I’m glad this passed - seems like an excellent use of land near major transit hubs (and the canard that somehow housing mere blocks south of multi million dollar housing never rang true). And as much as I support unions, we really need to look at automation to move containers between the docks and railways (like most modern ports around the globe).

So is the takeaway that this is terrible because of Sara Nelson and Chris Hansen, but wonderful because people can grow Chai in SODO?

As far as "industrial lands" go, that doesn't really start until south of Holgate. North of Holgate (and east of Utah Ave) is taken up by the Amtrak yards, the Metro Yards, The City Motor Pool Maintenance facility and what appears to be a stalled Vulcan (?) development around where the Salvation Army used to be.

South of Holgate, the future of industry in general seems uncertain. Alaska Copper moved many operations to Kent, the brewery and Boiler Works are long gone, Ardaugh Glass closed its facilities here and in Houston. OTOH Prologis (logistics and warehousing) has been building like gangbusters. And aren't they putting in another cruise ship terminal down there somewhere?

Nah, it’s either “all of the above” for building our way out of the housing or not — urbanists can’t have it both ways. We either believe in free market/deregulated zoning to build housing or we don’t, not picking and choosing depending on whose idea it is.

The Stranger and “progressives” are pro-housing unless Sarah Nelson wants housing and/or someone will make money off of it? Got it. Good lord, the far left has lost the freaking plot over and over again.

Also, if you are aligning yourself with the Port on land use issues… yikes.

Reading through this and seeing some of the usual suspects complain about this on social media only reinforces my believe that the housing crisis in Seattle is as much about building housing as it is about remaking entire neighborhoods to fit activists bizarre belief in "housing justice". They hate SFH and label is as exclusionary and classist but generally it comes down to envy. Basically if they can't have it they want to destroy if for everyone else. Thankfully they continue to expose themselves by complaining about opportunities to make progress but not the progress they want.

So it is OK to destroy industrial jobs but we can't possibly have a zoning code as liberal as Spokane's. Because our single-family neighborhoods are special. They require huge lots and density limits to keep out the riff-raff. Oh, you can build a big house, but it better not be an apartment.

Seattle Left: More Housing!!!

Provides more housing

Seattle Left: Not like that!!! You have to f*uck over the middle class too!

So, yay housing!, right?

@6 there are no industrial jobs being destroyed Ross. As has been noted Hanson already owns the land and was planning to put a stadium there. I didn't hear any complaints about that from urbanists. Fight the fight on SFH if you want but don't shit on the prospect of building more housing because its not in the area you want it be in. Either we have a housing crisis or its more about getting back at those who think they are special in your mind.

@9 wrong.
Hansen lost the fight to put a stadium on his speculative investment. He lost, and we redeveloped Key Arena instead.
As a result of the decade long process of compromise, Hansen had the right to out hotels on that land. Not a stadium.
Hotels are not permanent housing and don't require the amenities and necessities of life, like noise reduction, pollution reduction or additional resources like schools, libraries, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc.
That was the compromise. Hansen wanted a do-over now that he had a more friendly council.

@10 and how would having apartments there impact jobs but a hotel would not?

@10 — “Hotels are not permanent housing and don't require the amenities and necessities of life, like noise reduction, pollution reduction or additional resources like schools, libraries, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc.”

This is such a bullshit reason to not build housing there instead of a hotel. All of the things you listed have had closures, are closing, or are threatened with closure right now. A way to reduce or reverse these closures is to add housing and have more people! That way you can keep the things you listed open rather than having them close.

The link below purports to show the extent of the "district". If true, I don't know why anyone is worked up about this. It's basically First Ave S between S Royal Brougham and S Holgate, along with the vacant lot to the west of Lumen Field. I don't know how much housing they can squeeze in there.

https://seattle.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=13670865&GUID=93687E19-EE7B-45AB-9BE3-9A2EA72831AB&G=FFE3B678-CEF6-4197-84AC-5204EA4CFC0C

@14 — “If true, I don't know why anyone is worked up about this.”

We know why The Stranger’s worked up over it. Anything that Sara Nelson supports is self-evidently bad, even if the thing she supports is something The Stranger has previously loudly supported. Can’t wait for Nelson to say something really egregious like “cookies are good” so we get 10 Slog posts about how anyone who likes cookies is a sociopath.

ALL of the property Hansen bought was in a “stadium overlay district.” That is how the City Council itself zoned this property. Then when he actually wanted to build a—you know—stadium, they freaked out.

It was a travesty.