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Monday, October 6, 2008

Council Cracks Down on Supersized Houses

posted by on October 6 at 18:21 PM

This was the problem: You live in a humble little bungalow next to another little bungalow, both on small property lots. Then a developer buys the lot next to yours and constructs the biggest vinyl-sided blond dog allowable under the zoning regulations. To boot, the thing has two garage doors and a tundra for a driveway. These are the mega houses. And people haaaaate them.

So today the city council, lead by Council Member Richard Conlin, unanimously passed legislation that reins in the out-of-scale houses in single-family neighborhoods. Whereas before a house on a small lot was allowed a 1,750 square foot footprint, now the size is tied to a percentage of the total lot size; the smaller the lot, the smaller the house. The ordinance also limits the visibility of garage doors, decreases the right to overshadow neighboring houses, and waives requirements for off-street parking on lots smaller than 3,000 feet.

These look like good ideas. While big buildings are swell in parts of the city that are zoned for bulky things, a massive garage-faced house can ruin a block of single-family houses. But the risk, any time zoning gets very specific in a limited space, is that it will inadvertently promote a uniform prescript for all the new houses built under these conditions. For example, way back when, the city wrote rules requiring that townhouses build tall fences around tiny impractical yards and required off-street parking—all while providing an incentive to build the shitbuggers in endless four-packs. What a mess that turned out to be.

RSS icon Comments

1

The city can't stay ahead of the market. This trend is done with for the next 15 years

Posted by Bellevue Ave | October 6, 2008 6:34 PM
2

Smaller houses are cheaper to heat and cheaper to fill with Ikea stuff. But to change zoning because people don't like the house being built smacks of the basic challenge with American democracy. I don't like you/it/your behavior and so I'm gunna do my best to stop you/it/your behavior.

Let's hope Ms. Sarah does not get in the White House, she might try to change more about people than just the size of the house they want to build.

Posted by Sargon Bighorn | October 6, 2008 6:43 PM
3

THANK GOD!!! There are four of these fucked up houses just off 75th NE and 34th Ave NE that litterally take up the entire damn lot they are built on. And that is what the developers did, tear down two rather nice but smaller ranch style homes and built FOUR HUGE fucking houses on those lots. They look like shit!!!

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger | October 6, 2008 6:45 PM
4

Oh, I forgot to mention they are all side by side in a sick little row.... *UGH!!*

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger | October 6, 2008 6:47 PM
5

What happend to density? Wouldn't bigger properties generate more taxes for the City?
Are San Francisco and London so hideous because row houses?
I expect these houses will now be built on the Eastside instead.
What's more these same folks who speak out for the cottages will probably speak up for their property rights when it is their time to cash in.

Posted by Zander | October 6, 2008 6:50 PM
6

Whoa--transmission from the wayback machine, circa 50 years ago:

"THANK GOD!!! There are two of these fucked up houses just off 75th NE and 34th Ave NE that litterally take up the entire damn lot they are built on. And that is what the developers did, tear down one rather nice but smaller cottage style homes and built TWO HUGE fucking houses on those lots. They look like shit!!!"

Posted by Tiktok | October 6, 2008 7:04 PM
7

Don't believe the hype, read the ordinance. It only fixes the problem for lots smaller than the legal minimum. You can still slap a 1750 sq ft monstrosity on a 5000 sq ft lot. Have plenty of examples of where that sucks to be the neighbor in the City.

Posted by Kamala | October 6, 2008 7:06 PM
8

Dom - can you appreciate the "my home is my castle" concept?

And, I own the property....

And, conformity is not my bag ...

Conlin likes anything Madrona, Queen Ann or Montlake likes, he has a reactive brain.

Wonder if Frank Lloyd Wright could get community council approval and a building permit? Or other non traditional ultra modern homes that the "neighborhood" didn't like.

Beware simple dictatorial conformity. Those Mega homes may be the group living situations of the looming present when we all live together as the economy collapses.

