4/6/2020 City Issues a Determination of Non-Significance for housing options plan
See the actual SEPA Checklist filled out by the City here.
On April 7 the City released a determination that new duplexes, triplexes, and apartments, along with larger and taller ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units), with no parking, no owner on-site (corporate ownership) and an ability to be sold separately from the house (making them just another commodity), will have insignificant impacts on our neighborhoods. The City Council believes new construction will have no impact on traffic, transit or school capacity. No impact on emergency services. No impact to wildlife, streams, Puget Sound or the environment. It defies both experience and common sense.
Despite a pandemic and widespread anxiety, the Olympia City Council is pressing ahead with a rushed gentrification plan, that they believe will somehow have no neighborhood impacts. The City staff magically waved away the detrimental consequences of unrestricted growth by saying it will all be OK. We don’t think it will. Evidence from Seattle suggests rapid unregulated growth is potentially bad for our neighborhoods, bad for future neighbors, and bad for current residents. Packing more people into smaller spaces, without strengthening the infrastructure, or insuring that existing residents can still make rent, hasn’t made Seattle neighborhoods safer or more affordable.
