Dwell Development Introduces New High Performance Home

The following is a guest post from Dwell Development. Dwell has been a leader in creating great housing all over the city and especially in the Rainier Valley and Columbia City. We featured their work previously in a post about their passive house project.

Dwell Development, Seattle’s award-winning leader in sustainable home building, is excited to announce the completion of a new high performance home in Columbia City.

The 3,700 square-foot home, located across from Genesee Park near the shores of Lake Washington and a broad open meadow that stretches 5 blocks north to Stan Sayres Memorial Park on Lake Washington Boulevard, will achieve net zero energy and 5-Star Built Green certification.

The 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom home features a spacious, free-flowing floor plan filled with natural light, airy living spaces, flexible bonus rooms, and indoor/outdoor entertainment areas. In addition to proximity to a public park, the home sits on a large 8,000 square-foot lot, offering a generous outdoor entertaining spaces, native landscapes, and gardening opportunities.

The home’s unique architectural style is in striking contrast to the surrounding green landscape, while the responsibly harvested white oak siding creates a sense of belonging. The layering of materials such as concrete, oak, metal, and fiber cement also contribute to the dynamic modern exterior. Inside, the home features classic designer finishes and an array of reclaimed, local, and recycled materials for an eclectic modern aesthetic. The combination of natural materials and free-flowing spaces including a stairway that leads to a bonus room overlooking the living room and kitchen, creates a unique home fit for both a family and the design-conscious. The rooftop terrace is ideal for entertaining guests and taking in the expansive views of Lake Washington but what truly sets this home apart is the water and energy saving systems.

High Performance + Smart Design

Dwell Development’s net zero strategy requires a strategic approach to homebuilding. The Genesee Park home features an innovative combination of green building techniques and systems including a 9.0 kW rooftop solar array, airtight building envelope, high performance windows, 12-inch thick walls packed with insulation, high efficiency heating, and lastly, solar thermal technology for hot water, which is a first for Dwell Development. Since the company’s inception in 2006, Dwell Development has been dedicated to exclusively Built Green certified homes, which has helped them develop a signature approach to high performance home building powered by Passive House concepts. Their commitment to innovation has led to their latest venture into solar thermal technology; an uber energy efficient method for residential water heating. Utilizing solar technology and systems such a these helps Dwell Development’s homes reach net zero energy.

The ultimate goal is always net zero, meaning the home produces the same amount of energy as it consumes; ultimately helping to reduce carbon footprints and energy bills. This home will also achieve 5-Star Built Green certification, which is an environmentally-friendly, non-profit, residential building program from the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties. This certification ensures best practices in green development, verifies a home’s sustainability, and establishes a new home’s net zero status.

Solar Panels + Solar Thermal

The Genesee Park home’s 9.0 kW rooftop solar panel system serves as the primary energy source, which is the driving force behind net zero living. Solar panels also act as an additional income stream for residents, as the energy overage can be deposited back into the city grid for others to use, resulting in net gains on monthly energy bills for homeowners.

This home is different than any other home by Dwell Development because its uses solar thermal technology, another key component to reaching net zero. The technology is quickly gaining popularity in the green building industry, because it uses the sun’s energy, rather than fossil fuels, to generate low-cost, environmentally-friendly thermal energy. When combined, solar panels and solar thermal technology work together to create a holistic energy efficient system to power the home using the sun’s natural energy.

Green Landscape + Healthy Living

The home’s location near Columbia City, Lake Washington, shopping and retail districts, and mass transit including light rail supports Dwell Development’s philosophy to develop homes in dense, walkable urban areas and support Seattle Parks. Genesee Park is a 57.7-acre park that was recommended for acquisition in 1908 by the Olmsted Brothers because of its “fine views” of Lake Washington. Set back in a quiet area, the park contains large open grass play fields, walking trails, child play areas, wild bird habitats, picnic shelters, and a turf field for soccer and football. Genesee also boasts a fully fenced 2.5 acre off-leash dog park, complete with a dog drinking fountain and kiosk for community notices. The L-shaped park is bordered by Lake Washington, the Stan Sayers Memorial Park, and the Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center. The park also plays host to the popular summer event on Lake Washington, Seafair, which includes hydroplane races and air shows every August. With its proximity to the park, large lush yard, and multiple outdoor entertainment spaces, the home offers a variety of reasons to go outside.

