Regional Efforts to Achieve Sustainability in Seattle: Skinny Latte or Double Fat Mocha? 1 Gary Pivo Associate Professor Department of Urban Design and Planning University of Washington 1 From Creating Sustainable Places Symposium. 30-31 January 1998. Published by the Herberger Center for Design Excellence, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. Introduction The Seattle metropolis contains two metropolitan areas anchored by five central cities—Tacoma, Bremerton, Seattle, Bellevue, and Everett, Washington. Aside from rain, grunge music, Starbucks coffee, and Ken Griffey Jr., the region has several important characteristics that are worth understanding before examining its regional efforts to achieve sustainability. First, the economy is dominated by the old industrial giant The Boeing Company. With nearly 100,000 employees in the region, as goes Boeing, so goes the re- gion. Despite a rapidly growing and highly influential high-technology sector, including Microsoft, the region's fortunes very much remain tied to airplane manufacturing. The Seattle region is also rapidly growing. In 1997, the population was estimated to be 3.1 million. This is about 600,000 more residents than were in the area in 1985, and about half a million less than are forecasted for 2005 (Puget Sound Regional Council 1995). Using just about any measure, the region is one of the fastest growing in North America. Threatened and endangered species are struggling to remain viable in many locations throughout the region. Once-great salmon runs are disappearing. Great old growth forests are dwindling. Wetlands are disappearing and both floods and landslides are becoming ever more common. Powerful political forces have interests at stake in the region. Environmentalists are organized, sophisticated, and well-financed. Business organizations are as well. Neighborhood groups have organized to defend their territory, as have property rights activists. Newly incorporated cities have very motivated leaders, as do older cities. Women voters, labor unions, church councils, conservative talk radio, and brilliant newspaper editorial writers on the right and the left are all interested in urban and environmental issues and call for action whenever they think it necessary. The region is governed by a complex array of federal, state, regional, and local agencies. Dozens of cities, and even more special districts, have control over local policy, while single-purpose regional, state, and federal agencies control much of the infrastructure spending and resource management. Planning Framework Any conception of a broad-based regional approach to sustainability in the Puget Sound area would have to in- clude an understanding of the planning framework cre- ated by state laws, regional and county plans, and city and neighborhood plans. In principle, all of the neigh- borhood, city, and regional planning in the region are part of a vertically and horizontally consistent policy framework established by state law. Moreover, the policy content of these plans are consistent with principles of 75