The wave of emergency actions follows reporting by WIRED and other outlets that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arm are advancing plans for dozens of new outposts and expanded offices in the wake of a dramatic increase of billions in funding thanks to last year’s H.R. 1. Late last year, DHS released a notice of pre-solicitation for a “facility close to Seattle and with proximity to airport services providing for comprehensive detention, transportation and food services for detainees.”

That notice is expected to be followed by a Request for Proposals (RFP) that has not yet been released, leading to cities like Tukwila trying to cut DHS off at the pass. A six-month moratorium is the easiest tool available to local governments under state law, and can be extended as many time as a city deems necessary within certain parameters — in other words, the “temporary” measure could last indefinitely.

“There is no permit pending with the City of Tukwila. There has been no application, nor has the federal government awarded any type of facility to operate within the city of Tukwila or within the a city in the greater Seattle area,” Brandon Miles, Tukwila’s Director of Strategic Initiatives and Government Relations, told the Council Monday night.

On top of the high-profile Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Tukwila has been an epicenter for immigration enforcement activity across Puget Sound. Last year, notices went out to a number of immigrants around the region — with legal status to remain in the U.S. — to check in at an ICE field office at 12500 Tukwila International Boulevard, an incident that led to a number of detentions.

WIRED’s reporting indicated that ICE was eyeing a different Tukwila site, at the Riverfront Technical Park on S 102nd Street, for a detention center. That site, controlled by the Sabey Corporation, includes office space that is currently available for lease, along with current health care and engineering tenants.

“Two weeks ago, we heard of this article that was in WIRED. We were not pleased to read it. We reached out to the Sabey Corporation just to verify is this true, and they told us we could take at face value what we saw. We immediately moved into action,” Tukwila Mayor Thomas McLeod said Monday.

Nothing in the moratorium would prevent ICE from expanding its office footprint within Tukwila, a potential avenue for the agency to skirt zoning requirements. But Tukwila staff noted that substantial upgrades would be required to overhaul space permitted for office use into a detention facility.

Local governments looking at their zoning regulations as a tool to block what they see as federal overreach is only expected to ramp up. A new report by Yonah Freemark, Will Curran-Groome, Lydia Lo, Jorge González-Hermoso, and Rick Su at the Urban Institute looked at how attempts to regulate federal activity at the local level may play out in a new report.

“State and local governments cannot ‘unduly interfere’ with a core function of the federal government. While it’s too early to know how a court might rule if ICE asserted immunity from local zoning laws for its detention centers, there is a strong chance that courts will consider immigration detention to be a core federal function,” their report noted. “Consequently, regulations that entirely prohibit such facilities may be viewed as an unconstitutional obstruction of that function.”

Conditions at Tacoma’s ICE facility, maintained and operated by the private Geo Group, Inc., have been widely reported to be substandard. Last week, The Urbanist‘s Amy Sundberg covered a newly filed lawsuit seeking damages for the treatment provided to three Black men who were detained there in 2024, during the Biden administration.

“The report documents a laundry list of horrifying conditions, including violations of constitutional due process rights, overcrowding, inadequate emergency medical care, inhuman and degrading treatment by guards, insufficient and poor quality of food, and more,” Sundberg wrote. “A man sexually groped out of view of the security cameras during a standard pat down procedure. A man slammed into the concrete floor for objecting to his cell being ransacked, another violent blow inflicted after being handcuffed, only to be placed in solitary confinement and stripped of his clothing on video. A man who asked to be able to review legal documents pertinent to his immigration case being retaliated against by being beaten so badly he had to be carried away on a stretcher.”

While what these local governments are attempting to be doing could be called using the tools of NIMBYism (not-in-my-backyard activism) for good, they are ultimately reaching for one of the few tools at their disposal to influence federal actions that are seen as out-of-alignment with the values of the residents in their communities.

“This is a first step. What else we can do? I don’t know. We’ll find it, because, you know, one council member does not have the power to make change. It takes a group of us, but I know as one person, I am committed to making sure that this doesn’t happen under my watch,” Tukwila Councilmember Verna Seal said ahead of the vote. “I am more than in favor of us passing this tonight, and figuring out what else we can do, because it’s not going to stop here. It’s not going to stop here, so we just have to keep it up.”

The post Tukwila Becomes Latest Puget Sound City to Impede ICE Expansion first appeared on The Urbanist.

Thanks to the new light rail connection to Federal Way that opened last December, King County Metro can make these gains by reinvesting service hours that would have been spent on rush hour bus trips to downtown. The service restructure is a major element of an agency-wide shift toward an all-day service network, which includes a focus on nights and weekends, helping workers with non-traditional schedules and riders who rely on Metro for much more than getting to work.

This week, the King County Council’s transportation committee got its first official look at the new bus network, ahead of Metro’s request next month for a green light to move forward with implementation. While the full changes won’t take effect until Metro’s service change in late August, the agency does plan to tweak service in March to allow its routes to better connect to 1 Line light rail stations and expand hours of operation on six routes throughout the area in advance of the full overhaul.

Overall, service levels across South King County are set to jump by 28%, as Metro restores 80,000 service hours that had been suspended since 2020, putting those hours to their best use in advancing the goal of a frequent all-day network.

With those resources, Metro will boost service on seven existing routes, and launch three brand new routes to make new connections across South King County. Two east-west corridors that connect directly to Link stations will see 15-minute service for the first time, and eight corridors will see new early morning and late night trips. Several routes that currently don’t operate on Saturday or Sunday will see weekend service for the first time.

Riders far from light rail stations in Burien, Kent, Auburn, and large swaths of Federal Way will see increased bus service that makes it easier to access the entire transit network.

When the full network is implemented, Routes 162, 165, 177 and DART 901 will be eliminated, with alternative options available for riders on those routes.

The new Route 164 and 166 will take over the 165’s full route between Burien and Green River College, with riders looking to travel past Kent Des Moines Station needing to transfer at the light rail station. The 162, a peak-only route between Lake Meridian in Kent and Downtown Seattle, will be replaced in favor of the all-day 168. The 177, a peak-only route between Federal Way and Downtown, will be eliminated in favor of a direct connection on light rail or Sound Transit’s 577 and 578 express buses, which will continue to complement Link service.

Metro’s DART routes, unlike its other routes, operate along a fixed path but also divert to pick up riders within an established service area. The new DART 902 would serve areas of Federal Way that aren’t covered by the existing DART 903, running on Dash Point Road and 35th Avenue SW through Twin Lakes. The 903 would see expanded hours of operation, including late into the evening seven days per week.