Project Information

3909 43rd Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144
3,700 SF home, 8,000 SF lot
4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, den, bonus room, 2 car garage
Architect: First Lamp Architecture
Contractor: Dwell Development
Structural Engineer: Carissa Farkas
Photography: Tucker English
Green Certifications: 5-Star Built Green, U.S. Department of Energy Net Zero Ready, Energy Star and InDoor Airplus
3rd Party Verifier: Tadashi Shiga, Evergreen Certified

About Dwell Development

Dwell Development LLC is an award-winning sustainable residential builder based in Seattle, WA and the Grand Winner of the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2016 Housing Innovation Awards. Dwell Development’s contribution to the Greater Seattle area has transformed the traditional landscape for residential design and construction by exclusively building energy-efficient homes featuring high performance properties and sleek modern designs. Follow the latest updates from Dwell Development on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For more information visit http://dwelldevelopment.com.

Dwell Development LLC
4501 Rainier Ave S
Seattle, WA 98118
(206) 683-7595

Press Contact: Amy Leedom
amy.leedom@paxsonfay.com
718.924.4096

Seattle Mayor’s Race: Who’ll Say, “Me Too!” First

It’s been two weeks since the election in Seattle and now the that the dust has settled we know who the candidates for Mayor will be, former United States Attorney Jenny Durkan and urban planner and activist Cary Moon. In my view, builders, developers, and people who operate housing need to hold off on supporting either candidate. I think the picture going forward is a lot more complicated the one might first think. The real question is whether Durkan moves toward Moon’s views, or whether Moon backs away from some of hers.

The Durkan Effect

It’s going to be really tempting to support Jenny Durkan at this stage. “Why not?” you might wonder, “after all she’s pro-business and she’d be a lot better than Cary Moon for builders and developers.”

Not so fast. It is true that Durkan was supported by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, but that organization hasn’t exactly been effective against City Council actions that impact small and medium sized businesses in Seattle, the minimum wage (they slowed implementation), were unable to stop the Council from meddling in how workers are scheduled, and didn’t stop an illegal income tax. The other candidate they supported, Sara Nelson who ran for City Council didn’t win. And the Chamber along with others spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to knock Kshama Sawant out of office unsuccessfully.

Along with being largely ineffective, the Chamber has never demonstrated any interest or support for small and medium sized developers outside of downtown. Their support of Durkan should be greeted with skepticism; it means their leadership thinks Durkan will keep supporting downtown developers, and their support will be confirmatory to Moon supporters that Durkan is the “establishment” candidate, which will rally the supporters of other candidates around Moon. Chamber support means Moon will be able to consolidate the substantial number of votes left by Oliver, Hasegawa, Farrell, and McGinn who all in their own ways ran against the “establishment.”

But isn’t Durkan the “adult in the room?” When I asked her intently and pointedly if she could describe the difference between the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program, a forced sale of density to builders and the broader recommendations of the Mayor’s Housing Affordability and Livability (HALA) Committee she bristled at the question. She didn’t really answer, repeating bland statements about housing and affordability. She didn’t seem to understand the difference or really think that it mattered. Housing. Housing. Housing. We’ve got to do something. The bromides were not impressive.

When I challenged her about having one of her first meetings as a candidate with big Downtown and South Lake Union developer Vulcan, she said, “Don’t believe everything you read.” Hmmm. So the Seattle Times is fake news? The truth is that on day one, Durkan will be on the phone with what she apparently considers to be the “development community,” big time land use attorney Jack McCullough and Vulcan. Another supporter of Durkan is another big time attorney, Faith Pettis, who runs a practice that makes millions from transactions associated with Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), expenses that drive up the cost of non-profit subsidize housing and have forced non-profit developers to use the MHA program to shake down small and medium sized builders to pay her fees. She was, without even blinking, the chair of the HALA Committee that recommended MHA. Can you say, “Conflict of interest?”

Jenny Durkan has yet to demonstrate an interest in the problems of the people who build and manage the vast majority of housing in the city. She has a lot of work to do to show she cares and will stand up for the real development community.

Cary Moon and the “Dark Energy” of the Real Estate Economy

Cary Moon believes in the Loch Ness Monster and Big Foot. And maybe even aliens. I’m kidding, but she and Charles Mudede at The Stranger effectively reprised the roles of Scully and Mulder on the X Files with their thousands of words long ghost story about sketchy foreign investors buying up all the housing in town and leaving it empty. That, she argued, is the reason why housing prices are “skyrocketing.”

