City DADUs, or: What the Hell Is Wrong with Seattle?
Next week, the city council’s urban planning and development committee will take up the ever-controversial issue of detached accessory dwelling units, also known as mother-in-law apartments. DADUs, as they’re acronymically known, are separate living spaces on the same lot as a single-family house; Mayor Nickels proposed allowing them citywide a couple of years ago, but abandoned that plan in favor of a much more limited proposal (in Southeast Seattle only) after neighborhood activists shrieked that the apartments would bring traffic, noise, and—gasp!—density to Seattle’s sleepy single-family neighborhoods.
Reality check: According to a council staffer who works on the DADU issue, a city-commissioned study found that, based on the number of (perfectly legal) attached accessory dwelling units that have been built to date in Seattle (basement apartments, for example), the new legislation would lead to the construction of just 10 to 20 new DADUs across Southeast Seattle. In other words: Yawn. Nonetheless, expect a barrage of opposition from anti-DADU activists at the urban planning committee briefing on this subject next Wednesday afternoon.
makes you miss judy nicastro.