Nickels calls for mandatory design review of new townhouses

Bowing to complaints about ugly buildings invading neighborhoods, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels proposed Tuesday that city planners review all designs for new townhouses.

He also proposed the first major zoning overhaul in two decades of Seattle's multifamily neighborhoods. While they cover only 10 percent of the city, they've had greater growing pains as homes were bulldozed for new construction in the last development boom.

		Dan DeLong / P-I
	Standing Tuesday outside townhouses on Capitol Hill, Mayor Greg Nickels announces the first major changes to Seattle's multifamily zoning in 20 years. Nickels also proposed new rules and a design review for all new townhouses being built throughout the city.

The changes would help future development fit in better with neighborhoods, provide ecological benefits and encourage more affordable housing, Nickels said.

"Condominiums and townhomes allow people an entrée into owning their own homes, so that gives them a strong stake in the community and is a good thing for our city," he said. "However, we have had some challenges, particularly with townhomes."

The proposed townhouse design standards would force builders to provide more windows, wider driveways, entrances that face the street and lower fences along sidewalks.

The changes also would offer builders more flexibility in building configuration, parking and open space. In some areas, structures could be closer to the street.

But some neighborhood groups believe the proposed changes could yield disastrous results: bigger, bulkier buildings, smaller yards and less open space on the ground level.

"Taking away some of these things ... will bring back Frankenbuildings, and why would we want to do that?" said Beth Means, an Eastlake resident who fought monolithic apartment buildings in the 1980s.

Other residents favor even bolder solutions, questioning why so many design decisions still are being made to accommodate cars. Some wouldn't mind eliminating setbacks that force developers to include small, unappealing patches of open space.

"We sort of look at townhomes and apartments and condos as the basic building blocks for the livable, walkable neighborhoods," said Gary Manca, president of Friends of Seattle, a citizens group formed two years ago to lobby for sustainable urban neighborhoods.

"The changes seem like a step in the right direction, but we're sort of thinking that we need leaps and bounds in the right direction."

Currently, design review, a process that typically allows citizens to influence the look of new development, is not required for smaller townhouse projects.

That would change under the mayor's proposal, although it would be an administrative process in which city planners negotiate with builders. But the goal, officials say, is more innovative designs while still providing oversight.

Some developers argue more design review will cause expensive delays and drive up housing costs. Other builders believe it results in better projects with higher profit margins.

John Merfeld, who lives across from the Capitol Hill townhouses where Nickels made his announcement, questioned what the city was doing about people in his situation. He can no longer afford rising rents in his home of 23 years.

"I moved into this neighborhood as a gay citizen when it was going down the tubes," he said. "We bring property values up and get outpriced."

In the denser multifamily zones, the mayor's proposal would allow developers to build higher or include more units in exchange for housing affordable to those making up to 80 percent to 100 percent of median income.

But some groups argue that creating incentives for developers to bulldoze older buildings results in a loss of affordable homes, trees and green space.

Nickels' proposed open space changes, for instance, would generally require builders to provide much less of that expensive commodity. None of it would have to be at the ground level. Instead, it could be provided in balconies or roofs. On the other hand, it would also allow builders to pool open space -- which is illegal under current rules -- providing larger green courtyards.

"This totally gets to where people's gut-love of their neighborhood comes from, how it feels when they walk around," said City Councilwoman Sally Clark, whose planning committee will consider and refine the mayor's proposal.

During that process -- expected to take months -- the council will consider controversial questions such as parking, development standards, open space requirements and whether to ask developers to provide public benefits such as wider sidewalks in exchange for more flexibility.

Some unfortunate development trends seem to have resulted from applying "single family design glasses" to multifamily zones, Clark said.

"Now we see it doesn't really work when we use the assumption about the car and the driveway being the primary design-driver and the idea of privately accessible open space becoming in a best case sanctuary -- and in a worst case prison-type of yard," she said.

Architect Anna Nissen, a neighborhood activist with the group Livable Seattle, called the mayor's proposed townhouse changes largely window dressing. She'd like to see rules to discourage "double stacking" -- double rows of townhouses that eat up much of a lot.

The group also questioned why the mayor is proposing changes that would increase the number of units produced in multifamily zones by roughly 10 percent.

City numbers show that in the last four years, Seattle is already halfway to its growth targets for 2024. Some neighborhoods, such as Ballard, Eastlake, Green Lake and part of the Central District, already have exceeded their 20-year growth targets.

Diane Sugimura, director of the Seattle Department of Planning and Development, said the proposed changes aren't primarily about adding more units.

"This is not remapping the city, it's not changing single-family to multifamily," she said. "This is adjusting the zoning to address those issues that are important to the city -- affordability, the green factor and better design."

MULTIFAMILY CHANGES

Seattle's multifamily zones include everything from low-rise developments scattered throughout the city to high-rise residential towers on First Hill.

For more detail on the mayor's proposal, visit goto.seattlepi.com/r1455.

Proposed townhouse design changes:

Require more windows and doors to preclude blank walls

Require ground-level units to have entrances facing the street

Limit the size of garage doors along pedestrian streetscapes

Limit surface parking areas to six spaces, except when accessed from an alley or when separated by landscaping or screening

Reduce fence heights along sidewalks to 4 feet

Require wider driveways and larger parking spaces so cars can use them

Limit building overhangs over driveways to 3 feet

Proposed changes throughout multifamily zones:

Allow developers to build taller in the densest multifamily zones if they include housing affordable to those making up to 80 percent to 100 percent of area median income

Allow some buildings to be built closer to the sidewalk or back property lines (only when next to other multifamily or commercial lots)

Have fewer development standards (eliminate lot coverage, width and depth limits) on smaller infill lots

Eliminate parking requirements in urban centers and near light rail stations; reduce to one space per unit in other cases

Allow more curb cuts along streets to allow design options besides concrete auto courtyards

Reduce open space requirements to 5 percent of residential floor area

Give developers more flexibility in providing open space through rooftop decks, balconies and shared courtyards

Replace ground-level landscaping requirements with a new formula encouraging green roofs, trellised walls or planting strips