Metro also plans to launch two new Metro Flex microtransit zones in South King County this fall, established as two-year pilot programs. One zone would connect riders in Auburn with Downtown Auburn and its Sounder Station, and the other would serve riders to the north and east of Federal Way Downtown Station. Both areas have limited fixed-route service

Metro’s existing Flex zones in Renton and Tukwila are some of the agency’s highest performing on-demand service areas, with Tukwila’s zone seeing 2.5 rides per platform hour in 2025, and 2.4 rides per platform hour in Renton — compared to 1.6 rides per hour in Kirkland’s Juanita area and 0.6 rides per hour in the Northshore area around Lake Forest Park and Kenmore. The new Flex service zones will have to maintain relatively high levels of ridership through the end of their two-year pilot to continue into the future.

While riders will have to wait until after the FIFA World Cup to see these changes finally take effect, the wait looks poised to be worth it.

The post South King Bus Network Revamp To Boost Weekend Service by 72% first appeared on The Urbanist.

These were the alleged stories documented in a lawsuit recently filed at the Pierce County Superior Court against The Geo Group, Inc., which runs Tacoma’s Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC), a private, for-profit immigration detention facility used by the federal government.

Two specific guards were also named in the suit. 

Three plaintiffs are alleging abuse at the NWIPC in bringing the suit against The Geo Group. All three are Black men who have been detained at NWIPC, two of whom remain in detention at this time. All the alleged events described above happened in 2024, during the Biden administration, but it appears such abuses could be ramping up under Trump. 

The plaintiffs contend that the treatment described above is part of a pattern of misconduct by detention guards, that new guards are trained to follow suit, and that Geo Group covers up said misconduct. Furthermore, they allege that one of the detainee beatings described above was utilized in a training video to provide new recruits “an example of what guards can get away with if they feel a Black male detainee is mouthing off.”

The NWIPC is located in the 27th Legislative District, which is represented by Washington State Senator Yasmin Trudeau (D-Tacoma). Trudeau told The Urbanist the facility operates like a black box, in that it is very difficult to learn what’s going on inside. 

“If it gets to the point where there is something that egregious being leaked [such as the lawsuit], there are definitely horrific things that are being accepted in that institution,” Trudeau said. She referenced the “level of violence and flagrant disregard for people’s bodies” showcased in the lawsuit. 

Trudeau said that civil detainees at the NWICP are treated much worse than people charged and convicted of murder in this country. 

The NWIPC contains 1,575 beds and has a long history of poor conditions. In 2008, Seattle University’s International Human Rights Clinic collaborated with One America to publish a report documenting human rights violations at the center (then called the Northwest Detention Facility).

“Conditions are substandard, and are not even in compliance with the National Detention Standards, much less international human rights law,” the report reads. “These violations, unacceptable in any circumstances, are even more notable given the fact that detention—originally intended to be short-term—often lasts for months or even years.”

The report documents a laundry list of horrifying conditions, including violations of constitutional due process rights, overcrowding, inadequate emergency medical care, inhuman and degrading treatment by guards, insufficient and poor quality of food, and more.  

“My perception is that that facility has continued to operate more or less the same under Democratic and Republican administrations alike,” Angelina Godoy, the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR) director, told The Urbanist. “The reality is that abuse has been happening even when presidents spoke more palatable language about immigrants, and that abuse is hardwired into the system as a whole.”

Elected officials such as Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, and Representative Adam Smith all documented their concern about this facility in 2018 and 2019. 

The Washington Attorney General has been fighting an ongoing case against The Geo Group since 2017, in which The Geo Group has been found to have violated the state’s minimum wage law. Detainees at NWICP used to have the option to participate in a voluntary work program that paid $1 per day. The state won an appeal last year in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The facility’s contract with the federal government was due to expire in September 2025, potentially giving Congress the leverage to improve conditions during contract negotiations. Thus far, The Urbanist has been unable to confirm the status of this contract. 

More recent research into conditions at the NWIPC

The UWCHR published a series of reports about conditions at the NWIPC in 2020, some of which have since been updated. This research gives context to the allegations in the recent Pierce County lawsuit. 

The lawsuit, for example, alleges that Geo Group “has long employed openly racist employees and permitted discriminatory conduct.” It refers to a Proud Boys sticker on the mug of one of the prison guards named in the suit. The Proud Boys are a far-right, anti-immigrant group known to have ties to white supremacists. 

Godoy, who led the research, told The Urbanist she’s heard many anecdotes about racial slurs used in the Tacoma detention center.

“It’s certainly clear to me from what I have learned about the place that it’s not uncommon for the racial characteristic of a given detained person to influence the treatment they receive,” Godoy said.  

UWCHR’s research also directly pertains to the lawsuit’s allegations about the Tacoma Police Department (TPD). The lawsuit said that two of the three plaintiffs reported the incidents to TPD, but the department “effectively ignored them and allowed Defendant Geo Group to investigate itself.”

A spokesperson for TPD said the complaint has been reviewed, and the department doesn’t comment on active litigation. 

UWCHR published a report in 2025 that found that of the 157 reported incidents of abuse or assault at the facility between 2015 and 2025, only two resulted in prosecution. These two cases were incidents where facility personnel were the reported victims, even though overall, most of the reported victims were detainees, not staff.

Godoy said she hasn’t seen evidence that conditions at the NWICP have worsened in the past year, other than the strain of the facility operating at capacity exacerbating already-existing abuse.

“In this sense, the abusive conditions documented for eight years by the UW Center for Human Rights—such as the overuse of solitary confinement, the denial of access to quality medical care, poor hygiene and sanitation, frequent uses of physical force and chemical gases, and a lack of adequate responses to reported sexual abuse — not only persist, but may in fact have become even more acute as the facility approaches its maximum capacity of 1575 people,” the report read.

Because NWIPC is a privately operated facility, it falls into TPD’s jurisdiction, but Godoy says that hasn’t always been clear to police officers or detention officers. However, in September 2025, TPD released a public policy acknowledging their jurisdiction over the detention center. Godoy says that while UWCHR has requested records to determine whether having an official policy is changing TPD’s response to calls within the facility, the slow records response time means there isn’t yet sufficient data to make an assessment. 

UWCHR’s research also revealed the detention center’s flagrant use of solitary confinement. In 2020, the report found that the NWIPC detained people in solitary confinement for longer than any other detention facility in the country, based on the average duration of each confinement. More than 80% of reported placements in solitary confinement met the international human rights standards definition of torture. The facility regularly used solitary confinement for people suffering from mental illness and people exercising their First Amendment rights (for example, through hunger strikes).

UWCHR was only able to obtain this data by filing a lawsuit against the federal government under the Freedom of Information Act. Once received, they found discrepancies between the data provided by The Geo Group and the data provided by ICE.

“Under international standards, the mere use of solitary at all in civil consent confinement facilities like the Northwest Detention Center is considered extraordinarily inadvisable and something that should not be done, period,” Godoy told The Urbanist. “So the fact that it’s not only happening, but it’s happening in ways that are secretive and unclear, and even the same facility has multiple books, like an accountant with two books, should lead to grave concerns about how effective any mechanisms for oversight or accountability are.”

