This layer is the output of the City of Seattle Zoned Development Capacity Model. To estimate potential development, the City of Seattle maintains a zoned development capacity model that compares existing development to an estimate of what could be built under current zoning. The difference between potential and existing development yields the capacity for new development measured as the number of housing units and the number of potential jobs that could be added.
Knowledge about capacity enables the City to determine the effects of proposed zoning changes, policy revisions and development trends. It also aids in setting and allocating the 20-year growth targets that must be accommodated by the City’s Comprehensive Plan.
The model is based on development sites and land use zoning maintained by the Department of Construction and Inspections. Model results for any given development site are not a prediction that a certain amount of development will occur in some fixed time period.
The actual level of development activity that occurs is a function of a variety of future factors, many of which are beyond our ability to predict or influence. These factors include such things as the future demand for a particular type of development (such as for townhouses, high-amenity multifamily or small-unit multifamily), whether the owner of any particular land is willing to sell or redevelop it, the financial feasibility of developing the land, and the intensity of development when it does occur. Other factors, such as the relative attractiveness of certain areas for living and commerce, and the relative densities allowed by the existing zoning, can cause some areas to be developed earlier or later than others. No one can predict with certainty the total effect of all these factors on the choices made by land developers.
See the data in action in this web app.