Unemployment will go to 11 percent, the city will not have an extra penny, won't be able to sell bonds and - and - in all this the BIGGEST FUCKING concern is the size and location of the garage doors.

Shit, no wonder most people tune out all the crap from city hall, and DC as well. About the same sense of priority and leadership.... very damned little.

Dom, do a story about no bond markets at present for states and cities. Even they can't borrow. This is a concern to all of us.

Or the increased cost of the bonds they might sell and what that means .... since the city is asking for 200 million this election.

Posted by Jack | October 6, 2008 7:17 PM
9

Why is everyone getting a hair up their ass about this shit now when i've been a champion for property rights since day one in seattle?

why?

Posted by Bellevue Ave | October 6, 2008 7:33 PM
10

hey - don't forget Sally Clark - her committee approved it and did a lot of the work!

Posted by mj | October 6, 2008 8:02 PM
11

great. now that the 2 neighbors across the street, to my south, and behind me have all built 3 stories tall, blocking my view & sunlight while giving themselves a better view of my garden then i have, the city council changes the rules? thanks for nothing.

Posted by maxsolomon@home | October 6, 2008 8:08 PM
12

Or ...

We could just zone for 40 to 100 story tall inexpensive residential rental apartment buildings with surrounding greenspace near major transit centers, and the pressure to max out the remaining residential zones will go away ...

But, that would upset Fnarf.

Darn.

Posted by Will in Seattle | October 6, 2008 8:14 PM
13

@8

Susan? Sure sounds like you. But why would you need to use a sockpuppet in this case? Oh well.

Will, you are sooooo full of shit. You're the Sarah Palin of whatever it is that you do.

Posted by elenchos | October 6, 2008 8:22 PM
14

The percentage rule is great. Want a big house? Buy a big lot.

Posted by keshmeshi | October 6, 2008 8:31 PM
15

My dear Holden,

This is welcome news. The rhythm of the streetscape is critical in the urban, neighborhood and suburban environment. People crave that consistent, balanced syncopation of similar massing, with the odd minor tone allowed for specialized need -- or hell, just for some naughty fun (Price Tower in Bartlesville, OK, for instance).

A wide variety of styles and uses can be mixed and still achieve this coherence. So everyone who can't wait to build a Johnsonian glass house in the middle of Ballard can still have at it.

All that said, I live in one of the most offensive and lovely of these sour notes: a four-story townhouse that looms a two-story cement block wall over the neighbor's formerly open back yard. And living room windows on the second floor that look directly into the other neighbor's bedrooms.

Ahhh, city living.

Thanks for the post.

Posted by Jubilation T. Cornball | October 6, 2008 8:40 PM
16

elenchos, do you suffer from paranoid delusions? not everyone is a sockpuppet.

Posted by Bellevue Ave | October 6, 2008 9:23 PM
17

And once again, the city council makes it harder to have a car in the city, while providing no practical transportation alternative.

When the whole city is packed with the same fucked up gridlock as Capitol Hill, do you think anyone will regret these off-street parking exemptions?

Posted by A Non Imus | October 6, 2008 9:45 PM
18

I have no evidence to back this up, other than what I see as a traveling electrical hostess, but it seems like a lot of these big houses are being carved up into duplexes and triplexes. I've handled four of those in just the last month.

Lots of people converting to electric heat as well.

Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay | October 6, 2008 9:55 PM
19

@17 - you know, Tim E, you're not welcome in Seattle.

Posted by Will in Seattle | October 6, 2008 10:36 PM
20


Dude, they just outlawed your indoor pot growing operation (need big garages and basements).

Posted by John Bailo | October 6, 2008 11:17 PM
21

is electric heat really better than gas heat in regards to price catalina?

Posted by Bellevue Ave | October 6, 2008 11:38 PM
22

Does this affect multi-family homes?

Density is good. McMansions are bad. Making a rule that effectively enforces suburbia in an urban area is a bad idea.

Posted by dwight moody | October 7, 2008 10:36 AM

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