ICE in Washington State

While abusive conditions at the NWIPC have been documented for almost 20 years, it is undeniable that immigration enforcement has greatly accelerated during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term. In mid-January, ICE was holding about 73,000 people in detention, the highest number in ICE’s history. 

Data collected by the Deportation Data Project shows that during the first nine months of Trump’s second term, ICE arrests quadrupled. Street arrests became much more common, leading to a sevenfold increase in arrests of people without criminal convictions. Deportations increased by a factor of 4.6.

In the past, people would interact with ICE and not necessarily be detained, but this has shifted as well. “Once people have been arrested, changes in policy have kept them locked up in detention centers for longer or indefinitely,” writes Aaron Reichlin-Melnick for the American Immigration Council’s website.

“Maybe that’s what the [Trump] administration is trying to do, is get people so scared that they are leaving,” Trudeau said. “But they’re scared because they know that once they are in the system, they are going to be treated like animals, and that their family may never find them. […] We can’t abide by a system like that.”

Recent reporting from The Washington Post details ICE’s plan to spend $38.3 billion to acquire warehouses – the plan says 16 – and retrofit them into immigration detention centers. People will move from the converted warehouse facilities to eight large-scale detention centers that will hold between 7,000 and 10,000 people.

In 2025, Congress lavished funding on departments carrying out Trump’s mass deportation campaign. “The so-called One Big Beautiful Act allocates more than $170 billion over four years for border and interior enforcement, with a stated goal of deporting 1 million immigrants each year,” the Brennan Center wrote. “That is more than the yearly budget for all local and state law enforcement agencies combined across the entire United States.”

Investigative reporting by Wired showed ICE working to spread its physical presence across the U.S., with documents for more than 150 leases and expansions, giving ICE a presence in nearly every state. Those documents indicate a potential new planned detention center at Riverfront Technical Park in Tukwila, Washington, a convenient distance from Boeing Field. This news came after a December posting on a government website indicated ICE’s interest in having more detention space in the Seattle area.

Both ICE and the owners of the Riverfront Technical Park declined to comment to KUOW about any upcoming lease.

“I would imagine, especially in a place like Tukwila that’s so diverse, the ripple effect that will have in a community in that area,” Trudeau said. “You’re talking about Renton, Tukwila, Kent, this is where a lot of immigrant communities live. I think you’re actually going to find a chilling factor if something like that is introduced. I think you’ll find a lot of people that do not want to participate in any systems, including probably even taking their kids to school, if something like that happens.”

Other cities are taking action to prevent detention centers within their jurisdictions. In 2017, the Tacoma City Council passed legislation rezoning land around the NWIPC to prevent any meaningful expansion. The City won the lawsuit brought against it by The Geo Group trying to overturn the legislation in 2021. 

Meanwhile, Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck is sponsoring legislation that would put a one-year moratorium on any new or expanded jail or detention center within the city limits. The bill treats the siting of a detention center as a zoning issue, giving the City time to develop permanent regulations over the next year. 

“We cannot make it clear enough, the human rights violations at facilities like the Northwest Detention Center are unacceptable, and we refuse to stand by while the federal government continues their inhumane practices,” Rinck said.

The bill will move directly to consideration by the full Seattle City Council, with a possible vote as early as Tuesday, February 24. Should the bill pass, there will be a public hearing within two months to give the public the opportunity to weigh in.

The City of SeaTac, where a federal detention facility is already located, just passed a temporary detention moratorium, and King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda announced she’s working on a detention moratorium for unincorporated King County. 

Seattle Port Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa is planning to introduce an order on February 24 that would disallow nonpublic Port of Seattle properties from being converted to new or expanded use for immigration detention or enforcement support. 

However, the news of the potential new immigration detention center in Tukwila underscores the difficulty for individual jurisdictions to respond to what is a regional, or even statewide, issue. 

Trudeau, along with Senator Lisa Orwall (D-33rd LD, SeaTac), introduced several bills designed to address detention facilities on a state level. SB 6286 would have fined the NWICP if the Geo Group didn’t allow the center to be inspected at will by the Department of Health.

SB 6109 would have prohibited the state from investing in (and therefore profiting from) private detention facilities. SB 6304 would have insured responsible principles be used by the state for its investments more generally. All three bills died at the fiscal cutoff deadline. 

HB 2464, on the other hand, was passed out of the House on Monday. Sponsored by Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self (D-21nd LD, Everett), the bill would require private detention facilities to report allegations of abuse, death, and suicide. Law enforcement agencies would also have to report annually about calls and investigations at the facilities. The bill also includes standards to improve food access and quality for detainees. 

Meanwhile, The Geo Group continues to profit in spite of the documented abuses at the NWIPC. The publicly-traded company, ticker symbol GEO, reported a net income of $254.3 million for 2025, an increase of almost 700% over its reported income for 2024, which was only $31.9 million.

“Not only are you creating a situation where you’re dehumanizing people in concentration camps, but you’re also making excessive and exorbitant profit off of it,” Trudeau said. “I think we call that slavery and human trafficking.” 

The post ICE’s Tacoma Detention Center Targeted in New Lawsuit Alleging Abuses first appeared on The Urbanist.

Burien voters chose the more left-leaning candidate in all four races that were on their ballots, reelecting two incumbents and bringing two other newcomers onto the council. That bloc of candidates was endorsed by The Urbanist Elections Committee (on which I serve).

Zoning changes adopted in 2024, in line with a major update to Burien’s Comprehensive Plan, allowed additional housing density across many of the city’s neighborhoods, building on state mandates to open up areas that had long been off-limits to anything but single family development. While Burien was only required to allow property owners to develop as many as two housing units away from the walksheds of RapidRide bus lines, the city went further and allowed additional density with a goal of fostering walkability and neighborhood amenities in Three Tree Point, Seahurst, and around Lake Burien.

The areas in question have a new baseline of allowing four units per lot, with another two able to be added if they meet certain requirements for affordability or are close to frequent transit. With an additional incentive to preserve existing houses, property owners can now ultimately assemble seven units per lot.

That fact seemed to fly under the radar of many residents in those neighborhoods, and it wasn’t until 2025 that community opposition reached the city council. By September, the council’s moderate majority — who had ultimately voted to approve the upzones in the first place — directed staff to consider a zoning rollback that would be adopted this year.

“Citizens have repeatedly expressed concerns over further burdening the already taxed and fragile infrastructures in this area. Sewage and water systems, roads and electrical grids are already strained to meet current capacity and historically, frequently fail, which upzoning would completely overwhelm and prove unsustainable. Some areas are more than two miles from public transit in any direction,” Three Tree Point resident Dawn Lemmel told the Council Monday night. “In September, you assured us our voices had been heard and acknowledged we are not NIMBYs, but in fact, staunch advocates and defenders of our city’s fragile resources and ecosystem.”

