TagLand Use(230)

A 1980 King County ordinance amending the Highline Communities Plan to better accommodate senior housing, recognizing that elderly-focused multifamily housing generates less neighborhood impact than traditional multifamily development and should be evaluated on its own site-specific merits. The ordinance also updates cultural facilities policy to encourage public-private cooperation in developing a performing arts theatre in the Highline Community, including through the possible formation of a Park and Recreation District.

This August 1980 Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement from King County's Division of Planning outlines proposed zoning changes for the Highline Community Plan, covering areas surrounding Seattle-Tacoma International Airport including White Center, Burien, and nearby neighborhoods. The document maps land proposed for rezoning across multiple subareas, with changes including downzones to single-family residential, conversions to multi-family or mixed use, and designations of land for potential future rezones. It serves as a planning tool to guide land use decisions in communities directly affected by airport noise and related impacts.

A July 1980 letter from King County's Building and Land Development division acknowledges a complaint filed by Virginia E. Dana, assigning it case numbers 80-547, 80-548, and 80-549, and outlines the county's process for investigating code violations. The letter explains that resolving complaints may involve researching property ownership, contacting the owner, and conducting field inspections for serious hazards. A related newspaper article covers conditional use permit hearings for tenants of closed Highline School District schools, noting that the county had recently discovered many such tenants lacked required permits.

Published in June 1980 by the Federal Interagency Committee on Urban Noise, this document provides guidelines for incorporating noise considerations into land use planning and control decisions. It was produced jointly by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Housing and Urban Development. The guidelines are intended to help planners and policymakers manage the impact of noise—such as that generated by airports like Sea-Tac—on surrounding communities through zoning and land use strategies.

A March 1980 memo from King County's Planning Division manager Karen Rahm notifies recipients about the Proposed Highline Communities Plan Area Zoning, a zoning framework designed to implement the land use guidelines of the 1977 Highline Communities Plan. The memo states that a supplemental draft Environmental Impact Statement was being prepared and would be published in Spring 1980, after which the zoning proposal would be sent to the County Council for adoption. Handwritten notes on the reverse reference page 56, suggesting a potential rezoning from SR to ML (Medium Light industrial) with consideration of buffer zones around ML areas.

This February 20, 1980 errata document lists official corrections to the Highline Zoning Plan, a proposed area zoning document and accompanying maps covering communities in the Highline area near Seattle. The corrections update specific zoning designations on several map sections, such as changing certain parcels to residential multi-family (RM) or business-commercial (B-C) classifications, and fix a text sequencing error in the zoning document. These adjustments reflect policy decisions aimed at guiding land use—including residential density and commercial development—in neighborhoods in the vicinity of what is now Sea-Tac Airport.

This 1980 recreation master plan for North Sea-Tac Park was prepared by Jongejan/Gerrard/McNeal, Inc. as a joint planning effort between the Port of Seattle and King County. The plan identifies community recreational needs, assesses natural and manmade site constraints including airport noise impacts, and proposes development guidelines for the park adjacent to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. It was described at the time as a pioneering example of airport-adjacent land use planning at the national level.