These are not good days for the environment.
Seemingly by the hour, the Trump administration announces a new policy that shrinks habitat protections, attacks science, and places commerce ahead of our responsibilities to the planet and future generations.
But the trend isn’t limited to Trump. Just look at the Seattle City Council.
Last week, the council Land Use & Sustainability Committee voted to approve CB 121215, a bill that would strip citizens’ rights to appeal environmental findings to the Seattle Hearing Examiner in major land-use and zoning changes. It would also restrict the ability of residents to question impacts of city projects such as new athletic fields.
CB 121215 was drafted by Councilmember Eddie Lin in response to a Seattle classical musician’s recent court victory challenging the city.
Last year, Jennifer Godfrey found gaps in the environmental studies of the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan. She appealed to the Seattle Hearing Examiner.
Attorneys for Seattle argued that building new housing trumps all other considerations and impacts, and Godfrey had no ability to ask the hearing examiner to review environmental findings. Godfrey’s case was thrown out but she pursued it.
Last month the state Court of Appeals found in Godfrey’s favor, defending her legal rights and adding that Seattle lawmakers ought to want to make sure they are using the best science available when making forever decisions about open space and climate resiliency and cultural resources.
Lin determined that the appeals process was the problem. Thus CB 121215 was born.
Lin was joined by council members Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dionne Foster in passing CB 121215 out of his committee on July 15, contending that appealing the science of the comprehensive plan presented an intolerable delay for more housing.
“In Seattle, too often, a small handful of homeowners and business interests weaponize SEPA appeals to challenge or delay proposed Comprehensive Plan zoning and development regulation legislation,” Lin wrote in his newsletter.
No matter that council staff determined there were only 28 such environmental appeals to the hearing examiner in the last 10 years. The average appeal time for dismissed cases was 69 days.
This is not gumming up the system. Casting folks who care about Seattle’s environment as a small band of selfish zealots is a hallmark of the administration in the other Washington — relentlessly seeking to undermine both science and citizens’ rights.
CB 121215 now goes before the council, which could decide as early as tomorrow. Residents who want the city to grow responsibly and carefully ought to keep an eye on which North Star their City Hall representatives follow and how they cast their vote on this bad bill.
