Manufacturing and industrial center plans prioritize maritime preservation and master planning for large state parcels

Jim Holmes, senior planner at OPCD, presented the manufacturing and industrial center (MIC) subarea plans and framed them as implementation actions for the 2019 industrial maritime strategy. Holmes said the plans emphasize protecting irreplaceable water‑dependent uses in Salmon Bay and maintaining Seattle's container port as a vital economic engine. The presentation identified two large state‑owned parcels that will require master planning in partnership with the state — the Waska site (currently undeveloped) and the National Guard armory site in Interbay — and included policy guidance for those master plans.

Holmes outlined transportation and environment priorities — maintaining a freight network that coexists with active transportation, addressing contamination and sea‑level‑rise risks, and investing in shore power and electrification for maritime equipment. He said the MIC plans generally allow no new residential uses in station‑overlay districts (with some explicit exceptions), and they permit a one‑time city‑led boundary adjustment for future Sound Transit stations provided there is no net loss of industrial land. Vice Chair Strauss added historical context and stressed the maritime economy's fiscal importance, saying roughly one‑third of local sales and use tax derives from maritime and industrial zones.