Dear CM X,

I'm writing as a Seattle resident to ask you to vote no on Council Bill 121215.

I understand the goal of keeping housing and planning decisions moving, and I share it. But this bill solves the wrong problem. It doesn't fix the process — it removes the public's only affordable way to hold the City accountable when its environmental analysis is wrong. An appeal to the Hearing Examiner is affordable. Redirecting residents to Superior Court or the Growth Management Hearings Board doesn't preserve that right; it prices it out of reach for anyone who can't afford a lawyer.

If you are earnest about balancing speedy development with residents' rights, then address the process — shorten the timelines, move housing-related appeals to the front of the queue, set a firm decision deadline. There are real ways to make this faster without taking the right away.

And consider what this bill actually exempts from review. Comprehensive Plans and area-wide rezones shape entire neighborhoods for generations, while individual projects have far smaller impacts. Comprehensive plans and area-wide development regulations can shape cumulative environmental conditions across entire neighborhoods for decades, making meaningful public review especially important. They warrant the highest scrutiny, not the least. This bill has it backwards.

Removing the public's most accessible check on the City's own work is solving the wrong problem — and it's a bad look, for this Council and for our City. Reform the process. Don't take away our rights.

Thank you for representing all of us.

[Your name]
[Your Seattle neighborhood / Council district]