Councilmember Johnson: The Council Has Made it Easier to Build Housing
On Tuesday I recorded a segment for KUOW radio with Councilmember Rob Johnson about the Mandatory Housing Affordability. I never post about a recorded appearance or discussion until it is actually public because things change; sometimes recorded appearances or discussions don’t end up on the air. But during the conversation the Councilmember said that the City Council had done things to make housing production easier. I, of course, protested. The segment may air later today and I’ll post that if it does. But here’s a letter I sent to Councilmember Johnson asking, again, for help reducing barriers to production.
Hello Councilmember Johnson,
Thanks for taking the time to debate and discuss the City of Seattle’s Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program at KUOW yesterday afternoon.
You said that the Council had done a lot to roll back rules and regulations on housing production. While it is true that we last met in 2016, the City has not listened to our greatest concern then and now: the growing difficulty and cost of building housing in Seattle.
You are the first person from the City who has been willing to discuss and debate in a public forum the MHA program. I’m not sure what discussions have happened with other groups, but I know that a voluntary program was never considered and our many concerns about feasibility and additional costs were not taken into account in the development of legislation. I wish the City had listened AND responded to our concerns. I know you’ve had lots of public meetings, but the proposal hasn’t changed significantly since it was first proposed. It is not a voluntary program and in many if not most cases it is not a fair exchange of value. It will raise housing prices to rationalize fees that will pay for a small number of subsidized units a long time from now.
I don’t expect the City to change course on MHA at this point.
I don’t think most people who build housing would agree with you that the City Council has made building housing easier. If you’re willing to lead and facilitate a discussion of ways to reduce the costs associated with development of new housing in time and money, we’d be happy to participate and to bring people to the table that can talk about the growing costs and delays across all the permitting departments of the City. Attached is a list of dozens of costs drivers we’ve shared with City before including the Mayor’s office.
The truth is that in many cases additional FAR granted through the MHA program won’t be of much value because of some of these issues on this list like larger set backs for power lines, for example. And the proposal has created a great deal of uncertainty along with your impact fee proposal and the arbitrary changes made to the MFTE program.
Our view has been and continues to be that the more the City limits the production of market rate housing, the greater the demand there will be on subsidized housing. And subsidized housing in our city is subject to all of the cost drivers on this list and many more imposed by regulatory agencies at the federal, state, and local level.
Building housing has become more complicated and costly in the last several years, whether it is redundant utility infrastructure, new plumbing plans review, or the changing size and scope of garbage requirements, costs are going up and delays are increasing.
As I said today, many builders don’t want to raise these issues out of concern of making their permitting issues worse. That’s why Seattle For Growth raises the issue for them.
Again, as we said to the Mayor’s office, we’re happy to participate in a discussion of how to reduce costs for all housing with non-profit developers who I am sure would agree with our concerns.
Roger–
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Roger Valdez
Director
Seattle For Growth
(206) 427-7707
