Microhousing Group Responds to Questions Raised by City Council
A few weeks ago, Seattle City Councilmembers Tom Rasmussen, Sally Clark, and Nick Licata issued a memo to the Department of Planning and Development asking them to draft legislation and to find answers to a number of questions about microhousing. Here is that memo: Council Microhousing Memo Final052413 Smart Growth Seattle has convened a group [...]
Microhousing Debate: Social Engineering Becomes Social Plumbing
Smart Growth Seattle has taken on the microhousing issue that has been captivating the attention of the press and City Council lately. There was a panel debate that happened last week and tomorrow I’ll be on a panel sponsored by Publicola. The action with that panel starts at 6:00 Tuesday at the JewelBox Theater at [...]
“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 fact that it would cut our daily commute to work in half. We love the house built by GreenLeaf Construction. [...]
It Takes All Kinds: Housing Supply, Choice, and Variety
Housing, like people, comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors. New housing in single-family neighborhoods doesn’t all look the same. Diversity and variety are good things. Some opponents of new single-family housing argue that new housing is too big. But the facts tell a different story. Here’s an image that shows a typical block face [...]
Smart Growth on the Seattle Channel
Last week I had the opportunity to represent Smart Growth Seattle on a panel discussing development on small-lots in Seattle. The panel is part of a broader discussion on density and you can watch it by clicking on the embedded video above. The panel covered a lot of ground, but what was especially important is [...]
Passive House: Innovative and Affordable
Last week I had a chance to take a tour of Dwell Development’s Passive House at Columbia Station, near the Columbia City light rail station. Passive house (or Passivhaus) is a concept that I described in an article I wrote for Sustainable Industries a few years ago. Here’s what I wrote then: Passivhaus buildings have: [...]
A Building Boom: Small Homes Are Big in Vancouver B.C.
Canadian media has been abuzz in the last year over the proliferation of small houses in Vancouver, British Columbia’s single-family neighborhoods. But the story there has been about the innovation, sustainability, affordability, and predictability of the new homes, not about controversy about their impact on neighborhood character. In fact, in environment is so supportive that [...]
KING 5: What’s the Big Story?
Last Friday KING 5 news went out to JMS Homes’ site on 55th and Manning in West Seattle to talk with neighbors and JMS about the project. When Linda Brill the reporter asked me what the big story was I said, “there isn’t one.” I pointed to Bill Richmond the developer of the project and [...]
Fact Check: Proposed West Seattle Homes Are Neighborly
There is something about land use and housing that provokes a lot of interest and emotion. That’s especially true about new housing in single-family neighborhoods. New housing in any neighborhood means change, and change isn’t always easy to accept. A project in West Seattle that will add two new homes where there is only one [...]
Smart Growth Seattle to Promote Neighborhood Density at Downtown Events
Smart Growth Seattle, a new group advocating for more housing choice in Seattle, kicks off the New Year with two back-to-back panels to talk about the importance of smart growth in Seattle’s single-family neighborhoods. First, Dan Duffus will be a panelist at an event on Wednesday, January 23rd sponsored by the Urban Land Institutes Northwest [...]
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