Developers: Seattle’s new rules on small lots won’t stop construction

While critics of new construction on small lots in Seattle are claiming victory over developers, a leading growth advocate says building will continue and no one will be happy.

The Seattle City Council voted Monday to lower height-limits for new construction on small lots and prohibit development on lots smaller than 2,500 square feet.

The vote was seen as a win for neighborhood activists who’ve protested the increased building of large homes around the city or multiple units on a single lot, often dwarfing the older homes around them.

“We all live in fear that any property in our neighborhood will go on the market where it will be razed, sliced and diced into some creation that looks nothing like what’s already in our neighborhood,” said Alison Roxley before Monday’s vote.

“Above all, we need neighborhoods that work for people and where people democratically have control over what is built and how neighborhoods are organized,” said Councilmember Kshama Sawant.

But developers are blasting the vote, saying it undermined two years of negotiation. Roger Valdez, the director of Smart Growth Seattle, says whether neighbors like it or not, people are moving to Seattle and change is happening.

“We know with growth management, the data shows that there are well over 100,000 people and 100,000 jobs coming to the region in the coming decades,” Valdez says.

Valdez argues the City Council is ignoring the inevitable and neighbors simply don’t want any change. He says the horror stories of huge houses getting built that prompted the city to pass a moratorium are actually anomalies.

“The truth is that when you actually go out into the neighborhood and look at the houses that get built, they’re relatively modest, they’re smaller, they’re more efficient and they fit right in to what the existing neighborhood fabric is. But people just don’t want any change.”

Valdez is a staunch advocate for increase density development, including controversial micro-housing. While some, including Councilmember Nick Lacata, argue the increased development in neighborhoods drives prices up and makes neighborhoods increasingly unaffordable, Valdez argues the exact opposite is true.

“When you build more on a smaller parcel, that’s a good thing because it means you’re more efficiently using land, you’re creating more housing supply and that weaves more housing into the single family fabric,” he argues.

Regardless, with real estate prices soaring and Seattle’s economy continuing to thrive, Valdez says one thing is certain. New development will continue regardless of Monday’s vote.

“There’s going to be more projects that will be built, it’s not going to stop. So the City Council is sort of enacting a slow motion moratorium on single family development by passing legislation that just makes it more and more difficult to build and still makes neighbors angry and then they [City Council] pander and capitulate and it still makes it worse. It just increases price, it increases cost and makes it less clear and predictable what can be done and everyone’s unhappy.”

But Councilmember Jean Godden insists neighborhoods need protecting and calls the new rules an important step.

“It seems to me that our neighborhoods are a strength in our city. I think this will help preserve them and they are more fragile than we believe.”