Unadopted Urban Center, Urban Village and Manufacturing/Industrial Centers Boundaries A2

Growth Targets and Planning Estimates for Urban Center Villages, Hub Urban Villages, and Residential Urban Villages A4

Cumulative Limits on Upzoning Land Zoned Single-family A9

Summary of Existing Land Use, Population, and Employment Characteristics A8

LAND USE APPENDIX DF

Growth Management Projections for the City of Seattle A20

This section describes the existing arrangement and concentration of uses and activities such as housing, businesses, parks and industries. Detailed discussion of the natural features, platting pattern, transportation facilities and the development pattern is provided in the Draft Comprehensive Plan Land Use Element, published in April 1993.

Seattle encompasses approximately 53,813 acres or about 84 square miles. Land Use Figure A-2 illustrates how the city’s land area is distributed among different types of uses. About 40% of the total land area is occupied by residential uses, most of which is in single-family development. Street rights-of-way take up the next largest amount of land -- almost 26%. Commercial and industrial areas, where most of the jobs in the city are located, occupy about 10%, while public parks account for approximately 9%.

Land Use Figure A-3 illustrates how these various activities are distributed within the city. With the exception of the downtown area and its immediate surroundings, Seattle is predominantly covered by single-family houses and street right-of-way. Most multifamily residences are concentrated in core areas such as First Hill/Capitol Hill and the University District. Jobs are located primarily in commercial and industrial areas such as Downtown, Duwamish, Northgate and the University District.

Slightly over half of the city’s households are living in detached, single-family houses that occupy 34% of the city’s total land area. Most of these dwellings are located in areas devoted exclusively to low-density development (Land Use Figure A-4). The other half of the city’s households live in some type of multifamily development concentrated on 6% of the city's land area. These multifamily dwellings are in buildings of varying sizes, including small buildings of two to four units (duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes), medium-sized buildings (apartment buildings and condominiums with 10 to 19 units), and large buildings (apartment buildings and condominiums with 20 units or more). Citywide, small multifamily buildings of two to four units account for very little of Seattle’s housing. Most of the city’s multifamily units are in large buildings.

Land Use Figure A-5 shows the distribution of household density in the city expressed as the number of households per gross acre. (Gross acre includes nonresidential uses such as street rights-of-way and parks.) Areas with the highest density of households (hh) are located north of the I-90 freeway. Portions of First Hill/Capitol Hill contain the highest density of households -- in some areas well over 13 hh/gross acre. The next densest areas (11-13 hh/gross acre) include portions of the Denny Regrade, the south slope of Queen Anne Hill and a portion of the University District. Areas of more moderate housing unit density (8-10 hh per gross acre) include West Seattle Junction, Ballard, Wallingford, Eastlake and Madison Park. A population density map (Land Use Figure A-6) is another way of presenting information about where people live. This figure shows a concentration of residents similar to that of the household density map. In addition, it shows isolated areas where a significant concentration of people occur, such as the Highpoint and Holly Park communities.

Land Use Figure A-3

(in Dwelling Units)

Source: 1990 US Census

Land Use Figure A-5

Land Use Figure A-6

Seattle is a regional employment center providing a great variety of jobs. Based on PSRC 1990 data, Seattle contains about 469,802 jobs in businesses occupying about 5,442 commercial and industrial acres, or 10% of the total city land area. Land Use Figure A-7 shows the distribution of these jobs according to standard classifications by neighborhood districts.

Land Use Figure A-8 illustrates the distribution of employment density as number of jobs per gross acre. Areas with the highest job densities (greater than 50 jobs/gross acre) include Downtown, First Hill, Seattle Center and South Lake Union communities. Areas with a fairly high density (26 to 50 jobs/gross acre) are the University District, Ballard and Central areas. Predominantly residential areas of the city have employment densities as low as 1 to 15 jobs per acre.

Employment activity is much more concentrated than housing. Most of the jobs in the city are located in the areas described below. These areas are unique because they attract people daily from all over the city and region.

Downtown. Downtown Seattle, with about 165,000 jobs at an average density of about 175 jobs per gross acre, supports the largest concentration of jobs in the Pacific Northwest. In some parts of the office core, job densities exceed 300 jobs per acre. Almost 37% of the total number of jobs in the city are located downtown.

University District. University District, with over 31,500 jobs, has the second greatest concentration of employment within the city. While much of this employment is associated with the University of Washington, the largest single employer in the city, the area also has significant amounts of both service and retail employment. Employment density in the University District is about 40 jobs per acre.

