Office of the Mayor

City of Seattle

Jenny A. Durkan, Mayor

Executive Order 2021-10: Strategies to Support Community Centered Engagement and Targeted Investments for Communities Impacted by Large Upcoming Infrastructure Investments.

An Executive Order directing City departments to develop and implement strategies to leverage benefits to communities that are impacted by large infrastructure projects, beginning with the Chinatown/International District (CID). The directives will include enhanced coordinated engagement, prioritized land acquisitions and funding for mitigating housing displacement or gentrification and recommend future processes to deliver community benefits in alignment with City and external agency large infrastructure delivery.

WHEREAS, the City has a stated commitment to grow equitably through its guiding document, the City Comprehensive Plan; and

WHEREAS, the City strives to ensure that new infrastructure has a positive benefit to the city and the community in which it is placed; and

WHEREAS, the City understands that infrastructure can catalyze new growth and strives for that new growth to advance opportunity and prosperity shared by all; and

WHEREAS, the Sound Transit West Seattle and Ballard Link Extension (WSBLE) project is a large infrastructure project that will catalyze change in the neighborhoods along the alignment; and

WHEREAS, Seattle's historic Chinatown/International District (CID) has experienced decades of infrastructure projects that have led to displacement and impacted small businesses, community spaces, and affordable housing including I-5, stadiums, streetcar lines, the current Sound Transit lines, and rail lines; and

WHEREAS, the CID neighborhood houses the Sound Transit light rail hub station connecting the Initial Link segment (Northgate to Angel Lake) and will be one of two primary transfer points for future Link lines (East, Lynnwood, WSBLE, Tacoma, and Everett) expansions. Construction, increased operations, and ridership will provide significant change and impact without commensurate transit benefits for the CID; and

WHEREAS, Sound Transit is required to provide mitigation for immediate and cumulative impact of the WSBLE project to improve neighborhoods along the alignment; and has previously defined providing service as the most important public benefit enjoyed at each new station; and

WHEREAS, Sound Transit's new light rail service will bring new connections to the CID. However, the neighborhood will experience significant impacts and this Executive Order is intended to leverage Sound Transit mitigation to provide benefits to improve neighborhoods beyond transit service; and

WHEREAS, the City intends to build on its efforts for equitable outreach and engagement practices that reaffirm the City's commitment to inclusive participation; and

WHERAS, the City has put into place key anti-displacement programs such as the Equitable Development Initiative, Equitable Communities Initiative, and community preference policy for affordable housing that can be scaled with additional investments; and

WHEREAS, the City respects the knowledge that community brings to forge their own solutions, and the strength of community to lead in these solutions; and

WHEREAS, the capital-intensive departments (Seattle City Light, Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Parks and Recreation, the Office of Housing, the Office of the Waterfront and Civil Projects, and the Seattle Center) already undergo interdepartmental collaboration and consultation with the Department of Neighborhoods and Office of Planning and Community Development to ensure those departments provide capital investments which meet long-range and strategic plans, and drive toward solutions that are community centered;

NOW THEREFORE, I, Jenny A. Durkan, Mayor of Seattle, hereby direct City departments to carry out the following orders to address the community impacts of upcoming infrastructure investments, especially the new WSBLE:

Section 1. Directing the City's approach to catalytic investments and shared policy recommendations for community-centered outcomes for large infrastructure investments, beginning with Sound Transit's West Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions (WSBLE) project.

A. The Citywide approach to the WSBLE project shall include:

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) shall lead the City's interdepartmental team in collaboration with the Mayor's Office to help plan, permit and oversee the delivery of the WSBLE project and to communicate City priorities and concerns to Sound Transit. [Deliverable: DEIS comment letter within ST/FTA timeline, 2022]

The Department of Neighborhoods (DON) shall lead the Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) and SDOT to identify community priorities for mitigation to inform any future Community Benefit Agreements (CBA) to be explored with the Chinatown/International District and Little Saigon communities and future neighborhoods as needed. [Deliverable: Policy recommendations for CBA and CBA parameters May 2022 or before ST board action on WSBLE preferred alternative]

B. The City Budget Office (CBO) will convene the City-designated Sound Transit representative in the Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle City Light, Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle Parks and Recreation, Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects, Office of Housing and other non-capital departments (OPCD and Office of Economic Development). They will:

Establish clear definitions and thresholds for infrastructure projects that would be subject to this Executive Order [Deliverable: Large Infrastructure Decision-Criterion May 2022]

Establish measurable and transparent criterion for evaluating and recommending benefits [Deliverable: Large Infrastructure Decision-Criterion May 2022]

Begin with CID community to provide policy direction for how to bring community vision and benefit into project planning, design, and delivery shaped by community centered input for the delivery of large new infrastructure. [Deliverable: ECF Outcomes and Accountability Report June 2022]

Section 2: Conducting community engagement and support community on Community Benefit Agreements for the Chinatown/International District (CID).

A. Provide recommendations for how City-led and external large infrastructure projects should implement the Equitable Communities Framework to ensure community needs and aspirations are embedded in the planning, design, and construction phases; as well as how the delivery of these large infrastructure projects should be upgraded, improved, and changed based on this early and ongoing community engagement. [Deliverable of Policy Recommendations September 2022]

B. DON shall lead this effort in partnership with the Equitable Communities Framework (ECF) building with appropriate capital-investment departments and OPCD. The ECF will focus on building resilient and sustainable communities through focused place-based strategies that consolidate community engagement, early project planning, and coordinated investments in CID. [Deliverable Work Plan and Implementation Report June 2022]

C. The new 1 full time employee in DON will work in partnership with the Chinatown/International District, Little Saigon, and Pioneer Square communities as a key foundation for any future CBA. DON in partnership with OPCD and Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will support the internal departmental collaboration in support of this goal. [Deliverable: Measurements and Outcomes report December 2022]

D. This work will track outcomes and measurements, defined in the Large Infrastructure Decision-Criterion, on the CID portfolio of projects and programs, to be provided to MO and CBO. This real-time data collection may support building a criterion for communities with large infrastructure placements in the future.

E. The OPCD through the Equitable Development Initiative (EDI) will continue to prioritize investments in BIPOC community-held projects in High-Risk Displacement areas and advance those projects that will create opportunities for community wealth building beginning with CID and for other communities that are served by WSBLE and future large infrastructure projects.

F. The Office of Housing (OH), with additional local and federal resources, shall continue to prioritize land and building acquisition and affordable housing development in High-Risk Displacement areas, including areas that will be impacted by future large infrastructure investments.

Inquiries regarding this Executive Order should be directed to Deputy Mayor Shefali Ranganathan, Office of the Mayor.

Dated this 1st day of December, 2021

Jenny A. Durkan

Mayor of Seattle