On Monday, Councilmember Linda Akey advanced a motion to keep considering the downzones, a move that was not recommended by Burien planning staff for a host of reasons. After that motion failed 4-3, Akey attempted unsuccessfully to get the council to table a motion to approve what had been recommended by staff because that motion’s language was “too close” to the one she had just made. After a brief recess to confer with Burien’s City Attorney, Akey’s motion was quickly overruled.

Earlier in the meeting, Akey had dropped the news that she plans to resign from the council sometime in the near future due to an impending move out of the city, a fact that could shift the council’s composition even further.

The council’s new progressive bloc didn’t spend much time explaining its reasoning behind taking the downzones off the table, with Councilmember Sam Méndez, who replaced retiring Councilmember Jimmy Matta, providing the most substantive comments.

“For me, a lot of this boils down to equity. We’re mandated by the state to increase density. That’s also a value that I personally believe and ran on, and so we must do so as equitably across the city as we can,” Méndez said. “The plan, as is already, places a disproportionate burden on neighborhoods east of Highway 509, which I already have reservations with, given the negative impacts of folks living under the flight path. I want to see more people moving to Burien outside of the flight path, where where we can and then consideration of equities, especially critical when considering neighborhoods that have been historically redlined, such as my own neighborhood [of Seahurst], keeping people of color and the working class out of neighborhoods.”

Hugo Garcia, now Burien’s Deputy Mayor, did weigh in to note that his position has remained unchanged since last year and that he was aligned with Méndez’s comments, but Mayor Sarah Moore, who had the biggest margin of victory in November, did not directly weigh in. As a “weak mayor” system of government, Burien elects its Mayor and Deputy Mayor from among the council, with the pair elected by the progressive bloc earlier this month and the moderates in dissent.

Last fall’s motion to advance the rezones was made by Stephanie Mora, who lost to former Burien planning commissioner Rocco DeVito by 13 points in November, the closest race out of the four. DeVito didn’t provide comments Monday, a fact that might relate to a hot mic moment that occurred at a December 10 planning commission meeting where DeVito was testifying against the proposed downzones. “F*** those rich people!” DeVito was heard saying while his microphone was unknowingly off mute, a fact that he later apologized for.

DeVito had been clear about his position against downzoning the city’s wealthier areas, telling The Urbanist last year that he saw the move to scale things back as being in line with Burien’s broader history of wanting to keep certain types of development out of the city.

Electoral maps from November go a long way toward explaining why this change was advanced forward in the first place. The four more moderate candidates, including Mora, performed strongest in areas that would have been targeted for downzoning. In Three Tree Point, Mora outperformed DeVito by more than 50 points, but DeVito swept nearly every single other area of the city in a pattern that was mirrored in the other three races.

Dealing with this unfinished business from the previous council ultimately sets the stage for changes that the new Burien council will want to affirmatively pursue. Those are likely to include potential changes to an outdoor “camping” ban that essentially criminalizes being homeless in the city, one of the harshest such laws in the US, and whether to retain Burien’s controversial City Manager, Adolfo Bailon.

Under Bailon’s leadership, the city forfeited $1 million for emergency shelter that had been offered by King County to help get unsheltered residents housed, and Bailon has come under fire for a lack of transparency and a tendency to lash out after being criticized.

The post New Burien Council Takes Potential Neighborhood-wide Downzones Off the Table first appeared on The Urbanist.

The post Sunday Video: Opening Day of the Federal Way Light Rail Extension first appeared on The Urbanist.

With trains running all the way south to Federal Way as of 11am Saturday, the 1 Line is now the second longest light rail line in the U.S. at 41 miles long, trailing only the A Line in Los Angeles. The 7.8-mile Federal Way extension came on the heels of the 8.5-mile Lynnwood Link extension, which opened on August 30, 2024.

Sound Transit had been working on the extension since 2008, when voters signed off on the Sound Transit 2 (ST2) ballot measure pledging to get to S 272nd Street, where the Star Lake Station sits today. Thanks to the 2009 Great Recession, Sound Transit needed to scale back plans and seek additional funding to get south of Angle Lake. The successful 2016 Sound Transit 3 (ST3) ballot measure was able to fund the extension all the way to Federal Way’s fledgling downtown.

If you weren’t able to make it down this weekend, check out The Urbanist‘s photo tour of the new stations.

The day was a notable moment in the sun — both figuratively and literally, despite the rain in the forecast — for South King County, an area where residents often complain of being shortchanged when it comes to transportation investments. Elected officials attending the ribbon-cutting were given pins referencing a comment made by longtime King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer in 2004 that light rail won’t arrive in the area until after “hell freezes over.”

Thanks to advocacy from the cities of Federal Way, Des Moines, and Kent, the light rail alignment mostly follows the I-5 freeway south of SeaTac, a fact that will continue to grate on transit advocates who pushed for it to follow State Route 99 a decade ago. They argued that the redevelopment opportunities that would come from siting the line directly on a major north-south business corridor would be much greater than the alternative.

Advocates for the SR 99 alignment have mostly been proven right by the scarce opportunity for redevelopment near Star Lake Station, at the extension’s midpoint, and limited activity elsewhere. Unlike a number of other areas in the growing Sound Transit network, there hasn’t been much of a housing boom around the Federal Way Link stations, with only about 3,000 homes in the development pipeline.

“For decades, we’ve talked about how important this is. This is really going to be something that really connects up the entire region, and it’s billions of dollars of investment and connection where people are going to be able to get on the light rail and go to points north,” Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell said. “But it’s more than that. It’s about economic opportunity. It’s about the economic development and growth of this community.”

Beyond economic stimulus, the extension should attract more riders to the system. Sound Transit projects that the Federal Way Extension will carry 18,000 to 23,000 daily passengers by 2028, adding to booming light rail ridership. The 1 Line has been averaging more than 110,000 daily riders since June 2025.

“These new stations will mean a student in Federal Way can step on a train and go all the way to UW for school, passing by traffic. It’s really exciting. It means a worker in Kent can find jobs all along the 1 Line — very exciting for our economy. It means families will have a reliable, affordable way to get to the airport, to healthcare, to school, to opportunity,” King County Executive Girmay Zahilay told the crowd who gathered for the ribbon-cutting, less than two weeks after being sworn in.

Washington State’s federal delegation, also took credit for pushing the Federal Way light rail project forward Saturday, along with other planned extensions including last year’s Lynnwood Link Extension that had their federal funding threatened during Donald Trump’s first term in the White House. So far during Trump’s second term, federal transit funding has been broadly threatened, but major Sound Transit project have not yet come under the microscope — in part because several projects are behind schedule and not yet at the construction grant phase.

