Housing, like people, comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors. New housing in single-family neighborhoods doesn’t all look the same. Diversity and variety are good things.

Some opponents of new single-family housing argue that new housing is too big. But the facts tell a different story.

Here’s an image that shows a typical block face of singe-family housing. The housing allowed under our proposal are the two houses on the right. The larger house on the left is housing that can be built now on regular single-family lots. Our drawing here shows a slightly larger lot coverage for the bigger house on left (about 550 square feet) than is currently allowed in code. Usually, a home that size would have design features that would lower lot coverage.

Here’s another view.

And here’s a view with more detail on yards for the houses.

Seattle needs more housing choices, including detached single-family houses. Our proposals are pretty straight forward, provide predictability, and would allow housing that fits well with existing houses in neighborhoods all over the city on lots no smaller than 2000 square feet, with height limits, and setbacks. While not every house and every neighborhood is the same, our proposal would allow everyone–builders, new residents, and neighbors–predictable scale for new housing.