Design
Review Equity Areas are areas of Seattle where applicants for development projects going through the
City’s Design Review program are required to work
with staff from the Department of Neighborhoods (DON) to customize their community
outreach plan to the needs of historically underrepresented communities.

Equity
Areas are identified based on local demographic and socioeconomic
characteristics from the US Census Bureau. Equity Areas are census tracts
having a census-tract average greater than the city-as-a-whole average for at
least two of the following characteristics:

1.
Limited English proficiency, identified as percentage of households that

are
linguistically isolated households.

2.
People of Color, identified as percentage of the population that is not non-Hispanic
white; and

3.
Income, identified as percentage of population with income below 200% of the
federal poverty level.

For
more information please see Director’s Rule for Early Community Outreach for Design
Review.
Additional resources and FAQs are available on DON’s Early Community
Outreach webpage.

Data
Source: US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2016 Five-Year Estimates.