Little Saigon Business District

Little Saigon is Seattle's social, cultural, and economic hub for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian communities.

What's Happening Now?

We are working with the Seattle Chinatown International District Public Development Authority (SCIDpda) and the Little Saigon community on short-term and long-term improvements and reinventing Little Saigon's business district and public spaces. Key planning topics include neighborhood identity, affordable commercial space, public safety, on-street parking, and economic development. Little Saigon has great potential that we want to capitalize on as resources allow.

We are working with the Seattle Department of Transportation on a street concept plan for Little Saigon. In May 2016, Global Green USA conducted a site visit as part of their neighborhood sustainability assessment for Chinatown/International District, including Little Saigon.

For more information about how to participate, please contact An Huynh at Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) IDEA Space, (206) 838-8236.

Project Goals

We are working with Little Saigon business owners, cultural and service organizations, and other community members to work on the following goals:

Create a prosperous business district
Enliven everyone's experience of Little Saigon
Make Little Saigon an attractive and safe neighborhood
Improve customer and visitor parking
Find grants and other funding for improvement projects

The End Result

We anticipate the following results from our Little Saigon Business District planning effort:

Increased community capacity to accomplish improvement projects for the neighborhood
A strong vision for the future of Little Saigon
Recommendations and strategies that may be implemented by the community in the near-term and long-term
Grant applications and funding proposals to implement projects emerging from planning process
An ongoing, broad-based advisory group to initiate and guide implementation of strategies and projects

Get Involved

We have partnered with Friends of Little Saigon and the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) to develop an action plan to make Little Saigon a great place.

We are working with community members and business owners to develop near-term and longer-term business improvements for Little Saigon. For more information please contact An Huynh at SCIDPDA IDEA Space, (206) 838-8236.

We would like to hear your ideas about how to shape the future of Little Saigon.

You can also sign-up for our listserv to receive updates about this project.

Project Documents

Little Saigon Visitors and Residents Survey Draft Report (June 2014)
Little Saigon Flyer (August 2014)
Little Saigon Sustainable Neighborhood Assessment (May 2016)

Event and Meeting Materials

Boards from Celebrate Little Saigon 2014
- Boards with your comments from Little Saigon 2014
- What we heard at Celebrate Little Saigon 2014

Little Saigon Business District Plan

We are partnering with Friends of Little Saigon and the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) to develop an action plan to make Little Saigon a greater place. Our project builds on the work accomplished so far through the Little Saigon 2020 Action Plan (2012). We are engaging the Little Saigon community in developing strategies and in building a coalition of neighborhood interests to improve Little Saigon over the long term. We have teamed up with SCIDpda to work with business owners, cultural and service organizations, and historically underrepresented communities to create a prosperous future for Little Saigon.

In the spring quarter of 2014 graduate students in the University of Washington’s Landscape Architecture 503 studio, taught by Professor Jeff Hou, met with the Little Saigon community. The students worked with the community to perform a thorough site analysis. They then developed design proposals for Urban Design, Residual Spaces, the Jackson Corridor, and Urban Forestry. Check out their Placemaking Little Saigon report; it's a summary of all of their design proposals.

In the winter quarter of 2009 graduate students in the University of Washington's Landscape Architecture 503 studio, taught by Professor Jeff Hou, worked with the Little Saigon and Chinatown communities on a community design project for South King Street. The students findings and design recommendations may be seen in the King Street Visioning Project Report.