The Port of Seattle said it was “disappointed” in a Seattle City Council decision to greenlight a housing and workspace project near the port that required a change in the site’s zoning. It said the decision directly undermines a “hard-won 2023 compromise” between the Port and City Council designed to protect maritime and industrial lands, and allow appropriate development in the SoDo district.

Seattle’s City Council passed Council President Sara Nelson’s amended “Stadium Makers’” bill on March 18, which it says will allow the construction of workforce housing and affordable workspaces for Seattle’s small manufacturing businesses, generate living-wage union jobs and improve public safety in a two-block stretch of the Stadium District just south of T-Mobile Park, within half a mile of the port facilities. Previously, housing was not allowed in this area because it was considered a full urban industry zone.

In a March 18 statement, the Port of Seattle slammed the “rushed legislation that will directly harm our city’s maritime and industrial operations, threaten thousands of union jobs, and negatively impact our region’s economic competitiveness in trade. It pushes us down a slippery slope of encroachment on industrial lands. This is a loss for the public who will pay in the future with resources, missed opportunities, and heartache.”

The statement went on, “Today's biggest winner is an out-of-state billionaire developer, who more than a decade ago made a bet that he could buy industrial land on the cheap and get the city council to add millions to his property value just by changing the zoning.”

"SoDo" originally meant "South of the Dome" (referring to the Kingdome, the former home of the Seattle Mariners), but since the Kingdome's demolition, it now generally means "South of Downtown."