GNC Asks Mayor Wilson for a Seat on the Housing Production Task Force
The Green Neighborhoods Coalition has written to Mayor Katie Wilson requesting formal inclusion in her new Housing Production Task Force.
The Mayor's executive order calls for community-driven input, which is the right instinct. But as the task force is currently composed, it does not include organizations focused on environmental sustainability, climate resilience, green space, equity, or displacement. Those are precisely the questions Seattle residents raise when new growth arrives in their neighborhood.
GNC brings parks and open space experience, land use expertise, neighborhood advocacy, and leaders from nonprofits and environmental organizations, including former park superintendents, deputy mayors, and civic leaders. We support building more housing. We also want that housing paired with tree canopy, green infrastructure, climate resilience, and real protections for the communities absorbing the most growth.
The letter was signed by Peter M. Rees, AIA, of Rees Architects LLC and immediate past board president of the Arboretum Foundation / Seattle Botanic Gardens, and Stephen Sullivan, AIA, of Stephen Sullivan Designs.
The full text is below.
Letter to Mayor Wilson
August 26, 2026
Office of the Mayor City of Seattle 600 4th Ave, 7th Floor Seattle, WA 98104
Dear Mayor Wilson,
The Green Neighborhoods Coalition (GNC) welcomes your administration's recent effort to accelerate housing production in Seattle's communities. Your executive order calls for community-driven input, and we respectfully request formal inclusion in your Housing Production Task Force.
Seattle urgently needs more housing. As we have seen in previous growth efforts, involving communities and people with lived experience during, not after, major policy deliberations produces stronger policy, builds public trust, and achieves shared outcomes.
Your announcement recognizes the importance of community involvement, but the task force does not currently include organizations focused on environmental sustainability, climate resilience, green space, equity, or displacement. GNC can bring those perspectives to the table.
GNC is a new coalition with deep roots in Seattle's communities and many of the issues shaping the city's future. We bring together people with deep experience in parks and open space, environmental sustainability and design, land use experts, neighborhood advocacy, and equity and displacement, including leaders from nonprofits, environmental organizations, and former park superintendents, deputy mayors, and civic leaders. We support building more housing while expanding parks, trees, and green infrastructure, strengthening climate resilience, and protecting longtime residents from displacement. Seattle can grow without forcing residents to choose between more housing and healthy, livable neighborhoods.
Our participation brings a practical, solution-oriented perspective to the task force. We will identify ways to coordinate enhanced housing production with green infrastructure investment, universal access to green space, preservation of our urban tree canopy, and protection of those neighborhoods and residents most likely to absorb the new growth.
Recent polling commissioned by GNC underscores why these perspectives matter and shows that the community's voice is growing louder:
Only 1 in 10 Seattle residents understand the City's housing growth plan.
Support for the plan starts at 64% but falls to 42% when voters learn it does not include protections for neighborhood livability, displacement, and climate resilience, a 22-point drop.
The responses grow more stark in places most prone to displacement and climate disruption: South Seattle, the Central District, and marginalized communities long left out of growth discussions.
Your task force has an opportunity to bring more voices into Seattle's housing conversation and build broader support for the creative solutions our city needs. Including GNC will add a perspective not currently represented among its members and help connect housing production with the environmental, equity, and neighborhood investments that residents expect as Seattle grows.
We respectfully ask you to include the Green Neighborhoods Coalition in the Housing Production Task Force and would welcome the opportunity to discuss how we can contribute to its work.
Thank you for your leadership.
Sincerely,
Peter M. Rees, AIA Rees Architects LLC Immediate Past Board President, Arboretum Foundation / Seattle Botanic Gardens
Stephen Sullivan, AIA Stephen Sullivan Designs
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