Seattle may charge single-family house builders additional fee

Developers looking to build single-family homes in Seattle may need to consider an additional expense in the near future.

Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development and Office of Housing is considering a housing fee that would require home construction in certain areas of the city &#8212 including single-family developments &#8212 to help fund affordable living.

Developers could be taxed up to $28 per gross square foot, according to a policy proposal released last week. Other housing would be impacted as well, including apartment buildings, town homes, and duplexes.

The focus was originally on multi-family developments, but the Seattle City Council eventually directed David Rosen & Associates to look into a tax on single-family development, City Senior Planner Brennan Staley told the Puget Sound Business Journal.

The fee, or “linkage fee,” is the city’s attempt to help pay for the cost of affordable housing and mitigate the impact on the demand for such housing, which is attributable to new commercial and residential development. It is a contrast to the city’s incentive zoning program, which would allow a developer to build taller buildings, if a percentage of units were set aside for affordable housing.

How the policy is currently written, homes and buildings constructed in high-cost areas would have higher fees than those in low-cost neighborhoods, according to a memorandum to the City Council. Places with higher fees would include downtown and South Lake Union. Low fees would be mostly in North and South Seattle neighborhoods. Areas such as the University District and West Seattle would fall somewhere in the middle.

There would be a way for builders to avoid paying the fees; they would have to make a percentage of units in a residential building affordable for moderate to low-income households, according to the city.

Apartments make up most developments, the Business Journal reports. However, like apartments, single-family homes also bring people to the city, jobs are created, and more homes are needed, Staley explained to the Business Journal.

The comment period on the proposal ends June 25. Appeals must be submitted to the Office of the Hearing Examiner by July 2.