Transportation
Alongside New Light Rail Stations, Seattle Plans Affordable Housing
Affordable apartments near reliable public transportation aren’t always easy to find. As Seattle expands its Link light rail, the city has codified a solution.
For two years, nearly an entire block of land in the middle of the bustling Seattle neighborhood of Capitol Hill sat vacant. Located directly above the underground Link light rail station, the land had been used as a staging area during construction, but became superfluous once the station was completed in 2016.
Rather than leave it vacant or sell it to a developer to build market-rate housing, the owner of the land, Sound Transit, Puget Sound’s transportation authority, worked with Seattle’s Office of Housing and other local agencies to fill the lot with affordable housing.