Seattle has completed a plan for how it will manage its growth and development over the next two decades, as required under state law. But environmental advocates say the plan's environmental review isn't rigorous enough.
City officials defended the environmental review of the updated comprehensive plan before the state Court of Appeals in Seattle on Wednesday.
The 20-year roadmap is required under the 1990 Growth Management Act, one of Washington state's cornerstone environmental laws.
The "One Seattle Plan,” as the City calls it, aims to address the housing crisis by increasing density and more than doubling development capacity. New zoning allows for more than 330,000 new housing units, with a goal of adding at least 80,000 over the next eight years. Seattle’s city council passed the plan in December. It took effect in January.
Multiple activists filed appeals against the plan, but only two moved forward. Those two presented oral arguments at the hearing.
Speaking before a panel of three judges, Max Burke, an assistant city attorney, argued that they should confirm dismissal of the remaining appeals. He said the state law that allows them to do so is meant “to prioritize promoting housing construction” and prevent cities from getting “bogged down” in environmental review.
"That is, the Legislature has decided to not allow appeals, and that's because they want to promote housing construction,” Burke said.
The activists say the plan’s environmental impact statement, or EIS, fails to properly account for the impacts of the accelerated growth it lays out, especially given recent changes to the city’s tree protection ordinance.
New rules allow for the removal of more mature trees and an increase in paved surfaces. The activists say this will mean more stormwater runoff, with added pollution from the increased density. Additionally, they point out that the plan fails to note the harms that could do to endangered species like the southern resident orcas.
Jennifer Godfrey, a symphony player who lives in Seattle, said she has had a lifelong attachment to the ecosystems around her. When she got an email in 2024 alerting her to the environmental review process for the comprehensive plan, her first thought was to check what it said about the endangered orcas. She was surprised to see it said the only endangered species “known or expected to use habitats in the city are fish.”
Godfrey said that was incorrect, “and so I felt that that was a clue that something was wrong with the EIS."
When Godfrey attended meetings with city officials working on the review she asked them to correct the error, she said "the response was ‘no.’"
Godfrey continued to attend meetings and co-founded a group called Orca Nexus to support the cause the group now calls the “Orca Appeal.” They sometimes raise awareness with spontaneous “splash mob” cold plunge gatherings, where members carry paper cutouts of orcas into Puget Sound.
"I just want to get the southern residents a seat at the table" in negotiations with the city, she said of her appeal.
Scientists and environmental groups have joined Godfrey in voicing concerns about the comprehensive plan’s impact on the environment. Some argue that the loss of mature trees and urban canopy, combined with increased density from development, will lead to more polluted stormwater runoff. And they agree that could pose a risk to the endangered southern resident orcas swimming offshore.
Twelve parties outlined those concerns in an amicus brief. All this, they say, should be accounted for in the environmental review.
Godfrey’s attorney, Toby Thaler, referred the judges to that amicus brief as evidence that “this is a public interest appeal.”
He said despite the laws cited by the city's lawyers, such appeals have been successful in the past under both state and city codes.
"The crucial piece of this is that the city uses this EIS to inform all its future decisions concerning land-use planning of any significance,” Thaler said, adding that the city’s environmental review covers all development activity until the next comprehensive plan is written.
“Nobody ever gets a chance to appeal those again until the next round in 10 years," he said.
Prior to the hearing, the City said in a statement that its environmental review is “rigorous” and that its plan will enable growth, while safeguarding waterways and public spaces.
“The Comprehensive Plan addresses Seattle’s housing and affordability crisis and is fundamental to Seattle remaining a place where people can live, work, and raise a family. It also reflects our deep pride and stewardship of public spaces, our waterways, and the marine life that makes this region home, by additionally reducing factors like urban sprawl that threaten our farms, waters and natural lands,” the statement said.
A decision from the appeals court is expected to take up to three months.
