Livable Seattle
Welcome to Livable Seattle
Livable Seattle was created in 2007 to dialogue the otherwise ignored interrelations between regional ecology, urban design and housing costs.
This is a Website—not a Blog.
New information listed below, freshest first, references alphabetized pages found behind "Navigation"symbol at top left corner above .
The original SLM website, identified as such, can be found among the additional resources on the Downloadable Files page.
— 2018 State Pop. Estimates enable update of "Vision 2040 vs Reality" page
— De-stereotyping Seattle Zoning— @ files section of "Compatible New Neighborhoods" page
—Don't Escalate Land Prices, Brooklyn Ave: LR3 Case Study, ditto.
—Multifamily Design Freedom 2010 Version Now Failing same as 1984 Version — @ "Design Freedom" page
—Seattle Urban Village Origins —@ files section of "Who Stole Seattle's Message?" page
Reissued:
—Peter Steinbrueck's 1/2015 Measure of Urban Village Strategy;
—Grace Jansons' The Long Wave, Reabsorbing Housing (1991)
Both @ "Markets vs Management" page
Capitol Hill, southwest of Volunteer Park— three in a row.
This is what caught our attention in 2007:
1) Unwritten land use code interpretations——row upon row of barrack-style double-loaded townhouses with short-term appeal regressing lowrise multi-family neighborhoods to inexcusable fire hazards. (See Updated Chockablock Report and Two Fires,Two Messages in the "Navigation" column at left.) No significant change as of 2019!
2) City of Seattle Shock Therapy: attribute barrack-style to not enough "design freedom," restudy for four long years a previously failed experiment as easy mortgage era escalates displacement until all goes bust, then re-adopt the failed experiment as though history no longer matters:
a) 1982 Council replaces density, bulk, & placement limits with indirect controls
b) 1987 Council adopts "interim controls" to prevent further damage;
c) 1989 Council restores traditional direct controls.
d) 2010 Council again removes density, bulk & placement limits substitutes Green Factor & Floor Area Ratio.
This held our attention:
1) Post ownership bust, the housing-type-in-demand "unexpectedly" switches to a housing type assumed a dead duck by the 2010 Update —the apartment—and—surprise: new tax-break honeypot switches from lowrise multifamily zones to mid-rise/high-rise/mixed use zones:
2) manic ideological interest in upzoning areas already zoned high intensity pushing "allowed development far ahead of the market," said Dow Constantine KC Executive— 4/13/2011: Town Square: Leaders in Livability - Dow Constantine (no longer available) At the same time, low-end loophole seekers have a field-day producing another FAIL verdict on Zoning Experiment # 2: Same-as-# 1. And so says Councilmember Clark's Letter to DPD 10-2013 (no longer available).That was 2013. Loophole seekers continue the field-day, neighborhoods wait.
3) Displacement and non-replacement of In-city housing suitable for those of modest income swings into high gear along with the problem-plagued solutions that perpetuate the livelihood of the problems industry. See Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, 2011 and Andrew Ross, Bird on Fire, 2011 ("Look Inside"s at Amazon are amazingly extensive). See also http://www.thevanishingcity.com/
4) More bitter fruit— supposed fixes for the Single Family Monster House: major Oct. 2008, minor 2011, Jan. 2012,—the "small-lot" fix. 2019: Single Family Zone amended out of existence in name of affordable housing/ anti-racism.
5) Townhouse Packs have slowed, but by no means disappeared. Scoff-law "apodments" kicked off the next epidemic. With the switch back to apartments (1, above), a 1983 Director's Rule, long ineffective at preventing scoff-law rental of what are actually individually rented separate occupancies in a house zoned single family, was recently declared applicable to new multifamily buildings. The new gig enables evasion of "costly" requirements for apartments, congregate housing and youth hostels by declaring "one dwelling unit" what is actually 8 sleeping/eating entities each separately and independently leased short term (~ 3 mo. initial min.) at very high dollars per square foot.
Large inner-city houses re-adapt well to communal living; when zoned multifamily, as is the situation in much of Seattle, they have long provided independent living on a budget. Or so buyers thought.
For downloads detailing more responsible approaches to lost affordability see Navigation column at "REJECTED A Way Forward"
5 1/2) Long story short. Director acted responsibly and corrected the worst of the remaining Lowrise Multifamily loopholes adopted in 2010. Appeal by developers' representatives stopped the clock. Developers' representatives lost appeal. Developers' representatives successfully talked Director and Council committee chair into round-filing the corrections they LOST on appeal. On July 6th, 2015 only Rasmussen voted NO. For why he did see: Seattle Speaks Up
7) Seattle 2035, the city's required Comprehensive Plan opened for heart surgery per the Growth Management Act. Final retained Urban Village strategy as lip service. Intentionally forgotten purpose shifts focus-in-practice back to scattering redevelopment anywhere in the name of Affordable Housing. Not so fast: Danny Westneat 7/12/15 wants to know what ever happened to the management part of growth management?
Surprise: Developers/Mayors' Grand Bargain(s) [HALA & Company] escalates already escalating land prices.