Yobi Apartments: What Microhousing Could Have Been
It’s been almost a year since the Planning, Land Use, and Sustainability (PLUS) Committee under the leadership of Councilmember Mike O’Brien outlawed microhousing in Seattle. I can still remember Councilmember Burgess chiding the audience that the legislation passed would have no effect on the production of microhousing, even as a letter was arriving from the […]
Making S**t Up: The Problem With Zoning Regulations
I am deeply skeptical of efforts to regulate outcomes in the market place using the land use code, zoning, and housing policy. What do I mean? Well an article by John McNellis at the Bay Area real estate blog, The Registry called Big City Dreaming points out one example: mandated commercial space. Many jurisdictions, including […]
Affholter: Successful Density Opponents Mean Higher Housing Prices, Sprawl
Shannon Affholter, the Executive Director of the Master Builders Association had an important opinion piece in the print edition of the Seattle Times. In it, he makes the point that we’ve all been making over and over again: when anti-growth and opponents of growth succeed in slowing down housing supply, prices go up. Having Affholter’s […]
