Daily Plan It Office of Planning & Community Development

The Daily Plan It Blog

A OPCD Blog

Our Urban Planner Holiday Gift Guide!

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With the holidays and 2017 quickly approaching, this time for some is spent on last minute gift shopping. For those who are racking their brains on what to get a family member, friend, or co-worker, here’s are some urban-planning themed suggestions (OPCD staff take note for next year, hint hint).

 

1. URBAN FOLD (Planetizen, $24.95)

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From Planetizen.com: Urban Fold is an all-inclusive kit that allows anyone to build the city of their dreams with a few simple folds. You punch out shapes, fold them into blocks, customize with stickers, build + play, put away, build + play again, etc.

Our take: A really fun art kit that can be enjoyed by people of any age.

 

2. LEGO ARCHITECTURE STUDIO (Lego, $159.99)

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From Lego.com: Bring your architectural creations to life in LEGO® form with LEGO Architecture Studio. In this amazing set you get over 1200 LEGO bricks and an inspirational guidebook filled with 272 pages of tips, techniques, features, and intuitive hands-on exercises endorsed by leading design houses. LEGO Architecture Studio gives you everything you need to create your very own unique buildings. Let your imagination guide your design!

Our take: Let’s be honest, it’s Lego packaged for adults!

 

3. COLORFUL SEATTLE – EXPLORE & COLOR (Amazon, $14.95)

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From Amazon.com: From Chittenden Locks Fish Ladder to Olympic Sculpture Park where will you explore today? Colorful Seattle Explore & Color is an exploring guide and coloring book for Seattle.

Our take: For color book enthusiasts and those who always envisioned our downtown library as multicolored, your dreams have been fulfilled. Also great to encourage younger artists about how color is involved in urban design!

 

4. BETWEEN TWO CITIES (Stonemaier Games, $35.00)

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From Stonemaier Games: In Between Two Cities, you are a world-renowned city planner who has been asked to redesign two different cities. Projects of such significance require the expertise of more than one person, so for each assignment you are paired with a partner with whom to discuss and execute your grandiose plans. Each turn features a simultaneous discussion with your two partners to decide which of your tiles to place into the cities you’re building with each of them and where in those cities to place the tiles. At the end of the game, there is only one winner, as each player compares the lowest scoring of their two cites.

Our take: Sounds like a perfect gift for those who are into city planning and board games, using strategy and teamwork to create a livable city.

 

5. Urbanized (Amazon.com, $10.48)

From IMDB.com: A documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

Our take: An interesting visual take on how design influences our way of life, especially in the world of planning and community development.

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City and County to contribute up to $20 million to affordable housing as part of the redevelopment of the County’s Northgate Park and Ride

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Mayor Ed Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine announced the City and County will each contribute up to $10 million for approximately 200 affordable housing units adjacent to the transit center and future light rail station in Northgate.

“Transportation has the power to transform entire communities,” said Mayor Murray. “The arrival of light rail in five years at the busiest transit hub in Seattle means the Northgate community is poised to become one of the most connected, livable areas of the city. Today’s announcement ensures affordable housing will be part of that future, with residents and families of all incomes having the opportunity to live in a vibrant community with easy access to transit, jobs, and higher education.”

“The arrival of light rail at Northgate presents a remarkable opportunity to create a community where families can live, work, and shop without ever getting behind the wheel,” said Executive Constantine. “By investing in affordable housing, we ensure Northgate continues to be an inclusive and diverse neighborhood, connected to the region by a fast and efficient bus and rail network, as well as bike and pedestrian improvements. This is how we can grow and meet our housing and transportation needs, now and into the future.”

[Read more…]

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City Council: Understanding the University District Rezone

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Understanding the University District Rezone

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Welcome Ubax Gardheere, Our New Equity Strategies Manager

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ubaxWe are pleased to announce the hiring of Ubax Gardheere as Equitable Strategies manager at OPCD. In this position, Ubax will be managing our Equitable Development Initiative (EDI) and its related work programs, providing internal policy leadership and fostering community partnerships.

EDI will provide support and funding for new economic development projects that lead to good jobs in under-served communities. Our vision is equity of opportunity for all of Seattle’s neighborhoods and communities, including those that aren’t currently benefiting from our strong economy. Recently, Mayor Ed Murray announced that the City of Seattle will dedicate $16 million to establish the Equitable Development Fund.

