📱 SPD releases Bite of Seattle texts

City Council Offering Fee Break to Developers To Spur Housing Construction

City Councilmember Dionne Foster is aiming to bring back a Housing Accelerating proposal that would reduce fees for developers paying into the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program. It’s a bid to get building projects stuck or slowed by financing complications going again. [The Urbanist]

• What is the MHA? City Council proposed the first MHA upzones in 2015, and a city-wide policy was passed in 2019 after a legal battle. Part of the policy requires developers building apartments, condos, or commercial space to either build some low-income homes or pay a fee to the City’s affordable housing fund. Most ended up just paying the fee. At first, the policy raised significant funds for the city, with $300 million going towards affordable housing from 2017-2023. However, that didn’t last — fewer and fewer permits were issued in the last few years, and MHA fees raised only $25 million in 2025, down from its peak of $74 million in 2021. [The Urbanist]
• What happened? Inflation, labor fees, and interest rates are contributing to the decline of building new housing, as well, as of course, tariffs. According to the Seattle Housing Roundtable, an alliance representing 30 developers, 6,000 housing units are stuck in limbo and need to find financing to move forward. That doesn’t include any potential future housing builds.
• Proposal: Foster’s plan would remove 80% of MHA fees for the next two years, and 60% for any projects that apply before 2028. It would also require that a quarter of units built using the 60% fee reduction have two or more bedrooms.
• Mixed opinions: Developer Peter Nitze says that he appreciates the urgency that the council has to get this through, citing the slow process of actually making these housing projects come to fruition. Representative Nicole Macri questions whether new units will actually be affordable for the people who need it. However, Natalie Quick of the Seattle Housing Roundtable says this could get more than 30 projects going if it passes.
• Foster will bring the legislation to the Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights committee on Friday. You’ll be able to watch a live stream if you want!

📱 SPD releases Bite of Seattle texts: SPD has released text messages from the Bite of Seattle shooting on July 26. Then-Chief Shon Barnes was out of town, and the texts reveal he did not know who had taken charge of the situation. The city and SPD have been under scrutiny for not communicating with the public quickly enough. Last week, guest host Brett Hamil and PubliCola’s Erica C. Barnett dug into questions about the timeline. [Seattle Times]

✈️ We’re average! We’re average! Completed construction on the C Concourse and reduced TSA wait times have helped bump SEA from slot 17 to 11 in airport customer service ratings, according to a 2026 J.D. Power North American Airport Satisfaction Study. That may still be average, but we’re on our way, baby! Producer Sam J. Leeds remains sad about Spot Saver, however. [MyNorthwest]

🤝 DoorDash and Costco team up: In a win for those of us trying to be as lazy as possible, you can start getting same-day service from Costco warehouse via DoorDash (as long as you have a Costco membership). Here’s hoping the $1.50 hot dog arrives still hot! [DoorDash]