“This $1 billion did not come easy. During the first Trump administration, the Department of Transportation was obstructing $790 [million] of capital investment for the project, and we had to make it clear to then-Secretary Elaine Chao that this was the top priority for the Washington delegation. And we got that grant free. The next year, we had to push against opposition for the American Rescue Plan, which provided $150 million for the project. And we got that done,” Senator Maria Cantwell said. “And obviously we’re here to celebrate that this fast, traffic-free, affordable transportation infrastructure is going to pay dividends for generations to come.”

Sound Transit’s next expansion is tentatively tabbed for spring 2026 with the 2 Line light rail extension across Lake Washington, bringing stations in Judkins Park and Mercer Island online. The project will need to clear testing hurdles before an opening date is locked in. Once extended, the 2 Line will run from Redmond to Lynnwood, doubling service frequencies in Downtown Seattle and points north along the way.

Federal Way is slated to remain the southern terminus of the 1 Line for a decade. In 2035, the Tacoma Dome Link Extension is set to connect King and Pierce Counties, making Tacoma the new southern terminus. While Sound Transit is facing a 30- to 40-billion-dollar shortfall that could impact projects like the one getting to Tacoma, a sizable board contingent is laser-focused on completing the “spine” of the network, which also includes getting to Everett in the north.

“This is a tremendously big deal, and yet, what we are celebrating today as brand new, as a revelation, will very shortly, be so ingrained into our lives that we will give it the highest compliment that you can give a work of infrastructure: We will take it for granted,” Sound Transit CEO Dow Constantine said. “We are going to build our daily lives around it. We’re going to complain bitterly when even the slightest thing goes wrong, and we are going to forget what life was like before we had it.”

The post Thousands Pack Trains for Launch of Federal Way Light Rail first appeared on The Urbanist.

Federal Way Link will extend the 1 Line to 41 miles in total length, making it the second longest light rail line in the U.S behind Los Angeles’s A Line. Expected travel times between Lynnwood and Federal Way will be 82 minutes. From the Federal Way terminus, Sea-Tac Airport will be 16-minute trip, the major league sports stadiums will be a 43-minute trip, and Downtown Seattle will take about 50 minutes, according to Sound Transit.

Federal Way will remain the southern end point for Sound Transit’s light rail network until at least 2035, when the 1 Line line is extended to Tacoma Dome, with stops in South Federal Way, Fife, and Tacoma’s Tideflats neighborhood.

“Seeing what this extension is going to do for Highline [College], other organizations, businesses, just the access for people to jobs and education everything else, it’s a huge life-changing moment for people,” Terri Mestas, Sound Transit’s Deputy CEO for Megaproject Delivery, told The Urbanist at a preview ride earlier this week.

For a sneak peek at the station designs of the three new stations, check out our article. All three stations featured elevated platforms with a distinct art program for each.

Opening day festivities

The opening day ceremony kicks off at 9:30am Saturday at Federal Way Downtown Station, giving elected officials plenty of time to speechify before the scheduled 11am start of service. According to published schedules, the first train to Lynnwood will be departing Federal Way at 11:01am, and riders hoping to be on the first train to run the full length of the 1 Line southbound between Lynnwood and Federal Way will likely need to be on the one departing Lynnwood at 9:46am.

If you’re not jumping on that first train for the bragging rights, you can also join The Urbanist for a group ride down to Federal Way from Capitol Hill Station on Saturday morning. Whichever train you catch, join us to celebrate at Mama Stortini’s Restaurant & Bar in Downtown Federal Way at 1pm.

From 11am to 3pm, each new station will also have opening day activities, including a prize giveaway for riders who enter by getting their ticket stamped at all three stations. Pick up your commemorative map and see prizes and instructions here.

Delays to Federal Way Link — major landslide risk forced redesign

Voters greenlit the project in 2008 as part of the ST2 ballot measure, but it was not fully funded until eight years later with the approval of Sound Transit 3 (ST3). When ST3 plans were being drawn up, Sound Transit had pledged a 2024 opening for the Federal Way extension, but construction issues forced a delay.

Sound Transit ran into an issue with soil conditions in Kent that were unexpectedly bad. A landslide during early construction work along the I-5 embankment next to the McSorley Creek Wetland exposed the issue, forcing the agency to quickly redesign the project to add a bridge dubbed “Structure C” to span this problematic section.

Luckily, the unforeseen issue only set the project back by about a year and a half, thanks to the agency’s quick work to overcome the problem. Needing to redesign a project once construction has started has the potential to be a much bigger setback on a large project like this one.

The great debate: SR 99 or I-5

Federal Way Link will remain one of the biggest examples of a missed opportunity for many Puget Sound transit advocates. From Angle Lake Station, Pacific Highway S — a segment of State Route 99 — seems like a natural choice as a pathway for continuing south, and was considered by Sound Transit as the agency mulled its options for getting to Federal Way. But Kent, Des Moines, and Federal Way all united around the idea of routing the alignment closer to I-5.

Sound Transit’s own alternatives analysis noted a much greater potential for transit-oriented development (TOD) if the SR 99 alignment was selected, with the I-5 alignment saving Sound Transit money by utilizing more excess highway right-of-way. In a comment letter for the project’s environmental review, the City of Des Moines brought up reduced driveway access, SR 99 lane closures, reduced parking, and a “permanent reduction in property values” as factors that led to the decision to push Link toward the highway.

Despite the fact that the writing was clearly on the wall for an I-5 alignment, transit advocates didn’t give up without a fight.

“We believe that the full SR99 alignment would maximize TOD opportunities, ridership potential, bike/ped/transit access, would do the most to meet our state and regional greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals, and maximize future economic development potential,” read a 2015 letter signed off on by Transportation Choices Coalition, Cascade Bicycle Club, Puget Sound Sage, and the Housing Development Consortium. “The SR 99 alignment has the highest ridership, best TOD analysis at each proposed station location, offers the best potential to reduce municipal infrastructure costs, and will provide better access to regional destinations and amenities.”

After initially supporting an SR 99 alignment to activate its Midway area, the City of Kent pivoted to supporting a pedestrian bridge over SR 99 to get riders more safety across the highway, which is one of the most dangerous corridors for pedestrians in the region. That bridge never materialized, and the adjacent stop for King County Metro’s A Line bus remains a long walk away from Kent Des Moines Station.

While the I-5 alignment and dearth of TOD may have sapped ridership potential, Sound Transit projects that the Federal Way Extension will carry 18,000 to 23,000 daily passengers by 2028, adding to growing 1 Line ridership. Since June, the 1 Line’s average ridership has surpassed 110,000 daily riders.

Now South King County’s next generation of leaders will be tasked with making the best of what has been delivered, as King County Metro prepares to restructure bus routes in the area to better connect riders with light rail. Housing growth around the three stations has struggled mightily, though Federal Way has major visions for its station area in particular.

