Zoning changes are coming!
How will they affect YOUR neighborhood?
How can you make your voice heard?
The Trees and People Coalition wants to make sure you know:
* How the City's proposed One Seattle Plan could impact you and your neighborhood
* How you can comment by the Dec. 20 deadline
Materials from Zoom session on Nov. 23 - please share!
Video Recording - click here to access (if Zoom requires a passcode, the code is: U+0&bt07)
New Seattle Times Editorial:
More paving, fewer trees. So much for a green ‘One Seattle’ | The Seattle Times
Talking Points and Pre-written Email Template:
Seattle residents can submit comments on the One Seattle plan here through December 20, 2024. We urge you to do so! Please also make your voice heard to city officials and the City Council. Click here for a pre-written email template. Customize as needed.
Here is the email template text in case the link above doesn’t work for you:
To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Subject: Request for Zoning Code Revisions
Dear Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD), Mayor Harrell, and City Council Members,
Seattle’s urban trees are critical to cooling our neighborhoods, improving air quality, and supporting biodiversity. The proposed upzones in the One Seattle Plan will undermine Seattle’s climate resilience and lead to increased environmental inequity.
I urge you to make the following changes in the zoning proposals:
1) Eliminate setback reductions that limit essential space for both street and private-property trees.
2) Eliminate increased hardscape allowances that prioritize pavement over greenspace.
3) Increase tree requirements on new developments; these are crucial for maintaining canopy as neighborhoods densify.
4) Where consistent with neighborhood character and infrastructure, encourage greater building height, shared exterior walls, and clustered developments to help balance density with tree preservation.
New zoning codes must protect Seattle’s trees to ensure a livable, climate-resilient city for all. The proposed changes significantly reduce space for trees on both private properties and streets, impacting two-thirds of Seattle’s existing tree canopy. This plan places Seattle on a path to fewer trees, less shade, and higher temperatures. Look to Portland and Tacoma for how to implement ordinances and zoning that support tree planting and retention.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
City of Seattle and King County Resources
How will they affect YOUR neighborhood?
How can you make your voice heard?
The Trees and People Coalition wants to make sure you know:
* How the City's proposed One Seattle Plan could impact you and your neighborhood
* How you can comment by the Dec. 20 deadline
Materials from Zoom session on Nov. 23 - please share!
Video Recording - click here to access (if Zoom requires a passcode, the code is: U+0&bt07)
New Seattle Times Editorial:
More paving, fewer trees. So much for a green ‘One Seattle’ | The Seattle Times
Talking Points and Pre-written Email Template:
Seattle residents can submit comments on the One Seattle plan here through December 20, 2024. We urge you to do so! Please also make your voice heard to city officials and the City Council. Click here for a pre-written email template. Customize as needed.
Here is the email template text in case the link above doesn’t work for you:
To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Subject: Request for Zoning Code Revisions
Dear Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD), Mayor Harrell, and City Council Members,
Seattle’s urban trees are critical to cooling our neighborhoods, improving air quality, and supporting biodiversity. The proposed upzones in the One Seattle Plan will undermine Seattle’s climate resilience and lead to increased environmental inequity.
I urge you to make the following changes in the zoning proposals:
1) Eliminate setback reductions that limit essential space for both street and private-property trees.
2) Eliminate increased hardscape allowances that prioritize pavement over greenspace.
3) Increase tree requirements on new developments; these are crucial for maintaining canopy as neighborhoods densify.
4) Where consistent with neighborhood character and infrastructure, encourage greater building height, shared exterior walls, and clustered developments to help balance density with tree preservation.
