these before proceeding.
- According to the City’s own analysis, Phase 1 affected more than 100,000 residential sites across Seattle’s neighborhoods. The impact of that change deserves a full assessment before the city goes further.
- Studies show removing building regulations does not increase affordability. Since 2015, upzoning has mostly produced more market-rate dwellings.
- Central and southeast Seattle already carry a disproportionate share of the city’s housing targets. That is displacement dressed in planning language.
- The Office of Planning and Community Development’s Centers and Corridors proposal would create new heat islands and expand existing ones, threatening residents’ health across the city.
- For more details about these recommendations, click here.
Orca Appeal
Orca Nexus filed the appeal because people and orcas deserve the clean water and air provided by our free green infrastructure – trees. The Orca Appeal seeks to protect the public right to defend Seattle’s environment and critically endangered Southern Resident Orcas.
The appeal asks Seattle to consider the impacts of clearcutting the Emerald City to build more luxury developments. These impacts include increased stormwater runoff and heat islands. When it rains, hard surfaces heat and fast-track pollutants into waterways. Trees cool and clean stormwater. Stormwater pollution is a leading threat to orcas, according to NOAA’s Recovery Plan. Trees are used by the USDA for cleaning toxic waste sites.
We can have both density and environmental protections. However, Seattle plans to use a flawed environmental review to rubber stamp almost all development for the next 10 years.
Orca Nexus was founded in March 2025 to protect Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) and the ecosystems they depend on. Orca Nexus works at the intersection of science, advocacy, and community engagement.
To support this important appeal, please donate to the legal fund below and share this article from Public Radio Station KNKX. Thank you!
How much tree canopy does your neighborhood have?
Use TreeCanopy.us to see how much tree canopy is in the precinct where you live!
Switch to the Plan view to identify high priority neighborhoods.
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