Saturday’s celebrations do ultimately reflect a major milestone for the entire region’s transit network, and for South King County in particular. Despite the rain in the forecast, Federal Way Link deserves its moment in the sun.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Federal Way Link first appeared on The Urbanist.

Voters greenlit the project in 2008 as part of the ST2 ballot measure, but it was not fully funded until eight years later with the approval of Sound Transit 3. Federal Way Link will extend the 1 Line to 41 miles in length, making it the second longest light rail line in the U.S.

Federal Way will remain the southern terminus for the high capacity transit corridor until at least 2035, when the Tacoma Dome Link Extension connects riders further south into Washington’s third largest city.

The three elevated stations bring with them a big expansion of Sound Transit’s inventory of parking, with 500 new stalls at Kent Des Moines, more than 1,200 stalls at Star Lake, and 1,500 stalls at Federal Way Downtown. Next year, King County Metro will realign its buses throughout the area to better connect riders with the new stations, adding new options for transit riders in Burien, Kent, Normandy Park, SeaTac, Auburn, and further out.

Service on the extension starts at 11am Saturday, when train operators start letting on riders to head south of Angle Lake, giving them a 55-minute trip between Downtown Federal Way and Westlake Station in Downtown Seattle.

If you’re not jumping on that first train for the bragging rights, you can also join The Urbanist for a group ride down to Federal Way from Capitol Hill Station on Saturday morning — but either way, remember to join us at Mama Stortini’s Restaurant & Bar in Downtown Federal Way at 1pm.

Kent Des Moines Station

The northernmost of the three new stations is near Kent Des Moines Road. The biggest draw in the area is Highline College, a 5,000-student institution that has been advocating for a direct transit connection to its campus for many years. The college pushed hard for a station at its front door on the west side of State Route 99, to save students from having to traverse the unpleasant surface highway, but ultimately lost that fight after the cities of Des Moines, Kent, and Federal Way all advocated for a Link alignment that skirts Interstate 5 instead of 99.

Now opening a full block east of SR 99, Kent Des Moines Station features a fairly basic layout, with station entrances both north and south of the 236th Street path that connects to and from Highline College, and the frequent A Line bus that runs up and down SR 99. Unfortunately, the transit connections to the A Line remain less than ideal, and long walks to bus stops mean that riders won’t always make their connections.

Kent Des Moines Station is ultimately set to become somewhat of a bus hub, making those decisions matter in the long run. The new King County Metro Route 164 will provide 15-minute service into downtown Kent, bridging light rail and Sounder in a way that doesn’t currently exist.

The most striking feature at Kent Des Moines Station is the artwork on the glass at the platform level: a piece called “Cambium.” It was created by Houston-based RE:site Studio. The tree branches etched into the glass climb toward the center of the station, mimicking the arc of the escalators that bring riders up from street level.

Star Lake Station

If Kent Des Moines is a bus transfer hub, Star Lake is more clearly a park-and-ride, with fewer direct bus connections planned and a large swath of open space next door, putting few things in walking distance.

Star Lake Station is a station that feels like it’s at ground level, with one end of the platform leading to a long ramp that leads to the plaza at the station’s front door, and more traditional escalators and elevators on the other end. The platform feels much more airy than the other two stations. But with no transit-oriented development planned here, this station will likely see light use.

The art at Star Lake, a piece called “Gather” created by Tory and Eroyn Franklin, features ceramic frit glass with images of local flora and edible plants. Down below at the plaza, “Pollination,” a piece by the same artists, consists of backlit images of pollen.

Federal Way Downtown Station

Expected to draw many more riders than the two other stations, Federal Way Downtown station is the new extension’s main draw, bringing light rail service to the fifth largest city in King County. Not a place known for dense housing, Federal Way has been taking small incremental steps toward making the area around the forthcoming station more of a walkable district — but is definitely not there yet.

Riders alighting at the new end of the 1 Line will notice seas of parking lots, but also some big parcels primed for redevelopment. Sound Transit is currently advancing four large sites to become affordable housing, as part of its transit-oriented development program. Elsewhere, Federal Way has set the stage for what’s likely the biggest redevelopment project that the city has ever seen, though it may take many years to ultimately materialize.

As for art at Federal Way, riders will notice light being refracted through prisms all along the upper windows at the platform level. That’s a work called “Prismatic” by Catherine Widgery, which is intended to create a station area that is “illuminated, interactive and full of subtle color and reflection,” per the artist.

Sound Transit projects that the Federal Way Extension will carry 18,000 to 23,000 daily passengers by 2028. That will add to booming light rail ridership, with the 1 Line averaging more than 110,000 daily riders since June.

The post First Look at South King County’s Three New Light Rail Stations first appeared on The Urbanist.

Specific bright spots include Tacoma, Redmond, Burien, Woodinville, and Newcastle, where pro-growth candidates all currently lead. Which isn’t to say there wasn’t some backsliding: early results in Bainbridge Island and Sammamish point to a big housing backlash. But on the whole, the trends so far look cheer-worthy for urbanists.

Eastside

Bellevue‘s city council isn’t poised to see a seismic shift in composition, with incumbents Lynne Robinson, Jared Nieuwenhuis, Claire Sumadiwirya, and Vishal Bhargava all leading in their races. But eight-term Councilmember Conrad Lee’s career appears over, with human rights advocate Naren Briar leading Lee by nearly three points. With this council, Mo Malakoutian looks well-positioned to be the city’s next mayor.

Meanwhile voters in Redmond have resoundingly re-elected urbanist superstar Melissa Stuart, while at the same time sending Steve Fields and Jeralee Anderson packing. Fields and Anderson were the two voices on the council who opposed Redmond’s move to relocate the canceled Plymouth Housing project from Kenmore, an issue that right-leaning groups like Safe Eastside tried to turn into a central campaign issue — and failed at.

In Woodinville, the wave of cash spent by Coinbase cryptocurrency engineer Jeff Lyon to promote slow growth candidates appears to have fully backfired, with promoted candidate Rachel Best-Campbell losing in a landslide to challenger Amber Wise. Lyon himself is also losing to incumbent Michelle Evans, with fellow incumbents Sarah Arndt and James Randolph also doing fine.

Results in Kirkland were more mixed on election night.

Incumbent Neal Black, who has defended the city’s direction on housing densification, looks to be holding on while his colleague, Deputy Mayor Jay Arnold, is currently trailing Ken Oberman. Oberman is a part of the “sanity slate” promoted by the group Cherish Kirkland, explicitly formed to push back on proposals to consider allowing additional housing near Kirkland’s transit corridors. Catie Malik, another slate member, leads pro-growth candidate Shilpa Prem, but only by a hair — less than 300 votes. Both Arnold and Prem could be poised to take the lead, based on returns in the coming days. Finally, Jon Pascal, the only incumbent running who voted against the city’s growth plan last year, is leading significantly against Kurt Dresner, a leader with the urbanist group Liveable Kirkland — that lead looks harder to surmount.

