Last week in the Planning, Land Use and Sustainability Committee (PLUS Committee), we voted out the lowrise legislation that we have been deliberating over for the past couple of months. The bill makes several changes to the multi-family code to ensure that new development in lowrise zones is at-scale with the neighborhood, while continuing to produce significant new housing throughout the City.
For background on what the bill is all about and what changes it proposed to Seattle’s lowrise multi-family zoning code, check out my blog post from April of this year.
I’ve received numerous calls and emails with concerns over the rate of growth and scale of development throughout our city, but in particular in our lowrise zones. Many people are calling for the City to slow down growth and development altogether. Others just want a say in how this growth is impacting the look and feel of the neighborhood. While I believe this bill helps address some of concerns about development being out of scale with what we anticipated in our lowrise zones, I believe we must allow for additional growth and development to accommodate the job and corresponding population growth Seattle is experiencing.
One of the primary reasons I support new density in the lowrise zones and our urban villages is due to the environmental and sustainability benefits of putting more people closer to the amenities they need: jobs, schools, retail and recreation. In denser areas, people travel less to access these amenities, they do more walking, biking and transit trips to get there and they burn less fossil fuels. If we stop growth in Seattle, that means more people in cars commuting to all the great jobs, parks, restaurants and more that make Seattle such a great place to be.
In our last meeting on The PLUS Committee on June 16, we considered eight amendments to alter the bill before moving it out of committee (nine were proposed but the final amendment was not moved for a vote because the adoption of an earlier amendment made it irrelevant). You can learn more about those amendments by checking out the Council Central Staff memo and appendix from our last committee meeting.
Of the eight amendments that we considered, the PLUS Committee voted to accept three of them.
- Clarify rules about exterior hallways: The Committee voted to include all unenclosed exterior stairs, hallways, and breezeways in the Floor Area Ratio calculations, which will have the effect of slightly reducing the bulk of buildings with these corridors and simplifying the code by treating all such corridors the same.
- Change rounding rules: The Committee voted to apply a higher rounding requirement—up from the proposed 0.5 to 0.85 on all lots in lowrise zones. This will make it more difficult for developers to get more dwelling units on their properties that they otherwise would be allowed, by subdividing their lots.
- Add side setback for rowhouses: The existing code does not include side setbacks for rowhouse development, but the Committee voted to add a 3.5’ side setback for projects adjacent to structures other than other row-houses to allow for landscaping, basic maintenance around the building, as well as the possibility of windows.
The amended bill will now move on to the Full Council on July 6 for a vote. That will take place at 2pm in Council Chambers, and if you are unable to make it but want to provide comment, you can email the entire City Council at council@seattle.gov.
If you have comments, questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at mike.obrien@seattle.gov.