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Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Dense

Posted by on July 26 at 11:16 AM

I didn’t have time yesterday to add my two cents to a post Erica did on Greg Hill’s editorial about Detached Accessory Dwelling Units (DADUs), in which he says allowing more garage apts. in neighborhoods will ruin Seattle’s lifestyle for “most of us.”

There’s a giant flaw in his argument: If enough people are building and moving into garage apts.—or DADUs—to increase density (to the point that it’s a problem for Hill), wouldn’t that be a vote of confidence for increased density by the rest of the people in Hill’s neighborhood—who are doing the building and moving into garage apts.?

In other words, if his argument—DADUs will increase density—is true, that means “most of us” want DADUs.

Here’s an analogy: It’s like Detroit arguing against raising fuel efficiency standards because they’re scared most people will start demanding fuel efficient cars.


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What? I don't follow you, Josh. Can you re-phrase?


Okay, that makes sense. So what you seem to be saying is that Hill is out of touch with what Seattlites actually want?

I think what he means is that if we allow DADUs, and they become hugely successful, and "overrun" the neighborhoods, that would mean that people LIKE them, since it's unlikely that people who are opposed to DADUs will build them. If people generally DON'T like them, then they won't build them, and they won't overrun the neighborhood.

In other words, democracy.

The problem with this argument is that if DADUs do in fact harm their opponents' enjoyment of their neighborhood, it won't take a preponderance of DADU units to achieve that ill effect. If even ten percent of people in a neighborhood build DADUs, that would ruin the neighborhood for people like Hill, and it certainly wouldn't indicate that "most of us" like DADUs.

The flaw with THAT argument is that DADUs don't harm anything. None of the claimed ill effects actually exist. If a very large number of DADUs gets built, the neighborhoods will not be significantly harmed; and it is clear that there's no way a very large number, or even a noticeable number, of DADUs are ever going to get built.

Basically, for his argument to be right, he winds up being wrong—about what Seattleites want.

That is: If his fear—more DADUs—comes true, then by definition, that's evidence that Seattleites want more DADUs.

I had to read that guest editorial twice before concluding that it makes absolutely no fucking sense to me, none at all. It was the weirdest argument I've ever seen. He stated himself in the article that there were likely to be 10 to 20 of these built a YEAR in Seattle. That's hardly going to overwhelm the city.

I'm still shaking my head over the title of it, too. Was he on crack when he wrote it, or what?

OK then - by this logic, neighborhood folks must love megahouses too. After all, people are knocking down smaller houses to build them, and somebody is buying them, right?

Mr. X,
Your problem w/ megahouses, I assume, is that they're not affordable to most of us.

DADUs, on the other hand, are a way to make living in neighborhoods more affordable. But, apparently you don't dig those either.

You don't like high-priced housing...and you don't like low-priced housing.

As to your point: The big dif is: Megahouses are allowed...DADUs, by and large, are not. And that's ass backwards.


Actually, my main problem with megahouses is that they impinge on neighboring properties - as DADU's will if this particular proposal is adopted.

I suppose I'll just have to keep saying it over and over - this proposal is simply a back-door attempt to create duplexes in single family zones.

Given the obvious hostility of Stranger writers to SF zoning, why don't you just fess up that that's one of the main reasons why you like this scheme?

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