Lid I-5

This page lists the official City of Seattle policies and documents that support lidding I-5.

City Council Resolution 32100 (2023)
Official City Council endorsement of the Lid I-5 project. Directs the Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development and the Seattle Department of Transportation to work with the Washington State Department of Transportation on advancing planning and policy development for the lid.

Seattle 2023 State Legislative Agenda
[Page 14 under An Interconnected City] We are committed to expanding the use of freeway lids across the city, including on Interstate 5 and State Route 520, to reconnect neighborhoods and provide public land with amenities such as affordable housing, open space, and pedestrian and bike connections to transit stations.

City Council Resolution 32010, section 2.E (2021)
[Led to 2022 policy updates below] Neighborhood connections across highways. Analyze and make recommendations for changes to the Comprehensive Plan to support the use of lids across highways to restore disconnected neighborhoods, expand neighborhoods, and open up hundreds of acres of buildable land for housing and parks, to create safer, healthier, and more vibrant neighborhoods.

Seattle Comprehensive Plan, Growth Strategy policy 3.13 (2022)
[Amended in 2022 by CB 120462] Preserve, strengthen, and, as opportunities permit, reconnect Seattle’s street grid as a means to knit together neighborhoods and to connect areas of the city. Support efforts to use lids and other connections over highways that separate neighborhoods, especially when such lids provide opportunities to reconnect neighborhoods and provide amenities such as affordable housing, open space, or pedestrian and bike connections to transit stations.

Seattle Comprehensive Plan, Transportation policy 3.12 (2016)
[Amended in 2022 by CB 120462] Look for opportunities to reestablish or improve connections across I-5 and State Highways by creating new crossings, enhancing streets where State Highways cross overhead, or constructing lids, especially where these can also enhance opportunities for development or open space, affordable housing, and neighborhood cohesion.

Seattle Comprehensive Plan, Parks policy 1.17 (2016)
[Adopted 2016] Create innovative opportunities to use existing public land, especially in the right of way, for open space and recreation, including street plazas, pavement to parks, parklets, lidding of reservoirs and highways, and community gardens.

Imagine Greater Downtown, big idea “Stitch the I-5 Divide” (2019)
In 2035, neighborhoods divided by I-5 are reunited with new and enhanced connections, vital public spaces, and community destinations.

City Council conditions of street vacation, Lid I-5 Study Funding (2018, Seattle Clerk File 314338)
$1.5 million to Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development for I-5 Lid Study.