Single-family neighborhoods, such as Magnolia, are under siege, according to Magnolia Voice readers who asked for help revealing?plans by the City of Seattle. In a nutshell, proposals to reduce regulations which would allow backyard living structures, smaller set backs,?and no additional parking requirements are coming to Magnolia and the rest of Seattle if Councilman Mike O?Brien and Mayor Ed Murray?get their way, according to critics.
Michael Plunkett, a Magnolia resident, and former Edmonds City Council member who sits on the Magnolia Community Council as?its land use chairman, had a conversation with Magnolia Voice to explain what homeowners may not understand. He speaks as a private?citizen and not as a representative of the community council. The following exchange is edited for length and clarity.
Magnolia Voice: What is the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda?
Michael Plunkett: HALA is basically 65 recommendations. It isn?t one big piece of legislation moving forward. The council and the mayor?grab pieces and run with it. Two sections that are really starting to get interest are councilman O?Brien?s rewriting of the code for backyard?cottages [mother-in-law units]. And some people?s effort to put triplexes, duplexes, and stacked flats in single-family neighborhoods.
MagVo: What are O?Brien and the city Council trying to do?
MP: They will change the regulations for existing zoning ability ? to add a backyard cottage. Technically it?s a ?Detached Dwelling Unit.??Euphemistically it?s a Backyard Cottage or a ?Mother-in-Law.? [The City] wants to change the existing code in association with that.
MagVo: A detached dwelling unit is a separate building? What does the city want to do?
MP: In the existing code it says one of the people living on this lot has to be an owner. Councilman O?Brien wants to take out the?ownership requirement. Right now if you put in a detached unit, you must provide parking. O?Brien wants to take out the parking?requirement. Normally if you want to put in a detached unit there would be setbacks. O?Brien will reduce those to almost nothing. Also?under the proposal, not only can you have a detached unit, you could have an attached unit.
MagVo: You could have a building in your backyard plus a mother-in-law in your basement?
MP: Yes. Plus you don?t have to be owner-occupied.
MagVo: There could be a renter in the house, a renter in the backyard, and a renter in the basement?
MP: Yes, AND provide no parking. In essence, a rentable triplex. Under their proposal there would be approximately 120,000 homes?around Seattle that could become triplexes. The Magnolia Community Council wrote a letter to the City Council saying we support?backyard cottages. We support them using common sense existing standards ? parking, setbacks ? because livability counts. The?Magnolia Community Council opposed Councilman O?Brien?s proposal to create triplexes in single-family neighborhoods.
MagVo: The HALA proposal says single-family homes are unsustainable. Explain that.
MP: I?ll try. Some people believe single-family neighborhoods are racist. Some people believe single-family neighborhoods are?exclusionary. Some people believe single-family neighborhoods have no right to exist. HALA has latched on to that and decided to run?with it. The HALA proposal does have a remedy for all of these ?evils? they see in single-family neighborhoods, i.e., duplexes, and?triplexes, and backyard cottages.
MagVo: What about Seattle?s housing crisis? Is this a legitimate attempt at a solution? Don?t people move into a single-family?neighborhood because they want to be in that environment?
MP: That?s the rub. People who buy in a single-family neighborhood expect it to be a single-family neighborhood. If you buy multi-family?neighborhood you expect it to be multi-family. The question: Is this a solution? No, it is not a solution.
MagVo: Why isn?t it a solution?
MP: According to the City of Seattle?s Department of planning and development, Seattle has a capacity for 225,000 more units without?any re-zoning. According to King County?s development report, in surrounding urban cities there are another 225,000 units of usable?capacity. King County?s report says outside of the urban areas there are 27,000 acres zoned residential that are unused. Using existing?capacity will meet demand. You don?t have to destroy single family neighborhoods to meet the need.
MagVo: Councilman O?Brien and the City Council indicated changes to these regulations would have no environmental impact?whatsoever, thus not requiring any environmental impact studies. Isn?t involvement by neighborhoods a big part of the State?Environmental Policy Act?
MP: The neighborhood community councils ? Magnolia, Queen Anne, Wallingford, and others in the south ? are opposing the changes in?regulations to their single-family neighborhoods. So now the mayor and the City Council are ending the district councils. The other day?the mayor said we have come to the end of the district councils. The district councils? representatives to the city will no longer exist. They?will no longer have a representative at an official city body. What the mayor and City Council are doing, they want to put in, what they are?calling, a council that is more ?representative.? They will be hand-picked. The mayor says he will redirect funding. The district councils are?history. In place of it the city will create their own neighborhood input entity. They?re using ?diversity? as a cover ? that district councils?aren?t diverse enough. The city will be able to say this committee supports backyard cottages, duplexes, triplexes, and stacked flats. It?s?just a shell game.
MagVo: What has happened to the neighborhood focus?
MP: The Council does not like the opinions of the neighborhood. Wallingford is fighting tooth and nail, not just Queen Anne. Wallingford is?pushing back hard. They put hundreds of people in these meetings. Wallingford is referred to as an ?urban area.? Magnolia is not. Queen?Anne is not. In Wallingford, two blocks off of the commercial district are single-family homes. In an ?urban area,? everything becomes?multi-family and height goes up. They feel it more than we do.
MagVo: Queen Anne is asking for donations to appeal the proposal. What do you want neighbors here to do? Write emails to city?officials? Do people even know what?s going on?
MP: The duplex, triplex, stacked flat proposal for single-family neighborhoods has not come to the forefront. The neighborhoods haven?t?seen the worst of it.
Councilman O?Brien?s office was contacted by Magnolia Voice for comment. We received no reply.
