“You May Not Like My House, But I love It!”
About 18 months ago, my family and I moved into a new modern home built in beautiful Madison Valley in Seattle. We love the location: its proximity to parks, restaurants, and other amenities, and the...
View ArticleThis is Where I Live: What’s Not to Love?
This is the latest in a series of guest posts by people who live in small-lot homes or microhousing telling their own stories about where they live. You live in a home that some people say shouldn’t...
View ArticleInnovation in Affordable Housing
Innovation happens in affordable housing, but progressive cities such as Seattle who have chosen to make it a priority could be doing more to encourage creativity in developing new models. City...
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On Urban Density: We’re Not All Goldilocks
This post originally appeared on Better Institutions on April 20, 2014. Goldilocks is the story of a selfish young girl who breaks into another family’s home, eats their food, and destroys their...
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Am I on Candid Camera?
Last week we featured the comments of Jack McCullough, outgoing Chair of the Downtown Seattle Association. He wondered whether we have lost the progress in our progressivism. This week Bill Hinkle,...
View ArticleExperts to Council: Make a New Plan, Stan!
This morning the consultants the the City Council hired to work through workforce housing issues earlier this year will deliver a report to a joint meeting of the Planning, Land Use, and Sustainability...
View ArticleMicrohousing Debate: Let’s Lower the Rhetoric
Hello Readers. My name is Nick Etheredge. I am a new contributor to Smart Growth Seattle. In a future post I will tell you more about myself and how I ended up writing for, and teaming with, Roger...
View ArticleJust the Facts: Smart Sustainable Growth is Working
Opponents of high-density housing development often argue that, contrary to traditional economic theory, as the housing supply increases, the price of housing increases rather than decreases. They...
View ArticleMore Housing, Fewer Rules, Means More Jobs, More Innovation
A recent study by Dr. Chang-Tai Hsieh and Dr. Enrico Moretti titled Growth in Cities and Countries, found that highly productive cities such as Seattle are limiting not only their own local economic...
View ArticleBuildable Lands Report: The End of Single Family?
This year’s Buildable Lands Report, a “mid-term check in” for local 10 year Comprehensive Plans, shows some disturbing trends in housing supply. In King County, decision makers, including the Seattle...
View ArticleWhy Small Houses Matter
I recently watched an episode of the FYI Network‘s new small-home reality show, Tiny House Nation, a show hosted by renovation experts John Weisbarth and Zack Giffin. Weisbarth and Giffin travel the...
View ArticleHow Would We Stop Growth Anyway?
One of the more common complaints I hear when I work on various volunteer efforts I’m a part of, or following local news, is that Seattle is growing too much and too fast; too many people moving here,...
View ArticleZoning in Seattle – Does It Make Sense?
Seattle, like just about every city small and large in the U.S., has a built environment dictated by a land-use code. We use this code to determine what can be built where, how big or small the...
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Martha Rose on Micros: Let’s Overcome Fear of Change
The following is an e-mail that was sent to Seattle City Council President Tim Burgess encouraging that the Council take a different approach to microhousing legislation. We need many more of these...
View ArticleImpact Fees at Today’s PLUS Meeting: Higher Rents, More Sprawl
Along with dealing what will likely be a death blow to microhousing, the City Council’s Planning, Land Use, and Sustainability (PLUS) Committee is considering the idea of “linkage fees;” yet another...
View ArticleCan We Legislate Good Design?
Can we legislate good design? Short answer: you can’t. One of the greatest concerns of neighborhood groups and anti-development activists has to do not just with the fact that greater density is...
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Housing Prices: Will Incentives and Inclusion Help?
First of a two part series by Jerrell Whitehead. The posts here on zoning are longer versions of material he completed while at Sightline Institute. His initial interest on this subject came from...
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Housing Prices: Will Incentives and Inclusion Help? (Part 2)
First of a two part series by Jerrell Whitehead. The posts here on zoning are longer versions of material he completed while at Sightline Institute. His initial interest on this subject came from...
View ArticleSeattle’s Land Use Code Isn’t Working
Our family recently looked in to subdividing a large lot we own in Seattle to create another building lot. The house is in a SF5000 zone, but recent small-lot legislation has made that division...
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Is Seattle Down for the Count on Affordable Housing?
Recently I have begun to envision Seattle housing affordability personified as an overmatched, undersized boxer who has gotten knocked down time and time again, but through sheer grit, courage and...
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