Episode 20: Transit & Housing: Joint Development in Seattle

We’re joined by Brooke Belman, Deputy Executive Director for Land Use Planning and Development at Sound Transit and her colleagues Sloan Dawson, Land Use Planning Manager, and Thatcher Imboden, TOD Manager.

Seattle’s Sound Transit is in the midst of a comprehensive expansion of transit service (Sound Transit 3 or ST3) that will double size of the system to approximately 120 miles and 80 stations. The legislation behind ST3 includes new direction to the agency to consider affordable housing on surplus property and provides new tools to make that happen. The “80-80-80” policy compels Sound Transit to first offer the majority of its surplus property that is suitable for housing to “qualified entities,” which are defined as non-profit developers, local jurisdictions and housing authorities, for affordable housing development. By statute, 80 percent of their surplus property must be offered to qualified entities willing to designate 80 percent of the units as affordable to families making 80 percent or less of the area median income (AMI).

As a result, they’re working in new ways – with internal teams and external partners. Where once TOD projects came after new transit service, there now are efforts to deliver transit and housing projects in a more coordinated way.  In some cases, this means potentially opening new TOD projects with new transit service. Listen to the podcast to find out about the evolution of transit-oriented development (TOD) at the agency, how they manage timelines and expectations, as well as the changes in statute that underlie their work.