There are several map-driven sites to help people and businesses get informed on current real estate developments in Seattle. And the main information source (City of Seattle DPD) is making it easier to get the most accurate and detailed information available.
The Seattle City Department of Planning and Development now has a website called “Shaping Seattle” that is a dynamic map of all the active developments – from Early Design Guidance, to Completed Construction, and all the steps in between in the Project Timeline. You can link back to the original Design Proposal or See all the project documents if you wish, something that once used to take someone hours of time going to the Seattle DPD Office downtown. You can even get a link to share on a specific project with all this info together on a page.
There is another well-designed dynamic web-based map called SeattleinProgress.com. They offer more analysis through their blog and have a calendar that shows events chronologically. (like Design Review Board meetings). I like there color-coding that lets you know at a glance if a project has been just Applied for, Approved, or Completed. They also offer a paid Pro version. Although they are currently targeting commercial brokerages and the finance side of the industry, not residential brokers like myself.
Both of these sites can be extremely helpful to someone like me, who wants to keep abreast of developments in neighborhoods and how they may impact or benefit my clients. It seems every day as I drive around I see new construction projects starting up that I didn't know about. Now I can quickly pull over, whip out my iPad and set a detailed summary of what it is in a matter of seconds. I'm sure many other individuals and businesses and the same interest and desire to know what's going on when they see a site suddenly turn into a hole with a crane in it!