About the Author: Randall Olsen is an attorney at the Buck Law Group ( a Northwest Hub sponsor), which is a land use, environmental, dispute resolution, and civil litigation firm based in downtown Seattle. Randall's practice focuses primarily on City of Seattle land use disputes and general civil litigation. You can reach him by sending an email to rolsen@bucklawgroup.com.
The Seattle Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee held a special meeting yesterday to discuss the city's Multifamily Code Update and Backyard Cottage proposal, among other things. Here are some of the highlights. To watch the meeting in full, click here.
Incentive Zoning
The committee voted to adopt the Evergreen Sustainable Development Standard as an additional standard that will count toward incentive zoning credit in multifamily low-rise zones. Incentive zoning credit is currently given for structures complying with LEED silver or Seattle Master Builder's "BuiltGreen" programs.
Green Factor
The committee discussed extending the Green Factor requirements from commercial and some downtown zones to multifamily zones. The committee adopted a .50 Green Factor requirement into the proposed code update. It chose not to add any additional enforcement mechanisms to the code update until after the Green Factor has been in place and operating for a few years.
Residential Amenity Requirements
Currently, the open space requirement for townhouses is 300 square feet per unit. For apartments it is 25 to 30 percent of the lot area. The code update proposes to create a residential amenity space based upon 5 percent of the residential floor area. Three issues were identified: (1) what is the appropriate percentage amount; (2) whether there should be a minimum square footage requirement for decks; and (3) whether enclosed amenity spaces should be included in the calculation.
A suggestion was made that the residential amenity requirement be increased from 5 percent to 30 percent, requiring two-thirds of that space to be required at ground level. The committee determined that this needed further review.
Some committee members expressed concern about the minimum 60-square-foot requirement for a deck being counted toward minimum open space or amenity standards. The committee chose to eliminate the minimum standard and instead allow the market to dictate the balcony size. Councilmember Sally Clark expressed concern over eliminating the minimum standard.
The committee identified an issue with the existing language in the code update; it does not allow enclosed amenity spaces to be included as a part of the minimum residential amenity requirements. Discussion of this issue was tabled until the next meeting.
Townhouse Administrative Design Review (ADR) Proposal
This was the first committee meeting where they discussed the townhouse administrative design review proposal. The city's Department of Planning and Development (DPD) presented its goals related to the proposal; namely, to improve townhouse design, increase opportunities for design flexibility, to not add significantly to development cost, and streamline the ADR permit process. The discussion was general and will be continued at subsequent meetings.
Amendments
The committee voted the backyard cottage ordinance out of committee and on to a full vote by city council. The full vote is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 2.
Prior to voting the ordinance out of committee, the committee adopted several amendments. The first increased the reporting requirements from DPD to the city council. The second included "below grade" square footage in the maximum square footage requirements. The third removed the citywide cap of 50 DPD authorized cottages per year. The fourth created a grace period for owners of existing backyard cottages to come into compliance with the new requirements. The grace period would require owners to comply with the owner-occupancy requirement by Jan. 1, 2010, to apply for a permit by June 30, 2010, and receive final inspection and approval by the end of 2010. The committee adopted this timeline recognizing that it may need to be extended if compliance becomes a concern. The fifth amendment waived the parking requirement for accessory dwelling units located in urban centers or urban villages.
DPD proposed two additional amendments, both of which were adopted by the committee. The first put the onus on the property owner to record the required owner-occupancy covenant. The second added language that seeks to prevent backyard cottages from being placed within the front yard setback area.
Notice
The committee discussed the fact that permitting for backyard cottages will often be Type 1 DPD decisions, which do not require notice to the neighbors. Instead of creating a new notice requirement and therefore carving out an exception to Type 1 decisions, the committee decided to retain the existing no-notice standard. The committee reasoned that the notice would not provide neighbors with any meaningful avenues for influencing the project, and thus should not be required.
Privacy Concerns
The committee discussed privacy concerns related to backyard cottages but chose to not adopt additional code requirements to address these concerns.
Derelict Housing
Council Bill 116660 would allow demolition of unused single family homes in single family zones without obtaining a master use permit for the site. Public comment on the bill included statements about illegal activity occurring in vacant homes and concerns about creating a situation where usable low-income housing stock is being destroyed. The committee will revisit the bill at subsequent meetings before taking action.