Ubax comes with extensive experience in community development, and addressing equity and social justice issues working with many Seattle communities of color. Ubax has been a program director with Puget Sound Sage, developing equitable land use policies such as affordable housing and transit oriented development, utilizing a race and social justice lens.

Ubax speaks English, Somali and Swahili and serves on the boards of African Diaspora of Washington and Social Justice Fund NW. She has a Bachelor’s in Management Information Systems from Washington State University and a Master’s in Public Administration from Seattle University.

Welcome, Ubax!

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Mandatory Housing Affordability Draft Zoning Changes Maps Are Now Online

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Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) is a new program to ensure that growth brings affordability. MHA will require new development to include affordable housing on site or make a contribution to a City fund for affordable housing. To put MHA requirements into effect, zoning changes will allow additional development capacity everywhere MHA will apply: in urban villages, proposed urban village expansion areas, and all other multifamily and commercial zones.

This web map shows draft zoning changes based on principles developed with community input.

View the map here: http://tinyurl.com/MHA-web-map.

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Introducing #RSJIFridays

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OPCD is introducing a new social media feature called “Race and Social Justice Initiative Fridays” — #RSJIFridays. Our goal is to highlight content on race and social justice issues related to planning and community development. Seattle is a growing city, and as we grow, the more voices we hear on topics of displacement, gentrification, affordable housing and more. These topics affect residents in a real way. Social media sharing allows these voices to be heard, not just locally, but globally.

The City of Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) is the City’s commitment to eliminate racial disparities and achieve racial equity in Seattle. RSJI is leading to fundamental changes to achieve racial equity in the City’s services, operations, and the broader community. You can learn more about RSJI here: http://www.seattle.gov/rsji.

OPCD has several projects that support a more equitable Seattle. We recently published Equitable Development: Financial Investment Strategy, we continue to work with the Office of Sustainability and Environment on the Equity and Environment Initiative, and we support many other city-wide projects related to RSJI.

If you’d like to share RSJI-related articles/blogs/tweets with us, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or bookmark our Daily Plan-It blog. Our first #RSJIFriday starts tomorrow, November 11.

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Mayor Murray Directs Negotiation of Civic Square Deal, Spending of $16 Million Proceeds on Equitable Development

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Mayor Ed Murray sent a mayoral directive to Finance and Administrative Services (FAS) to negotiate the sale of the Civic Square project to Bosa Development and direct the proceeds to establish a new Equitable Development Fund. The sale would also net $5.7 million in funds for affordable housing, meeting or exceeding the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program requirement. Combined, nearly $22 million from this sale will go to equity and affordability projects around the City.

“Seattle is growing and we are working to ensure that it happens in a way that is equitable, benefitting everyone who lives and works here,” said Mayor Murray. “The sale of the Civic Square property allows us to leverage our resources to invest in communities most at-risk for displacement and to make a major investment in affordable housing. While we continue to revitalize our downtown core, we are strategically investing around the city to strengthen our communities for the future.”

The Equitable Development Fund will be established with the $16 million in proceeds from the sale, and used as part of the Equitable Development Initiative (EDI), which helps ensure Seattle’s existing residents and businesses also enjoy the benefits of development around the city, rather than being displaced by it. These funds will go to community-driven projects such as a cultural center for long-time residents to maintain neighborhood character or a job training program focused on good-paying jobs in the community.

[Read more…]

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Mayor Murray to Sign the Seattle 2035 Comprehensive Plan

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Tomorrow, Mayor Ed Murray will sign Seattle 2035, the comprehensive plan to guide City development, investments, and policies over the next 20 years. The plan focuses on equitable growth and aims to enhance the quality of life for all residents as Seattle adds hundreds of thousands of jobs and residents over the next two decades. The plan was unveiled in April of this year and unanimously passed City Council earlier this month.

Mayor Murray will also sign a separate executive order directing the City to invest in equitable development in Seattle’s downtown core.

Friday, October 28, 1:30 PM
City Hall, Norman B. Rice Room (7th Floor)
600 4th Ave., Seattle, WA 98104

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Seattle Planning Commission Seeks A New Commissioner

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The Seattle Planning Commission seeks a new commissioner to start serving January 2017.

The Commission is the steward of the City’s Comprehensive Plan, our citywide vision for how Seattle grows. We debate the benefits and impacts of these important policies and advise on how best to plan for the future.

For more information on how to apply, view or download this PDF. Please apply by December 1.

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MOHAI Community Conversation: Gentrification

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We participated in a panel discussion about gentrification at MOHAI, hosted by Enrique Cerna.

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