City Council committee OKs low-rise-zoning changes, with 3 amendments

| Development | West Seattle news

(Screengrab from Seattle Channel webcast; we’ll replace it with meeting video when theirs is up)
Under major scrutiny from concerned parties including neighborhood land-use activists and developers, the City Council’s Planning, Land Use, and Sustainability Committee has just voted to pass an amended version of the bill proposing changes to low-rise zoning – more like, changes to past changes. (We previewed all this before the committee’s public hearing two weeks ago.)

City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen proposed eight amendments that city staffers said restored some of what was changed from the original version of the bill. Five were turned down, three were approved – involving counting exterior corridors/stairways as part of a building’s “floor-area ratio” (Amendment 1 text here), thresholds for rounding up number of units per land-area square footage (Amendment 6 text here), and side setbacks required for rowhouses (Amendment 8 text here).

The full council is expected to vote on the amended proposal after the 4th of July weekend; seven of the nine members participated in today’s committee meeting.

Peter June 17, 2015 (7:31 am)

This is shameful and disgusting. The city council is doing everything they can to suppress housing production and force the cost of housing even higher.

Born on Alki 59 June 17, 2015 (9:35 am)

This amendment would establish a new, 3.5 foot side setback requirement for all rowhouse projects in Lowrise zones except those that share a side lot line with another rowhouse project, where NO side setback is required. A single-family zone is 5 to 7 foot side setback required.

This also establishes a zero setback to an alley for rowhouse’s, meaning any alley parking options are eliminated. Probably wont even provide a place to set your garbage/recycle cans out.

Now that’s truly disgusting IMHO.

Mike June 17, 2015 (9:30 pm)

Peter, how exactly? The way I see it, landlords are determining the rent prices, not the city council. Greed. The better way to resolve the high cost of housing is to set limits on how much rent can rise and when. This is why an existing building in West Seattle’s rent shot up 125% this year for a few people. Nothing like paying below $1K to paying more than I pay on my individual family home mortgage, car insurance and utilities each month.

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