Another election update: progressive candidates Shilpa Prem and Jay Arnold have TAKEN THE LEAD in their races for the Kirkland City Council after previously being behind. So much for that reactionary anti-growth backlash in Kirkland.

— Ryan Packer (@typewriteralley.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 4:13 PM

Meanwhile, Sammamish appears to be entering a full-on housing backlash era, with Mayor Karen Howe way behind Debbie Treen, a former mayor of Bothell and wife of another serving councilmember, Kent Treen. Councilmember Sid Gupta is set to lose his seat, with his colleague Amy Lam likely only retaining her seat due to a write-in campaign siphoning votes from her opponent. And Michael Boyer is set to win a race for an open seat on the council against more pro-growth Lin Yang. At the heart of all these races is the Town Center Plan, and the current council’s consideration of alternatives to double the upper limit on growth that the city is planning for over the long term.

We also cannot leave out Newcastle, where progressives made a full sweep including incumbent Paul Charbonneau, and Chris Villasenor, Karin Frost Blakley, and Andy Jacobs, bringing the city to a full 6-1 Democratic majority for the first time in the city’s 31-year history.

And in Bothell, progressive incumbents Jenne Alderks and Rami Al-Kabra are cruising to re-election, while uncontested races see Prasad Anguluri and Brittany Miles joining the council.

North King and Snohomish County

Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin looks poised to hold onto her seat for another term, after facing a right-leaning challenge focused on crime and homelessness from Scott Murphy. As a member of the Sound Transit board, expect Franklin to continue pushing for the completion of the light rail “spine” between Tacoma and Everett, and to de-prioritize other light rail projects (like those in Seattle).

The race for mayor of Lynnwood remains too close to call, with incumbent mayor Christine Frizzell trailing challenger and longtime councilmember George Hurst. Frizzell also serves on the Sound Transit board as one of its less outspoken members. On Lynnwood Council, Josh Binda is set to lose his seat after being involved in several high-profile ethics investigations. Incumbents Robert Leutwyler and Derica Escamilla are set to be retained, with more urbanist-leaning Isabel Mata winning an open seat.

In Edmonds, voters are set to re-elect pro-housing Chris Eck, but pick small business advocate Erika Barnett over the more urbanist-leaning Alex Newman for the open position 3 seat. Incumbent Will Chen will secure another term, but the biggest news to come out of Edmonds on election night was the wholehearted rejection of a ballot measure that would have raised taxes to salvage the city’s dire budget situation.

Lake Forest Park urbanist Josh Rosenau is absolutely within striking distance of beating incumbent John Lebo, trailing by only 14 votes as of Wednesday.

Meanwhile Kenmore voters reelected Nigel Herbig despite his support for the Plymouth Housing project that was ultimately moved to Redmond.

Meanwhile in Kenmore, progressive council candidate @tracyforkenmore.bsky.social is now just 37 votes behind her opponent, Joe Marshall.

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— Ryan Packer (@typewriteralley.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 4:22 PM

Voters in Shoreline only faced a decision in one council race, with Chris Roberts, Eben Pobee and Laura Mork all running for re-election unopposed. The only open seat, currently filled by retiring John Ramsdell, is poised to be held by Valerie Snider, who campaigned on a platform of tree preservation and has voiced skepticism for Shoreline’s full-throated support of transit-oriented development.

South King County

When it comes to the King County Council, 30-year incumbent Pete von Reichbauer is coasting to another term against challenger Maya Vengadasalam in District 7. In the open race for District 5, attorney Steffanie Fain is narrowly ahead of SeaTac Councilmember Peter Kwon to fill the seat currently occupied by appointed Councilmember De’Sean Quinn. Progressives split on that race in the primary between Renton Councilmembers Kim-Khanh Van and Ryan McIrvin, leading to two more right-leaning candidates advancing into the primary. In the end, both The Stranger and the Seattle Times endorsed Fain, with The Urbanist making no recommendation.

Speaking of Renton: incumbents are leading in all races there, with James Alberson, Carmen Rivera, and Ruth Pérez all likely to secure an additional term on the Renton Council.

Federal Way, Kent, and Auburn will all retain their mayors, with Kent Mayor Dana Ralph running unopposed.

But the bright spot in South King County is in Burien, where an existing 5-2 moderate majority is poised to flip. Sam Méndez is on track to replace outgoing Councilmember Jimmy Matta, with former planning commissioner Rocco DeVito on track to beat incumbent Stephanie Mora. The council’s two left-leaning incumbents — Sarah Moore and Hugo Garcia — likely to retain their seats. This fall, that slate of four candidates was endorsed by Representative Pramila Jayapal, a big boost for progressives in Burien. The Urbanist Elections Committee also backed the slate.

Pierce County

In South Sound, incumbent Bryan Yambe will retain his seat on the Pierce County Council, maintaining the existing 4-3 Democratic majority on that body. That’s good news for Executive Ryan Mello, who just took office at the beginning of the year as the first Democrat to lead the county in eight years.

Tacoma‘s next mayor will be Anders Ibsen, after incumbent Victoria Woodards hit the limit of two terms in that job. A former member of the Tacoma Council, Ibsen is leading current councilmember John Hines despite more than $100,000 in outside spending in Hines’s favor. That spending went fairly negative on Ibsen, in a move that may have actually backfired.

On the Tacoma City Council, Latasha Palmer is set to replace outgoing Deputy Mayor Kiara Daniels. Palmer will likely defeat property manager Jessica Johnston in a campaign that saw Palmer support the idea of implementing social housing in Tacoma and Johnston oppose the move. Sandesh Sadalge, who was appointed to his seat last July, looks on track to retain his seat despite a strong challenge from Silong Chhun, and incumbents Sarah Rumbaugh and Joe Bushnell are also set to stay on the council. Ultimately, the results point to voters’ support for the council’s current trajectory on housing, including the Home in Tacoma plan.

Kitsap County

Across the Sound in Kitsap County, there are fewer signs of hope for urbanist candidates.

Transportation advocates in Bremerton will be disappointed to see Councilmember Jeff Coughlin trailing incumbent Mayor Greg Wheeler. Wheeler, who opposed the Bremerton Council’s recent move to ditch parking mandates across the city, has nonetheless vowed to prioritize the issue in his next term, with Coughlin’s challenge likely sharpening those promises.

In Bainbridge Island as in Sammamish, a strong housing backlash looks to propel several anti-growth candidates into office. Incumbent Joe Deets, an outspoken supporter of the 625 Winslow Way affordable housing project, is on track to lose to Lara Lant, who explicitly opposed the project. Meanwhile Clarence Moriwaki, who has been more moderate on housing issues, is likely to be reelected.

