Inside a micro-apartment (Image: Seattle.gov)
Threatening to render Thursday’s public hearing on Seattle microhousing fully anticlimactic, the chair of the City Council’s land use committee says that one rule change that closes a tax benefit loophole for developers will likely be followed by new legislation from DPD to further constrict the flow of multi-story, dorm-style apartments in the city.
“One sore spot has been the way that developers have used their ‘unit count’ in different ways depending on what City regulation they are working with,” Richard Conlin writes in a post to his “Making it Work” blog in advance of Thursday’s hearing. “The City Office of Housing has now issued a regulation that should resolve this issue.”
The new regulation requires that any building applying for a Multi-Family Tax Exemption for affordable housing use the same unit count that the developer uses in the land use permitting process, Conlin said.
Microhousing hearing
WHEN: April 18, 2013 – 11:30 am @ 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
WHERE: Council Chambers, second floor, 600 4th Avenue
CHS reported in March on the push for a moratorium on microhousing development even as City staff were working to close the loopholes that allowed developers to play games with the number of units in a project to gain tax breaks and avoid environmental and design reviews. We mapped nearly 40 of the projects across the city with the bulk being built on Capitol Hill and in the University District. Given soaring rents and forecasts for a continuing influx of new Seattleites, it’s little wonder the Apodment-style developments are popular with investors — and tenants.
But while Thursday’s forum will likely bring more calls for a moratorium on the projects, the complaints very well could be moot. Conlin writes that the Department of Planning and Development is preparing legislation that City Council will need to carry forward and pass to further address the microhousing loopholes:
DPD is working on legislation that will address two other issues to cover micro-unit buildings in the land use code. This legislation will define micro-unit buildings, to establish that they are different from an apartment building and have different characteristics. DPD is also considering creating a new threshold for design review based on the size/square footage of the building, rather than the unit count, so that micro-unit buildings will be treated the same as an apartment building of the same square footage.
The rules forcing design review would seemingly take much of the wind from the sails of critics who have complained that the projects are not subject to the same controls as other projects.
Still, Conlin seems to be forecasting continued opposition on Thursday. “[S]ome of the opposition to these buildings is based on other, less tangible, factors related to this kind of affordable housing,” he writes, “even though these buildings meet the other requirements of the land use code.”
I just returned from a trip to Hong Kong, where apartment living is the norm. The buildings seem at least 40 stories high and are jam-packed together. It was a vibrant, bustling hive of human activity. I love that we are growing on Capitol Hill and experiencing our own renaissance. The increase in activity from when I first moved here in the mid 90’s in great. And we have our own, very distinct, city culture to boot.
I know these apodments are controversial, but it seems to me that, with today’s kindles and iPhones, people don’t need all the space they once did. Perhaps they add another layer of housing to the wonderful mashup we have today. Glad to see you’re covering stories like this to keep the community involved.
Although these apartments are great, what about lowering the price of them as well? I am not paying 850$ a month to have someone tell me when I can and Cannot have people over and how many people I can have over. Plus its the size of a shoebox. NO THANK YOU. I will keep my studio apartment and live in a bigger place and invite whomever, whenever . I think they need to lower the price in cap hill in general. Pretty soon you are gonna force everyone out and there wont be anyone to live here!
Melissa, be very careful about asking for any sort of rent conteol. I’m as lefty as they come, but look what rent control has done for housing prices in NY and SF. We’re bad enough, but if there was any sort of rent control here we’d pretty much be screwing future generations.
I have no problems with their interior size, rules they impose on their tenants or how much they cost. No one is forced to live in them. Demand will warrant the prices and just how far they can impose upon their renters.
I just ask these developments be treated as equally as conventional apartment buildings with regards to land use and environment impacts.
[…] Development Hearing (which we wrote about here) in Council Chambers, Second Floor (600 4th Ave), 11:30a – […]
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But we have similar prices in Seattle without rent control and NO STOCK of rent controlled apartments. I don’t understand what you mean. Future generations are already screwed here FYI.
[…] public comments portion of Thursday’s session following a presentation by city staff about what their departments already have in the works to better regulate the dorm-style developments. We’ve embedded the presentation as well as […]
I agree that soon every one that has low income such as myself; disability medical income is to be in a home. I only get $670 a month & that does not cover the cost of rent in a nice place.