Northgate. In addition to Northgate Mall, the city’s principal regional shopping facility outside of downtown, several major employers are clustered in the Northgate area, including Northwest Hospital, North Seattle Community College and a relatively large concentration of service employment. This area has a total employment of about 11,366 jobs, at a density of about 28 jobs per acre.

Seattle Center. Another substantial concentration of employment located immediately north of downtown is the area around Seattle Center between Denny Way and the base of Queen Anne Hill. Providing backup office and service activity for downtown, as well as other retail and service uses, the area accommodates over 33,000 jobs at a job density of around 37 jobs per acre.

First Hill. A very specialized concentration of medical facilities has developed on First Hill east of downtown, lending the area the nickname "Pill Hill." With Swedish Hospital Medical Center, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center and related support facilities, this area has one of the greatest employment concentrations in the city, with around 20,000 jobs at an average employment density of about 85 jobs per acre.

Major Institutions. A number of major institutions located throughout the city also provide significant concentrations of employment for the whole region, such as the University of Washington. Others are somewhat isolated concentrations of employment in otherwise low-density areas, such as Veterans Administration Medical Center and South Seattle Community College.

Neighborhood Commercial. Seattle’s neighborhood business areas provide locations for services needed by the surrounding low- to moderate-residential populations, such as food from restaurants or grocery stores; entertainment; professional, personal or business services. These neighborhood businesses are dispersed and the range of services they provide varies throughout the city. They generally are in locations with fair accessibility to both the transportation network and concentrations of people.

A number of the city’s larger, more-established neighborhood commercial areas also provide concentrations of employment. Ballard, Fremont, and West Seattle Junction are all areas with between 3,000 and 6,000 jobs and employment densities averaging in the 10 to 20 jobs per acre range. Other commercial areas with notable job concentrations include Lake City, the Aurora strip between N. 125th and N.145th Streets and the area around Rainier Avenue and Interstate 90. The employment populations of these areas range between 3,000 and 4,000, with average job densities of between 8 to 12 jobs per acre. South Lake Union, in close proximity to Downtown, has over 15,000 jobs, reaching an employment density of 34 jobs per acre.

Industrial Areas. Citywide, industrial uses are concentrated in the Duwamish Valley, and North Seattle, which includes Interbay, and the shoreline area between Ballard and Fremont. Some manufacturing and industrial activity also occurs around the shores of Lake Union and along Rainier Avenue, near Interstate 90. Two of these areas, North Seattle and the Duwamish Valley, are major areas of employment. The North Seattle area has roughly 15,000 jobs, while the Duwamish accounts for over 65,000. Combined, they contain roughly 17% of the city’s total employment population. Given the land-intensive nature of employment activities in these areas, the job densities are comparatively low, seldom exceeding 14 jobs per acre.

Source: Puget Sound Regional Council, Nov. 1993

*F.I.R.E. - Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate

**W.C.T.U. - Wholesale, Communications, Transportation, and Utilities

Land Use Figure A-8

The distribution of jobs by employment sector in Seattle is shown in Land Use Figure A-9. Between 1980 and 1990, the number of jobs in Seattle increased by 21%, (83,118 new jobs). Service jobs accounted for the biggest increases, while manufacturing jobs have decreased by more than 5%.

LAND USE FIGURE A-9:

DISTRIBUTION OF JOBS BY EMPLOYMENT SECTOR

EMPLOYMENT SECTOR*

Mfg 50,536 13.1 47,839 10.0 -5

Retail 61,218 15.8 64,813 13.8 +6

WCTU 60,326 15.6 69,258 14.7 +15

FIRE/Serv 137,358 35.5 204,277 43.5 +49

Govt/Educ 77,246 20.0 83,615 17.8 +8

TOTAL 386,684 469,802 +21

Source: Forecasts of Seattle’s Population, Household, and Employment Characteristics for the Comprehensive Plan EIS Analysis, Seattle Planning Department, September 1992.

* Mfg = Manufacturing

WCTU = Wholesale, trade, transportation, communications, utilities

FIRE/Serv = Finance, insurance, real estate, services

Govt/Educ = Government, Education

The following annual population and employment projections reflect the City’s 20 year population and employment growth assumptions. These figures are projections, or what is predicted to occur over the life of the Plan. Growth estimates reflect Washington State estimates of actual housing growth as of April 1 of each year. These figures will be revised periodically to reflect changes in assumptions and/or actual growth.

Resident Population and Housing and Households Growth Projections Employment Growth Projections