Mayor Bruce Harrell signing New Land Use Legislation on Tuesday in Ballard on the docks of Fisherman’s Terminal
After decades of debate Mayor Bruce Harrell on Tuesday signed a law that offers greater protections for industries like manufacturing and shipping.
“Thank you for taking it on in the first place” Toshiko Hasegawa, VP of the Seattle Port Commission, thanked the Mayor for crafting a new land use policy after decades of patchwork changes “For believing, no matter how complex and difficult this would be, that we need an updated industrial land use policy to realize our vision for Seattle’s economy.”
Maritime is an $8B industry across Washington, responsible for more than 100,000 jobs. “When you look behind me you’ve got a lot of empty slips” standing on the docks of Fisherman’s Terminal in Ballard Councilmember Dan Strauss illustrated the trickle-down benefits an of an industry that started here in 1914 “Each of those empty slips represents a small business directly employing hundreds of people in our community; and indirectly employing thousands.”
New zoning laws protect industries; constantly moving, noisy, often messy industries.
“These vessels behind us employ hundreds of people in our community” Mayor Harrell recalls fishing in these waters with his father as a child “Quite candidly it’s our responsibility and mine as mayor; making sure we protect these jobs as a pathway to an affordable, vibrant city for all.”
New zoning laws also promote business “When we started 1st Mode in 2018” Ray Adams clean tech company is now committed to making aerospace parts in the SODO neighborhood “We weren’t sure Seattle was the right place for a lot of the heavy manufacturing we knew we’d be doing; but we quickly realized we were wrong.”
Over the next 20 years this new land use policy is expected to create 35,000 new jobs and build 3,000 new homes.
“This industry provides over 100,000 critical living wage jobs” the mayor noted over and over “And the kind of jobs, 2/3’s of which may not require a fancy college degree.”