Tentative multifamily zoning plans gain neighborhood reaction

Mayor Ed Murray’s housing committee has made public their proposal that more compact neighborhoods are necessary to address the issues of Seattle’s skyrocketing rent and fast-growing population. What hadn’t been made public until this past Tuesday was the information from a leaked draft of a housing report, which sought to propose a Seattle that is entirely free of single-zoning.

The report first surfaced through The Seattle Times showing that the 28 members of the Housing Affordability and Livability Advisory (HALA) Committee had the intention of abandoning the term “single-family zone,” changing it to “a low-density residential zone,” where duplexes, triplexes and backyard cottages could be built.

According to Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, the Council’s original vision was for low-density residential zones to be intended to serve as a transition between single-family zones and the more dense mid-rise and high-rise zones.

Danny Westneat for the Times writes:

The committee co-chairs have issued a statement however saying that the group “has no intention of recommending the elimination of all single family zones in the city.” But the draft report suggests the committee was considering exactly that.

Giving up the “outdated ideal of every family living in their own home on a 5,000 square foot lot,” as suggested by draft letter, has caused a passionate response around Seattle and in the Ballard area. With more and more single-family plots already being subdivided to make room for new Ballard residents, this issue has become politically divided.

“I support a reworking of our zoning system to liberalize height limits and zoning restrictions,” says John Sykes, confirming that he is currently living within a single-family zone.

Similarly, a neighbor called “Dan” writes to blog Maple Leaf Life: “I’m all for density and seeing this pass, house prices and rental rates have gotten out of hand, we need supply to meet the demand. And density in our neighborhoods will help neighborhood businesses grow and thrive.”

Some advocates for multifamily structures, say that the ‘devil is in the detail’ when it comes to zoning revisions. Allowing townhomes, as seen in low-rise multifamily zones, into single-family zones would indeed be a much more radical change than what they would like to see. 

Eric Aderhold on neighborhood blog Nextdoor Ballard says duplexes, as a compromise, provide a modest amount of space for two families, while the same space may could have easily been used up by one family.

“It’s absurd to think that [duplexes] would change the character of our neighborhoods in any meaningful way — in fact, plenty of these already exist from before the zoning code was changed to prohibit them around the middle of the past century,” he writes.

Others, such as MyBallard reader Scott Holter, believe the idea of single-zoning reduction “will change Ballard forever.”

“This is terrifying to me,” says another neighboring resident, Sue. “Looking at the folks on this committee I feel completely unrepresented and had no idea this committee existed… What I use my land for is growing food. Tiny lots equal less opportunity for urban farms.”

Still, the leak is just a draft for now, and it has only been addressed at an advisory committee level. Westneat’s article also shares that in opposite direction of the advocacy for higher density zones in the report, the City Council recently put restrictions on projects in low-rise multifamily zones this Monday, July 6th. According to Westneat, there’s no guarantee any of this will become law.