Back in the real world, we all know that housing prices are up because supply isn’t keeping up with burgeoning demand and job growth. I wrote about the fact that even if there were dark forces (Dark Energy Mudede calls it) roving around the edges of the city, reviewing maps, and planning big buys, those evil foreign forces would have to buy 1400 apartments and empty them out in order to boost prices by 1 percent. Her views on speculation and the people she listens to about it are, simply put, absurd.

Moon has never managed anything as large as a city (neither has Durkan) and she has been on the outside of government, pushing it to pay attention to things like the waterfront and the viaduct. But it was her activism, combined with demands from the freight industry, which gave us the tunnel. Love it or hate it, the tunnel was a huge waste of energy for the city, as we battled over it for years. Moon oddly argued we needed access to the waterfront; we already have it both downtown and at places like Myrtle Edwards and Alki. We hardly needed such a battle and billions of dollars to let me launch my kayak from the deck at Ivar’s.

Now What?

I know. You’re thinking, “So what the hell are we supposed to do? Who do we support?”

I don’t know. But what I will be carefully watching like a hawk with progressive lenses (and so should you) is which candidate pulls the other candidate. Will Moon start abandoning her conspiracy theories? Will Durkan say that rent control is another “tool we should have in our tool box?” Which candidate will break first? Which one will say, “Me too!” first and most often? I have my guess and my bet. What’s yours? Call me and we can talk. Until then I’ll be watching, waiting, and listening. And yes, you can have my invitation to the Chamber’s Christmas party.

Over the Top Again? We Need a Better Plan.

One of my favorite comedies ever is the Blackadder series, a BBC sit com that ran in the 1980s. The series is named after the lead character, a acerbic, sarcastic, set upon, but relentlessly funny bit player in English history who is surrounded by people who are either not that bright or not that bright and somewhat sadistic. I have always found myself in his character, especially the final episodes of the series which are set in the English trenches of World War I. Blackadder Goes Forth is set in the darkest period of the war, when everyone knew what a hopeless killing machine the war had become; but there was no way and nobody willing to stop it. It’s kind of the way I feel about land use and housing policy in Seattle. The Seattle City Council keeps making bad housing policy. There is some hope, however, if we start now to stop the supply killing machine we’ve unleashed through overregulation and resisting growth.

My favorite episode of the Blackadder Goes Forth set kind of sums up my feelings about where we are, it’s called Captain Cook and here’s a key scene.

In the clip, Blackadder cynically asks about the big plan to win the war:

Melchett:       Good man. Now, Field Marshal Haig has formulated a
                brilliant new tactical plan to ensure final victory in the
                field. [they gather around a model of the battlefield]

Blackadder:     Now, would this brilliant plan involve us climbing out of
                our trenches and walking slowly towards the enemy sir?

Darling:        How can you possibly know that Blackadder? It's classified
                information.

Blackadder:     It's the same plan that we used last time, and the
                seventeen times before that.

Often I feel as though we haven’t learned our lesson as advocates for more housing and we keep repeating the same mistakes.

Over at the Facebook page, City Builders, I’ve been getting kind of surly with folks over a number of issues, including a new found obsession among “Urbanists (I still don’t know what this term means)” with abolishing single-family zoning in Seattle in favor of a more flexible code that would allow more density in single-family. I have tried to explain that we’ve already pushed for that and in fact, this notion was the basis of the founding of Smart Growth Seattle (hence our “Fresh Code” language at the top of the web site). I wrote about this years ago, and we battled to make it easier to build single-family homes in single family zones on smaller lots. And that’s my point to the new comers: the Council killed our efforts to make it easier to build single-family homes in single-family zones! See my many posts on this topic starting with the one I wrote about Councilmember Tim Burgess’ comments on the legislation that he supported killing small-lot development.

It isn’t that we shouldn’t drastically reform our land use code to allow more density in single-family, but the Council has made it hard to build single-family in single-family. Why would they suddenly turn a corner and allow courtyard housing and other types of housing that fits the description of the Missing Middle. We’ve got to talk to the people who are the most worried about changes in our city brought by growth. Why do they dislike developers and landlord? Why do they think that greed is why housing prices are going up rather than the lack of housing supply in the face of rising demand? What messages and messengers would help people in Seattle get that people who build housing are part of the solution to rising prices, not the cause of them?

No, I’m not “bitter” and I am, at heart, an optimist. But what I also think is that if we’re going to avoid making the same mistakes over and over, we need to invest in a broader, more sustainable approach. Here’s my proposal. It’s a start.

