Skip to main content
Edit Page Control Panel
Page Header

HCMP Client Alert: Neighborhood SEPA Appeals Keep Food off the Table in Seattlebb

Recent front-page news in Seattle underscored why it can be critical for builders and project sponsors to engage experienced and local land use attorneys early in the development process.

North Seattle has been waiting since 2018 for someone to do something useful with a vacant former Sam's Club on Aurora Avenue.1 Nearly two years ago, employee-owned discount grocer WinCo first reached out to the City of Seattle about remodeling the vacant site into a new store, proposing to expand affordable grocery access to the transit-oriented but underserved corridor.2 Last week, a hearing examiner ruled that even after going through almost two years of permitting process, the project could not yet proceed under the State Environmental Policy Act, or SEPA.3 The setback could stall the project by months or years, or it could drive WinCo to abandon its first Seattle location altogether.4

In Seattle, this is a food access issue, and not a particularly controversial one. Mayor Katie Wilson's "Affordability Agenda" centers food as one of four key priorities,5 building on former Mayor Bruce Harrell's view that "[e]very neighborhood deserves convenient access to fresh, affordable, nutritious food and essential medicine."6 As Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth put it in October of 2025, "I am proud of our city for taking action to protect food access. With several grocers closing across the city . . . we're seeing clear signs that more Seattleites will experience food insecurity."7

So how did a project aligned with Seattle's affordability, sustainability and smart growth goals get derailed? The challenger, a coalition claiming to be made up of King County residents, won by arguing that the City's environmental analysis was insufficient under SEPA.8

The lesson is straightforward: engage experienced land use counsel as soon as you suspect neighborhood or competitive opposition to your proposal, instead of waiting until an appeal is filed. If engaged early enough, local land use counsel with experience in permitting under state laws like SEPA, can help your project stay on top of recent decisions like this and help you proactively build a defensible permitting record in case an appeal is filed. Qualified and locally experienced attorneys can also advise the project sponsor to ensure that the SEPA checklist addresses emerging areas of local controversy (like those related to 6PPD-quinone runoff from automotive tires) and that the checklist demonstrates how the project advances the City's own goals: food access, affordability, and smart growth.

Good projects get killed by procedural gaps. The solution is not to rely only on City staff to satisfy the complex, vague, and often outdated requirements of SEPA. Rather, sponsors of controversial projects, or projects facing intense commercial opposition, should engage a local land use specialist to help armor the City's permitting record against legal challengers. Good local counsel can also position the municipal record to appeal an adverse decision if there are grounds that it is wrongly decided.

Our firm is deeply experienced in land use, SEPA and other permitting matters for builders and providers in Seattle and across Washington State. Contact Josh Friedmann or any of our Land Use attorneys to discuss how we can help you protect your project.

The information contained in this update is provided for informational purposes only. It should not be construed as business, legal, accounting, tax, financial, investment or other advice on any matter and should not be relied upon as such.

  1. Id.
  1. City of Seattle Hearing Examiner, Findings and Decision, In re Appeal of Lake Washington Working Families, File No. W-25-008 (Apr. 9, 2026).
  1. Weisend, supra note 1.
  1. Connor Nash, In First State of the City Address, Mayor Katie Wilson Centers Safety, Affordability, Homelessness, South Seattle Emerald (Feb. 18, 2026).
  1. Mayor Bruce Harrell, Statement on Passage of Council Bill 121094, City of Seattle Office of the Mayor (Oct. 28, 2025).
  1. Council Acts to Boost Food Access in Seattle Neighborhoods, Seattle City Council Blog (Oct. 28, 2025).
  1. Weisend, supra note 1; see also Hearing Examiner Findings and Decision, File No. W-25-008.


Related Reading