UDF: Equitable TOD w/ King County Council Chair Claudia Balducci
Claudia Balducci, King County Regional Council Chair and former Bellevue Mayor, will join us to discuss King County’s approach to transit oriented development (TOD), specifically related to the expanding light rail and bus rapid transit in the ST2 and ST3 packages, through the lens of the King Co Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan. This is a particularly relevant topic intersection as our region is hyper-focused on issues of equity and racial injustice, while we are building out our light rail and bus rapid transit networks and, finally, experiencing and planning for continued pandemic impacts.
Equitable Transit Oriented Development (ETOD) is quickly becoming the prominent approach to development around transit hubs, though the term “ETOD” is still in the process of defining itself. Municipalities around the country are working on equitable-focused development policies, though there is not yet an established set of universally-shared strategies that guide this approach.
One equitable policy that Washington State has established is the affordable housing that is now required by the “80-80-80” state legislative statute, which provides and will continue to provide much needed housing cost relief at our transit nodes. However, the 80-80-80 statute does not solve affordability issues on it’s own and does not address community displacement. Thus, even with mandated development of affordable housing on surplus transit lands, as the region urbanizes and increasingly develops desirable, pedestrian-centric denser urban nodes we will likely continue to see side effects of gentrification and displacement in these parts of region, which often hits our BIPOC communities the hardest.
Of course, to minimize our region’s carbon footprint and reduce our reliance on automobiles, we must continue to densify and urbanize, but the negative side effects of development, namely displacement and gentrification, are detrimental to many existing, more affordable communities. We will dig into how the King County Council has seen these negative side effects play out so far and what solutions have been or could be implemented to mitigate these negative side effects while the region continues to develop and densify, particularly near transit nodes.
We will have a moderated discussion with Claudia Balducci. Followed by a casual Q & A with Claudia and meeting participants. Join us remotely!
When:
January 27, 2021
5:30-6:10p Moderated ETOD Discussion
6:10-6:30p Q & A
6:30-6:45p Wrap up
Click here to view a full recording of the webinar.
This virtual program includes closed captioning. Please indicate on your registration if you require specific accommodations to fully participate in this program.
This program is presented by AIA Seattle’s Urban Design Forum. Contact Member Engagement Manager Connor Descheemaker with any question or concerns.