New zoning codes must protect Seattle’s trees to ensure a livable, climate-resilient city for all. The proposed changes significantly reduce space for trees on both private properties and streets, impacting two-thirds of Seattle’s existing tree canopy. This plan places Seattle on a path to fewer trees, less shade, and higher temperatures. Look to Portland and Tacoma for how to implement ordinances and zoning that support tree planting and retention.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
City of Seattle and King County Resources
- Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections complaints (for reporting illegal or suspicious tree cutting in your neighborhood) – 206-615-0808
- Trees for Neighborhoods (free street and yard trees available)
- "Identifying Potentially Development-Threatened Tree Canopy in Environmental Justice Priority Areas," an analysis by Birds Connect Seattle
- "SDCI Failures Report: investigative report on SDCI's failure to protect Seattle's tree canopy," an evidence-based report by Tree Action Seattle and Kersti Muul
- 2021 City of Seattle Tree Canopy Assessment
MEDIA ARTICLES
"Seattle's tree ordinance is endangering trees, not protecting them" by Sandy Shettler and Jessica Dixon, Seattle Times, 5/8/2024
“The Pacific Northwest trees shaped by generations of people” by Lynda Mapes, Seattle Times, 11/12/23
“Inside the tumultuous debate behind Seattle’s tree ordinance” by Eric Scigliano, Crosscut, 9/3/23
“Yes, Seattle, we can have both housing and trees” by Naomi Ishisaka, Seattle Times, 8/14/23
“Speaking up for our people’s culturally modified trees” by Jaime Martin, Steven Moses and Matthew Randazzo V, Seattle Times, 8/11/23
“Saving Seattle’s heritage trees (but at the expense of losing many others?)” by Eric Scigliano, Post Alley, 7/25/23
“Op-Ed: Save Luma the giant cedar from redevelopment” by Jordan Van Voast, The Urbanist, 7/20/23
“How developers helped shape Seattle’s controversial tree protection ordinance” by Eric Scigliano, InvestigateWest,7/19/23
“Seattle’s proposed tree ordinance is the legislative equivalent of a chain saw” by the Seattle Times Editorial Board, 5/19/23
“Seattle has a Green Lake-sized hole in its tree canopy, study shows” by Hannah Weinberger, Crosscut, 3/2/23
“Health benefits of trees” by the Nature Conservancy in Washington, 6/8/21
ESSAYS
“Reciprocity: trees and people” by June BlueSpruce, Catamaran Literary Reader, Fall 2022 Issue
Desegregating wilderness" by Jourdan Imani Keith, Orion Magazine,September 2014
"Seattle's tree ordinance is endangering trees, not protecting them" by Sandy Shettler and Jessica Dixon, Seattle Times, 5/8/2024
“The Pacific Northwest trees shaped by generations of people” by Lynda Mapes, Seattle Times, 11/12/23
“Inside the tumultuous debate behind Seattle’s tree ordinance” by Eric Scigliano, Crosscut, 9/3/23
“Yes, Seattle, we can have both housing and trees” by Naomi Ishisaka, Seattle Times, 8/14/23
“Speaking up for our people’s culturally modified trees” by Jaime Martin, Steven Moses and Matthew Randazzo V, Seattle Times, 8/11/23
“Saving Seattle’s heritage trees (but at the expense of losing many others?)” by Eric Scigliano, Post Alley, 7/25/23
“Op-Ed: Save Luma the giant cedar from redevelopment” by Jordan Van Voast, The Urbanist, 7/20/23
“How developers helped shape Seattle’s controversial tree protection ordinance” by Eric Scigliano, InvestigateWest,7/19/23
“Seattle’s proposed tree ordinance is the legislative equivalent of a chain saw” by the Seattle Times Editorial Board, 5/19/23
“Seattle has a Green Lake-sized hole in its tree canopy, study shows” by Hannah Weinberger, Crosscut, 3/2/23
“Health benefits of trees” by the Nature Conservancy in Washington, 6/8/21
ESSAYS
“Reciprocity: trees and people” by June BlueSpruce, Catamaran Literary Reader, Fall 2022 Issue
Desegregating wilderness" by Jourdan Imani Keith, Orion Magazine,September 2014