Seattle/King County Climate news
Robin Briggs
Seattle
City Council finalized its 2025 budget, and passed a bill that eliminates the restrictions on moving funds from JumpStart to the General Fund. This locks in cuts to affordable housing and the Green New Deal for years to come. Several different amendments to limit how much money can be transferred were defeated. A proposal to enact a city capital gains tax was also defeated, but may be revisited next year. The budget does have about $8M in cuts, including to the city's IT department, to environmental learning centers, city permitting and inspections, and renter services. Going forward, city revenues will be more dependent on JumpStart, which is volatile because it is mostly paid by one company (Amazon, which is moving workers to Bellevue), and highly dependent on the stock market.
King County
County Executive Dow Constantine announced he will not run for reelection in 2025. Councilmember Claudia Balducci and County Assessor John Wilson have announced plans to run for County Executive. Councilmember Girmay Zahilay has said that he is strongly considering running, and will decide in the next week.
Sound Transit
The preferred alternative for a new Link station in Pioneer Square is looking more likely now after a report on the Ballard Link line had bad news for a 4th Ave. station in Chinatown-International District (The Urbanist). The 4th Ave station would be a good interchange between the two Link lines, as well as to Amtrak and local buses, but it would also be very close to BNSF tracks, and that is a huge risk factor because a massive wall would have to be built between the Link construction site and BNSF, and even so BNSF would be able to stop work on the Link at any time. (see here for the slides from the presentation).
The Ballard Link is undergoing an environmental review of alternatives. In Ballard, the preferred alternative is a tunnel under the Ship Canal from Interbay/17th Ave W. to Ballard/15th Ave W & NW Market St. The alternatives include a tunnel to 14th Ave W. and a bridge over the canal to either 14th Ave W. or 15th Ave W. The Sound Transit site has more information on Ballard, as well as the route through Interbay and Downtown, and you can make a comment by Dec. 9. Feedback can also be emailed to balla...@soundtransit.org.
State
The State Senate has announced committee positions. Jamie Pedersen (D43) will be the new Majority Leader. Noel Frame will be Ways & Means vice chair of Finance. This is a new position, and may signal a big push on progressive tax overhaul, especially given the State's budget deficit. Overall, Ways & Means will have 15 Democrats and 9 Republicans, and some of the most conservative Democrats have left, so it may be easier to get progressive bills passed. Incoming state Senator Jessica Bateman was appointed chair of the Senate Housing Committee. Previously, she was chair of the House Housing Committee. Jesse Salomon will chair the Local Government Committee. Sharon Shewmake will chair Agriculture & Natural Resources. The House is expected to announce its committee positions in Dec., and some may wait until early Jan. The Legislative Session will start on Jan. 13.
What's up with natural gas laws now that I-2066 was approved? The Building Industry Association of Washington, a backer of the initiative, called on the State Building Code Council to revoke the Energy Codes and rewrite them by Dec. 5 to avoid a legal challenge. The Building Code Council, on the other hand, plans to take more time to analyze the situation. "Kjell Anderson, chair of the technical advisory group that wrote the energy codes, argued that the initiative’s premise that the regulations now incentivize electric heat pumps over natural gas is wrong." Meanwhile, members of the No on 2066 coalition are planning to sue I-2066, claiming that it violates the single subject rule for initiatives. (Washington State Standard)
Elsewhere
Redmond has approved a new Comprehensive Plan that calls for urban centers around the new Sound Transit light rail stations, and is encouraging developers to create two and three bedroom apartments suitable for families. They are planning for "corner stores", and making it easier to have retail stores in residential neighborhoods. Redmond is also planning to create 100 units of supportive housing. Of the 20,000 new units of housing expected, half will be reserved for people making less than 30% of area median income. From 2023 to 2024, Redmond had the third greatest level of growth in the Puget Sound, behind Seattle, and just barely behind Tacoma. Redmond currently has a population of 82,000; by comparison, if Seattle built the same proportion of housing units to population, it would get 195,000 new housing units; the Seattle Mayor's current plan calls for about half that. (Axios)
Some people have been asking where I get the news. Lots of places, and it keeps changing, but I wrote some of them down here, in case you're interested: newspapers, meetings, youtube videos, and lots of podcasts.