Trees provide cooling shade that can save lives. They absorb carbon pollution from the air and reduce stormwater runoff and the risk of flooding. Yet many builders perceive them as an obstacle to quickly and efficiently putting up housing.
This tension between development and tree preservation is at a tipping point in Seattle, where a new state law is requiring more housing density but not more trees.
One solution is to find ways to build density with trees. The Bryant Heights development in northeast Seattle is an example of this. It’s an extra-large city block that features a mix of modern apartments, town houses, single-family homes and retail. Architects Ray and Mary Johnston worked with the developer to place 86 housing units where once there were four. They also saved trees.
This is likely to be the bright spot for the day.
The people showing up to defend trees at the city council these days are nimbys who don’t want higher density. They fail to see that adding more housing in Seattle will prevent hundreds of trees not being cut down in the new suburbs being built in our forested areas
LOL … my grandparents with a condo on Alder in Edmonds just put up with trees growing. In the '80s. These NIMBY shits are a different bunch. My attention is also focused elsewhere currently.