Seattle Equitable Transit Oriented Development (ETOD) Strategy & Implementation Plan

Seva is supporting the City of Seattle in anti-displacement efforts and to center community priorities around light rail investments. Seva’s work will support the Community Advisory Group to craft an Equitable Transit Oriented Development (ETOD) Strategy and Implementation Plan that will guide the city’s approach to development by advancing community-driven outcomes in neighborhoods surrounding light rail stations.

The Equitable Transit Oriented Development (ETOD) Strategy and Implementation Plan will form the foundation of the City of Seattle’s approach to advancing community-driven outcomes in high-capacity transit station areas. By centering communities most impacted by investments in public infrastructure in the process—Black and Indigenous and people of color, immigrants and refugees, English language learners, LGBTQ people, youth, elders, and people living with disabilities—this approach attempts to address the root causes of displacement and support self-determination through community-led and -owned development. An Equitable TOD Strategy and Implementation Plan is actionable and may include identifying opportunity sites and funding mechanisms for key locations.

The project focuses on analysis of publicly owned land abutting the new light rail corridor, surplus and/or underutilized land owned by the City, County, State and other governmental agencies. The analysis uses a set of categorization criteria and typologies to broadly represent which site condition best accommodates community priorities. The work will help the City better understand the network of underutilized public land proximate to new light rail investments, analyze the adjacencies, identify potential process improvements for land acquisition, and generate an overall strategy for developing these parcels to better serve communities. This analysis will include a land use study to ensure that zoning policies are supportive of future development for a variety of uses, including housing for families of varying sizes, uses that further social and economic opportunity for current and future residents, and community-serving uses.