Committee advances City Light easement ordinances to full council after brief presentation and public comment on solar policy
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Summary
The committee recommended two ordinances for accepting easements for Seattle City Light (61 distribution easements and 150 platted easements) and forwarded both to the full council for the 03/10/2026 meeting after a presentation and unanimous 5–0 recommendation; public commenters raised concerns about net metering and leadership.
Seattle City Council committee Chair Deborah Juarez said the panel would consider two ordinances from Seattle City Light and moved to recommend passage after a short presentation and unanimous committee support.
City Light presenters Katie Tassery, Bill Devereaux and Andy Strong told the committee the measures are routine property-authority actions. "The first ordinance is 61 distribution easements," Tassery said, explaining those are narrow property rights that allow power lines or equipment to cross a neighbor's parcel to reach a customer. The second ordinance covers 150 platted easements, which Tassery described as "blanket easements" that apply across subdivisions and help the utility provide service after lot boundary adjustments or unit-lot subdivisions.
The measures were presented as administrative housekeeping that the city has done on an annual basis to avoid submitting dozens of separate easement ordinances. After the presentation there were no substantive questions from council members, and Chair Juarez moved the recommendation of passage for council bill 121169; the motion was seconded and the clerk called the roll. The committee voted 5–0 to recommend passage; the bill will go to the full Seattle City Council on 03/10/2026. The committee then moved and recommended passage of council bill 121170 by the same 5–0 vote and also routed it to the council meeting on 03/10/2026.
During public comment, Will Sumner, a Seattle small-business owner and board member of the Washington solar energy industries association, urged caution about forthcoming net metering policy changes and said Seattle City Light is "at 93% of its cap dictated by RCW for net metering," noting WASEA had secured funds for a multiyear third-party study of distributed solar value. Sumner asked for "clear messaging on when decisions are gonna be made" and warned that abrupt policy shifts in other jurisdictions had hurt rooftop solar deployment. Laura Claus of Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland also used public comment to press for public discussion of senior leadership decisions at City Light, citing concerns about fish passage and an ongoing FERC relicensing process.
The committee's votes were recorded by roll call and were unanimous in favor of recommending both ordinances. The committee did not amend either ordinance; both are scheduled for consideration by the full Seattle City Council on March 10, 2026.