Research and Apply Findings to Communication, Legal, and Regulatory Engagement

• Why are basic economic concepts held by most people (e.g. that scarcity leads to higher prices) not applied to discussions about housing?
• How would more information about the details of housing financing and production influence people to modify their views about why housing is expensive?
• What language would be most persuasive in public discourse to shift people’s views about why housing is expensive (i.e. housing is expensive because it is scarce, not because of greed or gaming of the economy by large corporations, developers, or foreign speculators)?
• What is the Total Development Cost (TDC) for building housing in Seattle for all types of housing, in all parts of the city? What are those costs by the square feet and by unit?
• What Total Development Benefit (TBD) created by housing production in addition to housing itself (i.e. jobs, tax revenue, etc.)?
• What are the Total Regulatory Costs (TRC) for housing (i.e. all costs that are directly related to rules, fees, and codes)?

Apply research in the following domains:

Communication: Design a sustained program of communication and engagement across multiple platforms to persuade the public that developers, builders, and operators of rental housing can be part of the solution to rising housing prices.

Legal: Initiate both broad and narrow legal challenges to areas of regulation and policy that are contributing to rising prices by adding costs to and limiting the production of housing.

Regulatory Engagement: Maintain effort to ameliorate and limit costly non-legislative intervention and action by local government that increases the costs and limits the production of housing.

Outcome

• Improved legislation and policy in 2018 and 2019
• Better footing for pro-growth and housing candidates in 2019 election
• Recruit and elect at least one strong pro-growth and housing candidate to the Seattle City Council
• Developers, builders, and operators of rental housing are included in making housing policy.

A Message from Weld Seattle

Note: I’m sharing this message on behalf of Amy King with Weld Seattle. If you aren’t familiar with Weld take a minute to read this email and check out the attachments. Together with other programs and organizations, Weld Seattle is helping people with criminal records transition into life and work here in Seattle. 

Hello Smart Growth Seattle,

Stephen and I wanted to thank you for taking the time to listen to our presentation at last month’s Smart Growth breakfast. We greatly appreciated the opportunity to share our mission with you and we are very grateful for the generous property donations we have already received! I have attached an electronic copy of our Housing Concept Note and Executive Summary, for your reference. Please feel free to share this information with anyone you think might be interested in our programs or helping to promote our mission.

Our member wait list continues to grow and we are forging a strategic partnership with one of Seattle’s largest and most respected nonprofit organizations to provide transitional housing for individuals leaving their shelter programs.

We continue to need donations, mostly of monetary and property value, in order to further expand our programs. Additionally, we are looking for household items: beds, furniture, appliances, and linens for use in the houses. To make donations or suggest potential donor groups we should reach out to, please contact stephen@weldseattle.org.

We are also looking for a few companies to sponsor our launch event in the fall. All sponsors will be named on the invitation. in media briefings, and at the event.

We will be in attendance at the breakfast this week and would love to tell you more about how we’re growing and how you can help! Please feel free to ask us any questions you may have.

Thank you for your support of our work!

Amy
President, Board of Directors
Weld Seattle
www.weldseattle.org

Owner
Square Peg Development
PO Box 77570
Seattle, WA 98177
Cell: (503) 803-0457
www.squarepegseattle.com

 

Frequent Transit Service: One Man, Two Words

The most well known quote by military theorist Carl von Clausewitz is that “war is the continuation of politics by other means.” But the inverse of Clausewitz’s formulation is no less true, that “politics is the continuation of war by other means.” There is little relationship between the tactics of winning political battles and making good policy. In Seattle, angry neighbors resisting growth have often distorted public process with brute force, creating outcomes that thwart the creation of more housing. A great example of how this is playing out in Seattle housing policy is the City Council’s inaction on problems with parking exemptions for housing built in areas with frequent transit service.

In 2011, then Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn started a process of regulatory reform that explicitly acknowledged the negative impact that many regulations have on new housing and sustainable growth. I had the honor of being on a panel that had wide representation to look at how we might reduce and redirect regulation to make more housing easier and less expensive to build. One proposal was a change in the land use code to exempt new housing projects from having to build parking. The memo supporting this shift said,

This proposal represents a continuation of trends in the City’s code development promoting smart growth, which include allowing the amount of parking provided in new development to be tailored to the needs of the intended residents or workers where dense infill growth is especially encouraged by the City’s growth management efforts, and similarly in other parts of the city where frequent transit service is within a 1⁄4 mile walking distance. This would help avoid parking oversupply and associated consumption of space that would be better used to accommodate new residential or non-residential uses in more efficient patterns. Because parking is expensive to build and can be an impediment to pedestrian-oriented design, this proposal will improve the financial feasibility of development and encourage new growth to occur sooner, including new housing resources and space for new employment opportunities.

