Local green developer Sloan Ritchie has delivered his verdict on Councilmember Mike O’Brien: It’s a bad idea. In an article in the Puget Sound Business Journal, Ritchie, founder of Cascade Built, talks about a project he just built, the first multifamily passive house in Seattle. Ritchie’s approach to building is articulated at the Cascade Built website, which also highlights the View Haus 5 project.

Each and every Cascade Built project emphasizes durable craftsmanship and product selection, livability through thoughtful modern design, non-toxic finishes, and comfort enhancing features, adherence to sustainable standards and affordability achieved through significant reduction in energy and maintenance costs.

Such an approach to development is, Ritchie says, is risky partially because of the additional expense. Because passive house standards are so energy efficient, in the long run, they end up being more affordable because of the energy savings. So much of the cost of a home are associated with heating and cooling interior spaces, and this is especially true of larger multifamily housing. And all the energy and equipment also accounts for climate changing emissions. Passive house aggressively tackles that problem.

View Haus 5 is Seattle’s first Passive House-constructed townhome project, delivering healthy indoor air, thermal comfort and quiet in the city’s urban core. Designed by the award-winning b9 Architects, View Haus 5 is named for its five distinct home designs that share views of the Cascade Mountains. View Haus 5 is a mix of modern 3-story 2b/2ba and 3bd/2ba townhomes ranging between 1,100 and 1,700 square feet that bucks the trend of cookie-cutter townhomes with individually designed units. View Haus 5 complies with the rigorous standards for design and construction set by the Passive House Institute US.

What would happen to these kind of innovative and sustainable features with the passage of a housing tax?

The Seattle City Council is considering a housing tax on real estate development in most multi-family and commercial zones to help the preservation and construction of affordable housing.Sloan Ritchie’s advice to city leaders: Don’t do it.

The possible tax rate is between $5 and $22 a square foot.

“The impact of this on my business model is that we’d have to eliminate most or all of the sustainable features we now do, “ Ritchie said, adding his company is “definitely beyond what we ‘should’ or could be spending to make a project pencil with adding green features. With that tax, those features would be the first to go.”

Spending at the front end on such innovations pays off in the long run for homeowners and renters with energy savings and the planet with reduced carbon emissions. Councilmember O’Brien’s proposal would put those innovations on the chopping block. Along with adding costs, raising rents, affecting the feasibility of new projects, the measure would reduce innovation in sustainable building. Yet another reason to not do it.