For the open seat, currently occupied by Jon Quitslund, voters had to choose between two candidates who have opposed the 625 Winslow Way project as designed, including current planning commission chair Sarah Blossom, who voted against a zoning ordinance that would allow it to move forward. Instead, they look to have picked Mike Nelson, a candidate who has held an even harder line on housing, opposing “ultra-density” within the city’s main downtown of Winslow during the campaign.

The post Pro-Housing Candidates Make Gains All Around Puget Sound first appeared on The Urbanist.

However, detractors had spent much of this year painting the new zoning as being out-of-alignment with the city’s environmental regulations, despite repeated assurances from Burien planning staff to the contrary.

In a 5-2 vote last week, the Burien City Council put a rollback of zoning changes in those three neighborhoods on its to-do list for 2026, updates that had allowed four to seven homes on certain residential lots. That framework went further than the new state-mandated baseline for a city of Burien’s size.

Under 2023’s House Bill 1110, Burien has to allow at least two units on all residential lots, but the areas in question had a new baseline of four units, with another two able to be added if they meet certain requirements for affordability or are close to frequent transit. With an additional incentive to preserve existing houses, property owners could ultimately assemble seven units per lot.

New commercial zoning was also approved to foster more small-scale commercial development, following in the footsteps of an existing historic store at Three Tree Point — a store that is actually set to move to Downtown Burien this fall to be more accessible to its customer base.

Though the idea of fostering those neighborhood centers though additional zoned density had been part of last year’s Comprehensive Plan update, opposition to the new R-3 zoning has ramped up over the course of this year. Opponents of additional housing have framed the changes as being incompatible with maintaining Burien’s natural environment, along with standard concerns coming from increased density like increased traffic and loss of neighborhood character.

“Seahurst is a bedroom community surrounded by trees, wildlife and water – upzoning will have a significant impact on these delicate features,” read a June meeting notice circulated by residents of Seahurst, posted on the Burien News blog. “Promoting this rezone of our residential neighborhoods under the guise of creating ‘Affordable Housing’ may check a ‘buzz word’ box but doesn’t really portray reality. Our experience has been that this type of zoning primarily benefits developers, who then RENT out these properties.”

Throughout testimony last week, the idea that the city had made a mistake in applying R-3 zoning in these areas because it could potentially conflict with the city’s Critical Areas Ordinance or with its Shoreline Master Program was pervasive.

“You understood and supported our concerns over both lack of communication from the city and zoning designated without thoroughly investigating, understanding and adhering jurisdictions and guidelines that must be followed regarding critical areas in the [Shoreline Master Program],” Three Tree Point resident Dawn Lemmel told the council. “The zoning process was erroneously designed when absolute requirements and state-directed restrictions were not respected, followed or adhered to by city staff. If you do not correct this, you are equally culpable.”

Neither the city’s regulations around development in critical areas or those dealing with shorelines are superseded by zoning, and development in the R-3 zones would still need to comply with environmental regulations in the same way that a property owner building a single family home with an accessory dwelling unit would. Burien City staff raised this fact in 2024. Nothing makes a four-unit development inherently more environmentally destructive than a large single family homes, or an illegally constructed cabana built close to the shoreline, a pervasive problem that the City of Burien has been dealing with in Three Tree Point for years.

“The Shoreline Master Program is a separate document from the Comprehensive Plan, and it regulates how you can develop on specific pieces of property that are near the shoreline,” Liz Stead, Burien’s Community Development Director, told the council last October. “And so it is something that goes on top of any other zoning regulations or ordinances. The Comprehensive Plan gives a big overview of what type of development you can have in different areas of the city. So you can have just a single family [house] or you can have some low-scale multifamily. The Shoreline Master Program doesn’t give you development rights, but it actually controls how much density [can be built] on site.”

But the council’s five-member majority, the same bloc that has come together to approve policies like the city’s punitive camping ban earlier this year, sided with the homeowner groups in putting the issue on its 2026 to-do list. Washington cities can only update their Comprehensive Plans once per year outside of an emergency, and last week’s action sets up that potential update next year. Only Councilmembers Hugo Garcia and Sarah Moore voted against advancing the issue.

“The communities of Three Tree Point and Lake Burien have worked hard and consistently to bring this to our attention, and I do think it’s time that we listened,” Councilmember Stephanie Mora said before making the motion.

“In my view, a lot of the zoning didn’t make sense to me in the areas with with shoreline restrictions and tree canopy restrictions and bussing and all of that, it felt to me as if it was being over zoned,” Councilmember Linda Akey said. “And we are a tier two city without an expectation of becoming a tier one city anywhere in the next 10 to 20 years, and I just felt that we didn’t need to over zone certain areas where we wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Akey was referencing the fact that state law won’t require Burien to allow four units on all lots until it hits 75,000 in population. Today Burien’s population is just over 53,000.

By next year when the issue comes back in front of the council, its composition could look very different. With four seats on the ballot in November, both Garcia and Moore have a clear path to reelection based on their performance in the August primary, with another progressive, Sam Méndez, coming out ahead for the open Position 3 seat. The race to watch will be Position 7, where Mora faces a challenge from former planning commissioner Rocco DeVito.

Just last week, Burien’s entire progressive slate, including Moore, Garcia, Méndez and DeVito, received a big boost via an endorsement from 7th Congressional District Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

DeVito told The Urbanist that he would not have voted to advance potential changes to zoning in Three Tree Point, Lake Burien, or Seahurst.

“I think we need housing in all neighborhoods, and that includes modest upzones to smaller neighborhoods. We all have to be in it together and make sure that we meet our goals and also make sure we’re having taxes to pay for services,” DeVito said, linking this debate to one that has been happening within Burien since before it was incorporated in 1993.

“Looking at Burien, the City incorporated primarily to stop unfettered apartment building when they were unincorporated, and so this kind of attitude of preserving the status quo has been the city’s way of dealing with things for a long time,” DeVito said. “So it is definitely a change for folks, and I understand change is hard for a lot of people, but we both need the people and space, and we also need to make sure that we are growing our city and keeping our tax revenue strong so that we can keep supporting programs for all citizens.”

Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling, running this year for state legislature on a platform that highlights the issue of building more housing, nonetheless sided with the homeowners. Schilling faces a tough race against incumbent Edwin Obras (33rd Legislative District), who came out well ahead of Schilling in the August primary.

“Thanks to folks in the community who kept at it and started in the summer and invited all of us to come speak to you at some of the biggest community gatherings I’ve ever been to in Burien,” Schilling said. You’re all just a bunch of neighbors who got together and said we want to change something, and so I appreciate your fortitude in that.”

The vote tees up a debate over the future of Burien’s lower density neighborhoods in 2026, with the battle lines now clearly drawn.

The post Burien Eyes Rolling Back Zoning Changes in Response to Homeowner Pressure first appeared on The Urbanist.