Lowrise Multifamily — Past, Present, and Future? After three years of townhouse pack mania, the proposed Multi-family amendments made it to the Seattle City Council with scheduled enactment in 2010. On April 22, 2010, the Council released a public review draft along with an Environmental Declaration of Non-Significance. On October 18, 2010, the Council released a second public review draft http://www.seattle.gov/council/clark/2009townhomes.htm Here is a spreadsheet for all those unwilling to scroll through hundreds of unindexed pages in search of substantive changes buried in pages of strikeout deletes/underlined replacements, pages of new text only subtly identified as such, and "omnibus" pages included solely for minor word-smithing. The spreadsheet records the major numerical standards, through time, for all the Low Rise Multifamily zones. The current public review draft appears on the right. To its immediate left is the proposal that Mayor Nickels sent to Council in 2009. To its left are the current regulations. Going to the left goes farther back in time through the Overhaul of Mayor Royer's Overhaul to the standards that Mayor Royer overhauled. Users' Guide: One can numerically compare "updates" both as to change and consistency. The latter is part of the City's DNA or the "context" that the Comprehensive Plan seeks to conserve outside urban villages and to master at least as well inside villages. DNA, inner-city, also reflects artifacts from the first zoning code (1921) and nevermore interesting—the pre-code "mixed-use rules" used before that. Also apparent: the Council has now defeated their late 90's directives to simply the code. Lastly, and still in question, is whether this proposal merely repeats a '82 experiment/remapping so problematic it had to be overhauled 1987-89 with considerable citizen oversight. Its restoration of traditional controls was then, and remains, codified in the Comprehensive Plan. Disregarded is the fact that much of todays mischief springs from more recent amendments. "Back to the Future" is a great idea, but far more dialogue is needed on the details of exactly "back to" it needs to be. One thing does not change, as William Morris warned in 1914: "the greatness of architecture embraces the whole life of man...'tis we ourselves. each one of us, who must keep watch and ward over the fairness of the earth and the comfort of cities." | Looking at Cities: Cascade stoops   |