Seattle Land Use Code Book Review: Do It Over

Roger Valdez set out to read and review the entire land use code of the city of Seattle. Now that he's done, he says it's time to rewrite the whole thing.

1 minute read

August 25, 2011, 6:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg


"Most of Seattle's residents hardly ever encounter the code itself, but rather the built environment that results from it. Tying the outcomes with which we live back to the code itself is an important exercise, because it lights up how we might change what gets built or doesn't.

Land draws us into primal debates over space and our differences with our neighbors and about where we've been and where we are going as a city. The code often sounds like it was written by Goldilocks, searching for a way to ensure that new development is not too big, or too small, but just right."

One major part of his argument is that the code is too difficult to understand.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 in Crosscut

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