So the Council passed this change and many new projects built in dense urban villages with lots of transit service were built, allowing more people to live in those neighborhoods more affordably. The elimination of parking requirements was a huge benefit toward sustainable and affordable growth because it allowed more density (a positive all by itself), and since parking is so expensive to build, reduced the costs of building new housing, meaning lower prices. The exemption worked exactly like it was supposed to. And of course, this irked neighbors opposed to change and growth near their homes.

As a result, in 2014, neighbors appealed a parking exemption to the Hearing Examiner. Their appeal was based on the strict definitions – or lack thereof – in the legislation enacted 3 years before. The way that the City implemented the new exemption was to take Metro schedules which are set about every thee months, and simply take the average headways of those schedules to create an easy to use map identifying areas covered by the exemption. That way, anyone whether a developer or homeowners or someone proposing a policy change could see, easily, exactly where the exemption applied.

However, the appeal was successful because it correctly pointed out that the law doesn’t say “average” headways – anywhere. The maps and the method of calculating frequent transit service using the average scheduled buses could no longer be used. The designation “frequent transit service” could only apply in areas where buses were actually scheduled 15 minutes or less during the entire 12-hour period established as the threshold in the code. If the schedule had gaps during that time, then the designation wouldn’t apply, and projects would have to build parking.

What would fix this? The Hearing Examiner made it abundantly clear in her decision:

Neither the director nor the Examiner has the authority via statutory construction to add the word “average” to the term “headway” in the definition of frequent transit service. Doing so would change the clearly stated meaning and the impact of the definition. This can only be accomplished through legislation (emphasis mine).

In what seems like something right out of an episode of “Yes, Minister,” the City bureaucracy was mobilized to figure out how to write legislation that would correct the problem but without using the word “average.” Seriously. For three years the housing community has been waiting for a proposal that would create the outcome the legislation intended, exemption from having to build parking where there is lots of transit service. We already know a Directors Rule won’t help the situation (it didn’t last time) and the Hearing Examiner couldn’t have been more clear.

Why not just draft up legislation that would add the word average?

Fear.

Councilmembers, including the Chair of the Council’s Planning Land Use and Zoning (PLUZ) Committee won’t touch the word “average” with a ten-foot pole. The politics are bad and the Council is terrified of the back lash it would get if it simply did what the Hearing Examiner said would work: insert the word average!

The situation has gotten even worse. Recently more angry neighbors emerged and appealed another project on similar grounds. This time the ruling even further attenuated the exemption. Not only does the transit schedule have to meet the 15 minute headway requirement, it has to do so in real time, that is actual bus service has to be measured to demonstrate there is no lag is service. Again, the appeal is yet another wily exploitation of the weakness in the underlying language of the application. As the Hearing Examiner points out,

While analysis of bus schedules might be sufficient in most circumstances, when presented with reliable data showing that bus service does not meet the definition of frequent transit service well over a third of the time over a period of months, the [City] cannot simply ignore such information

I don’t necessarily disagree with this assessment. Now what’s needed is another word, “scheduled.” Together, the words “average scheduled” would clearly convey the intent of the original legislation and it would make it easy to calculate consistently and predictably, avoiding having to count actual headways.

Am I angry at the angry neighbors. Not really. They’re  just protecting the equity in their homes which will rise as supply fails to keep up with demand. Am I annoyed that Futurewise board member Jeff Eustis keeps filing these actions on behalf of angry neighbors? Livid. But each of these players is just acting rationally given the circumstances.

There is one guy in town that can start fixing this: Councilmember Rob Johnson. But he simply won’t do it.

Back to Clausewitz.

Johnson knows the right thing to do is to simply draft the legislation and get it done. Let the angry neighbors make their noise. He should walk down the hallway on the second floor and work on his colleagues to persuade them using data and using whatever else is needed. Maybe he can read the opening chapter of Robert Caro’s brilliant Master of the Senate about how Lyndon Johnson passed civil rights legislation. Or maybe read about how Earl Warren managed to get a 9 to 0 vote on Brown v. Board of Education. In each case, the outcome was uncertain but decisive. In each case there were many reasons to fear angry mobs.

It’s called leadership. And it means standing up to the fear in yourself and in your colleagues. It means doing the right thing and bringing others along. Otherwise the brute force of angry neighbors wins the day; housing prices keep going up, more people drive and our City loses. It all comes down to two words, “average scheduled.”