BREAKING: The Washington Court of Appeals has found in favor of the two groups challenging the environmental review of Seattle's Comprehensive Plan, finding that both King County Superior Court and the city's Hearing Examiner erred in dismissing the appeal at earlier stages.
I think a lot about the @jerusalem.bsky.social article from 2024 describing the schism in environmentalism between "crisis greens" and "cautious greens."
That struggle continues, and the consequences of rulings like this will be more sprawl, more pollution, and cities that are less affordable.
Weaponizing environmental concerns to prevent people from living in our urban environments isn’t new. It’s deployed by people with resources to restrict access to high opportunity areas. It’s nimbyism. In order to reach our housing goals, our land use processes must stop enabling this behavior.
This is why we can’t have nice things. Weaponizing environmental law to prevent a grocery store in an already existing building is the epitome of NIMBYism & demonstrates the flaws in our legal system.