Seattle Council President Sara Nelson: Workforce housing in the Stadium District can’t wait

In the midst of Seattle’s ongoing housing affordability crisis and an exodus of small manufacturing businesses leaving town for lack of affordable workspace, I am advancing a proposal that will help solve for both challenges while requiring no investment from the City. It is backed by a broad coalition of affordable housing providers, labor organizations, local small businesses, and neighborhood groups and merits Council approval based on facts, not fear. 

Council Bill 120933 will allow the construction of housing in the downtown Stadium District, 50% of which is required by underlying zoning to be affordable at 60%-90% of Area Median Income for 75 years, consistent with our policy goals of increasing mixed-income housing near frequent transit such as light rail. The housing will be built on top of privately subsidized workspaces for struggling small manufacturers (“makers”), and both the housing and makers’ spaces will be built with 100% unionized labor. 

The area was rezoned in 2023, and the Environmental Impact Statement that accompanied the rezone legislation concluded that housing would not adversely impact Port of Seattle operations or nearby industrial activity. That’s why housing was recommended in the Executive’s published preferred alternative. 

The legislation was introduced on Jan. 14 and in passed out of the Governance, Accountability and Economic Development Committee on February 27 on a vote of 3-2. It’s scheduled for full Council vote on Tuesday, March 18 at 2:00. One would think its passage would be a no-brainer for all the benefits it would bring but it’s encountering steep external opposition. 

Addressing critics of the Seattle housing legislation

The Port of Seattle and the Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 19 (Longshore) fear that the vehicles of new residents so close to the waterfront will interfere with trucks moving cargo to and from the terminals, impacting Port operations. But while housing along two blocks of Occidental S/1st Ave. S may bring additional cars, it stretches credulity that such a small increase will make a big difference, given that:   

• Each year 5 million visitors attend games and events at Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park. 

• A hotel is planned to be built on the corner of 1st Ave. S and Royal Brougham, a major arterial to I-5 and I-90. The Port agreed to this. 

• Current zoning already allows commercial and office development around the stadiums, both of which have a greater impact on traffic than housing. The Port has not expressed concerns about this. 

• The 2023 rezone allows for 160-foot towers in SODO’s new Industry and Innovation (II) zone, which will bring a lot of commuter trips along I-5 and I-90 to those offices. The Port didn’t object to that. 

• The Port is courting a new operator for Terminal 46, located to the north and across 1st Ave. S from the proposed workforce housing site that would manage both cargo and cruise ships — which would be great for downtown economic development but would add a significant amount of pedestrian and vehicular traffic. 

Facts over fear

Longshore is opposed to developing these two blocks because housing in the Stadium District violates a core tenet of their national platform, which is “no net loss of industrial lands,” and poses an “existential threat” to Longshore jobs.

I say we shouldn’t make policy based on fear of existential threats, but rather on facts. And the facts are: 

• The EIS traffic analysis determined that housing would not negatively impact freight mobility, which is why the preferred alternative recommended housing in the Stadium District. 

• There has been very little cargo activity on Terminal 46 for the last five years. The vast majority of cargo enters and leaves the Port of Seattle via Terminal 5 on the eastern flank of West Seattle, north of Delridge. 

• Trucks carrying agricultural products from Eastern Washington on I-90 do not travel down 1st Ave. S or Occidental S. They access Terminal 5 via Spokane St. and West Marginal Way. A smaller amount of agricultural cargo uses Harbor Island’s Terminal 18, which would also primarily be accessed by Spokane St. However, if Spokane St. is heavily congested, then trucks might utilize Atlantic Street to get to Alaskan Way and then head south. 

• Grain from Eastern WA goes north via I-5 to Mercer to reach Terminal 86 at the base of Queen Anne. 

Bottom line: there’s no verified evidence that housing will lead to a decline in existing Port activity or that freight mobility will be impacted by resident vehicles to the point of directly causing Longshore job loss. 

If that were true however, I doubt the 22 locals representing 173,000 union members and Seattle Made’s 700 small manufacturing business members would be backing this proposal. And if the benefits of additional housing during an affordability crisis didn’t clearly outweigh its speculative costs, I doubt the more than 200 affordable housing providers in support of this bill would jump into the political fray. Nor would the Pioneer Square and Chinatown/International District neighborhood associations and two public stadium authorities – all of whom are concerned about public safety in the area – be advocating so strongly for the activation that housing and new small businesses would bring. 

Committed to the maritime industrial sector and Seattle housing

Here’s the deal: I have always been a strong ally of the Port and its mission, and as Economic Development Chair, I’m 100 percent committed to championing the maritime industrial sector. So I’d be the last person to advance this legislation if adding housing to an underutilized area of SODO were likely to result in the negative impacts predicted by opponents. The facts indicate it will not. I’m therefore proud to advance the vision of the Stadium Makers’ District because it’s the right thing to do for workers, low-income people, struggling small businesses, and the vitality of our evolving city.

Sara Nelson is president of the Seattle City Council and chair of Economic Development. She is a special contributor to MyNorthwest.