July 13, 2015

What Seattle’s New “Grand Bargain” on Affordable Housing Is and How People Are Reacting So Far

The Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) committee’s plan, released today, contains more than 60 recommendations. But at the centerpiece is a compromise between developers and affordability advocates reached over the weekend. As I reported earlier, Council Member Mike O’Brien’s linkage fee proposal acted as an outside threat that brought developers to the table to strike this “grand bargain,” as Mayor Ed Murray has described it. The accord—warning: housing wonkery ahead—includes mandatory inclusionary zoning (MIZ), in which developers must either make a small percentage of units in new floors of multi-family and mixed use-hosing affordable or pay fees into an affordable housing fund. It also includes a scaled-back linkage fee that will be levied on new commercial development and used to fund affordable housing development.”

Read the full The Stranger article>