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The Seattle City Council took up Mayor Bruce Harrell’s housing plan last week. But can you really call it a plan when it鈥檚 an absolute fantasy?

Hoping to brand himself as an ambitious visionary ahead of his re-election campaign, Harrell鈥檚 plan proposes more than doubling the city鈥檚 housing capacity 鈥� calling for over 330,000 new housing units within 20 years. But even some on the Seattle City Council aren鈥檛 drinking the Kool-Aid. Councilmember Kathy Moore dismissed the idea, saying she鈥檚 “not prepared to sacrifice” her neighborhood for Harrell鈥檚 pipe dream.

It鈥檚 not just Moore鈥檚 neighborhood that would need to be sacrificed. To achieve Harrell鈥檚 absurd housing goals, the entire city would have to be bulldozed, wiped off the map, and rebuilt from scratch. Seattle simply doesn鈥檛 have the land or infrastructure to make this happen. Pretending otherwise is a masterclass in delusion.

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The Seattle housing plan is a joke, right?

The biggest problem with Seattle鈥檚 housing plan is, unsurprisingly, reality. There simply isn鈥檛 enough space to accommodate this level of expansion, no matter how many years or zoning changes you throw at it.

Harrell鈥檚 grand vision includes a mix of duplexes and triplexes in existing neighborhoods, high-rise buildings near transit hubs, and approximately 30 “neighborhood centers” with five-story developments. He even proposes 80,000 new single-family homes. That鈥檚 on top of the current housing capacity of roughly 165,000 units. The math doesn鈥檛 just fail 鈥� it collapses under the weight of its own absurdity.

Even if we rezoned nearly every inch of Seattle, the physical and logistical limitations make Harrell鈥檚 promises laughable. Are we building massive high-rises in Wedgwood and Fremont? Are we cramming thousands of claustrophobic micro-apartments into five-story buildings around Greenlake or Georgetown? And let鈥檚 not forget the areas we can鈥檛 touch, like the Chinatown-International District or the Central District, because the same activists demanding housing would cry “gentrification” the moment plans are unveiled.

Maybe Harrell will bulldoze Capitol Hill and start over 鈥� not the worst idea, honestly. But short of such radical steps, his plan is nothing more than a PR stunt dressed up as policy.

While Harrell鈥檚 team relies on far-left bloggers and radical urbanists to spin his plan as “modest,” anyone who understands Seattle knows it鈥檚 a fantasy. So why are we wasting our time with this?

City of Seattle hasn’t even completed the studies

If the Seattle housing plan was a serious endeavor, and not merely a move to bolster his re-election campaign, the city’s Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) would have released plans for transportation and utilities. It would have already completed an Environmental Impact Study. Under state law, those plans are required. But this is an unserious plan.

The OPCD provided none of the materials. Seattle’s utilities infrastructure — from meeting electrical needs to sewer and trash pick-up — cannot accommodate such a plan. Moreover, the infrastructure in many neighborhoods isn’t equipped to support such intensified development. This would strain existing services and severely impact quality of life. Council member Maritza Rivera criticized the plan as rushed, echoing criticisms from colleague Bob Kettle.

“I spoke with many, many constituents in District 4 who felt like they were not reached out to. They didn鈥檛 feel like the proper outreach was there,” Rivera added. “Why in Phase 1 did (OPCD) not engage with the public broadly? That鈥檚 led to people feeling like this process has not been transparent, and that is unfortunate because when people feel like government is transparent, they trust government more.”

The answer is simple: this was never intended to be a serious housing plan for Seattle.

The Seattle housing plan is detached from the city’s physical realities

Seattle鈥檚 housing crisis didn鈥檛 appear out of thin air 鈥� it was a result of incompetent city leadership over the years.

As Amazon expanded and brought in tens of thousands of new residents, previous leaders botched every opportunity to plan for growth. They blocked high-rises where they were desperately needed, capped apartment building heights unnecessarily, and created a regulatory maze that made construction a costly nightmare. If you wanted to build in Seattle, you needed deep pockets and the patience of a saint.

When Amazon鈥檚 footprint grew, Democrats doubled down on bad policies that sent costs skyrocketing.

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Botching Amazon growth

Allowing high-rises in parts of South Lake Union was a rare smart move, but city leaders offset it by destroying street infrastructure for bike lanes that barely anyone uses and bus-only lanes that turn already-bad traffic into gridlock. Meanwhile, they stunted growth in surrounding neighborhoods by limiting building heights. Naturally, well-paid Amazon employees flocked to the limited high-rise apartments to avoid traffic, driving up rents because the market could handle it.

With those units filled, Amazon workers spilled into other nearby neighborhoods. But instead of developing larger apartment complexes to meet demand, the city capped those areas with smaller buildings. Rent predictably skyrocketed.

Then there鈥檚 the progressive activists, who love to screech about gentrification every time a new development is proposed in so-called “BIPOC” communities. They blocked projects that could have revitalized neighborhoods, leaving swaths of the city underdeveloped. Now, those same activists have the audacity to whine about high rents and pretend to support big developers rebuilding the city? The hypocrisy is staggering. Seattle鈥檚 housing mess is their Frankenstein monster.

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Seattle deserves a serious housing plan

Seattle has real housing challenges, and it deserves a serious plan. But with Mayor Bruce Harrell, serious plans are hard to come by. Instead, we get grandiose visions that crumble under even the slightest scrutiny.

Harrell has proven to be one of Seattle鈥檚 laziest mayors. He thrives in the spotlight, preferring speeches, parties, and photo ops to actual governance. His favorite activity? Talking about himself in interviews鈥攖hough he conveniently avoids tough journalists who might dare to hold him accountable. Meanwhile, the heavy lifting is left to his staff, who often compete with his inflated ego or are driven by radical ideologies that make him seem moderate by comparison. It’s why nothing gets done.

Indeed, the results speak for themselves. His administration sent out a press release celebrating a net gain of one police officer since 2020 鈥� one. It鈥檚 as pathetic as his housing plan is unrealistic. This is what passes for success in Harrell鈥檚 Seattle.

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So what happens next?

The city has had hardworking mayors in the past, even if their policies missed the mark.

Jenny Durkan was deeply engaged but hamstrung by an incompetent team and inexperience. Ed Murray actively managed the city until his career imploded in scandal. Even Mike McGinn, a committed simpleton who saw everything through the lens of bike lanes, was undeniably engaged. Harrell, by contrast, is coasting, more concerned with nurturing his brand than solving the city鈥檚 problems.

Harrell鈥檚 re-election is all but guaranteed. And even with that safety net, he won鈥檛 put forward a realistic housing plan because it’s not of interest to him. Unfortunately for Seattle, that means the city won鈥檛 get the leadership it desperately needs. Harrell鈥檚 empty dreams may sound bold, but when they鈥檙e impossible, they鈥檙e just another way of distracting from the failures of the status quo.

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