Seattle's 'Urban Villages' Become Bedroom Communities

Knute Berger describes the urban villages plan: "Mayor Norm Rice introduced the urban villages strategy some 20 years ago, designed to designate centers of urban growth around the city. It was the planning response to the new Growth Management Act, and targeted areas throughout the city by increasing densities and anticipating where growth could be best absorbed."

"With change once again intensifying and with now two decades of village experience — plus the impending update of the city’s Comp Plan for growth through 2035 — we have an important chance to see whether the villages have worked as intended. How did we do on growth targets, livability and, most importantly, sustainability? How’s the health of the city? What do the results suggest for the future?"

The city took an institutional approach to answering these questions, hiring Peter Steinbrueck to produce the recently released Seattle Sustainable Neighborhoods Assessment Project [pdf], sponsored by the Department of Planning and Development.

Berger goes on to detail the good news and the bad news of the report, which you can read in the full article.