Seattle needs to squeeze more people inside its borders, but how? Take a look at two pieces on the subject in Tuesday's Seattle P-I.
A Wallingford resident rails here against city plans to allow backyard housing units. Already 70 percent of the city is zoned for single-family homes so the only nod to extra units in most of the city is allowing about 1,500 mother-in-law apartments, according to this report.
Critics say allowing more units threatens Seattle's still-suburban character. It's a scheme by the "young and restless at City Hall" to get rid of cars, which would ruin gardens and cut down trees, increase risk of fire and put kids at risk, the Wallingford resident says.
The fact is we need to add more density, both in central core neighborhoods and in areas of single-family homes. Housing more people in less overall space conserves resources, makes transit investment more efficient and lowers the cost of housing. The only question is how to do it well.
That's where a review of small urban housing projects comes in. There are several examples of homes built close together on small lots but with plenty of personal space and landscaping so residents can live together comfortably. It's more Vancouver or Portland than Seattle.
The trouble is that the homes are listing for north of $600,000, which prices out most of the city. The article says that affordable projects may not be possible inside the Seattle city limits. Why not? The city should be streamlining the permit process and accelerating community design reviews to keep costs down. This is a case where developers are the city's friends.
Too-pricey design and angst over density are linked. Seattle needs to solve the first problem in order to ease the second.