The Seattle Planning Commission met Thursday morning at City Hall with two items on its agenda: a recommendation to the city council on backyard cottage policy and a discussion of upcoming steps in the neighborhood planning process.
Backyard Cottage Recommendation
After some minor editing and strategy discussion, the Planning Commission unanimously approved the draft of its recommendation to allow unlimited construction of backyard cottages citywide in Seattle.
A proposal currently being considered by the city council limits backyard cottage development to 50 per year citywide, and caps their size at 800 square feet. The Planning Commission believes size and development caps to be “unnecessary regulation” because the natural pace of this type of development is fairly slow. For example, the commission noted that in the parts of South Seattle where backyard cottage development has been allowed, only 19 have been built in the last 2.5 years.
The Planning Commission also considered how to address misconceptions put forward by opponents of backyard cottage development. Opponents argue that a proliferation of cottages could potentially lead to overcrowding and parking scarcity in residential neighborhoods.
Previous Backyard Cottage coverage:
1. Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee Considers Backyard Cottage Proposal
2. Backyard Cottages: Why all the Hype?
3. Will Backyard Cottages Spread to Other Seattle Neighborhoods?
Discussion on Neighborhood Planning and Status Reports
The discussion on neighborhood planning had less to do with neighborhood plans themselves and more to do with how data compiled in a recent set of community meetings and through an online questionnaire can be used to make future decisions. Planning commissioners discussed how to weigh data from the two sources, and what factors would go into deciding which neighborhoods would be recommended for the next batch of neighborhood plan updates.
