Earlier this month, we did a slightly deeper dive into what's up with Council President Sara Nelson’s sudden interest in reviving a failed plan to rezone SoDo for residential housing. Is it about adding housing? Or is it a giveaway to a billionaire friend?  

Either way, at today’s full council meeting, she got her wish. A motion from District 6 Councilmember Dan Strauss to delay consideration of the bill until the council’s July 15 meeting failed 6-3, garnering support only from District 7 Councilmember Bob Kettle and District 8 Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck. After debating a whole raft of amendments, the bill passed council 6-3, with only Kettle, Rinck, and Strauss opposing, the latter with an emphatic “absolutely not.”

So what does it do?

The bill would permit housing in the Stadium Transition Area Overlay District (STAOD), a use that was explicitly banned when the district was created. Its passage paves the way for billionaire Chris Hansen to develop a bunch of land he owns in SoDo into something described as a “Maker’s District.” His original goal in buying the land—most of which is located between 1st and Occidental Avenues directly south of Lumen Field—was to create a new NBA stadium and potentially #BringBackOurSonics. Since that effort failed, he’s been looking for a way to offload the property.

During today’s public comment, Port of Seattle Commissioner President Toshiko Hasegawa revealed that the Port was in talks to buy Hansen’s properties, potentially obviating the residential aspects of the Maker’s District project entirely. Strauss cited this revelation as part of his motivation for delaying the bill.

The district as envisioned by Nelson and her allies would create a compound including light industrial spaces and “workforce” housing. Half of any residential units in the project would be required to be affordable. Proponents of the Maker’s District say it would support small businesses and artists, add much-needed affordable housing to the mix, and help mitigate issues around homelessness and crime in SoDo.

Besides Hansen and the big developers and building trades unions who stand to benefit from this bill, supporters include the Housing Development Consortium, the Chief Seattle Club, Seattle Made, the Alliance for Pioneer Square, the Seattle Mariners, Plymouth Housing, and the Seattle Good Business Network.

Opponents say it would severely damage the Port of Seattle’s ability to do business, all while putting affordable housing in the path of pollution, a la South Park. They also argue that pedestrians and cyclists in the area will face severe safety issues, something they attempted to prove via a recent safety demonstration. The Port and all its associated unions are united against the current bill.

So now that it’s law, what happens?

Hansen will almost surely sell off his parcels to or partner with a development company and that company will almost surely begin work on the Maker’s District.

People at the Port of Seattle will, of course, be furious about that, but there’s not much they can do about it. Hasegawa didn’t hold back her disappointment at the bill’s passage. 

“This is a firm shove down a slippery slope of slow but sure encroachment on industrial lands. This is a loss for the public who will pay in the future with resources, missed opportunities, and heartache,” she said in a text to The Stranger. “Today's biggest winner is an out-of-state billionaire developer, who more than a decade ago made a bet that he could buy industrial land on the cheap and get the city council to add millions to his property value just by changing the zoning.”

Whether the construction and eventual population of this superblock project will affect Port operations as negatively as promised is something we’ll just have to find out, potentially the hard way. 

On the other hand, if the bill’s supporters are right, we’ll gain a bunch of affordable workforce housing right on the edge of downtown, plus a bunch of cheap industrial units to make mead or chai or metal yard art in.

Either way, we’re just happy that Hansen doesn’t own the building housing Hooverville. However you feel about adding housing to SoDo, there is one thing I think every Seattleite can agree on: this city cannot afford to lose even one more bar that lets you throw peanut shells on the ground.

 Marcus Harrison Green contributed reporting to this article.