We’ve been engaging the Council and opponents of microhousing for almost a year now and there is still strong support for microhousing as an important choice for people looking for a place to live in Seattle. But the efforts of opponents to scuttle microhousing continue and some on the City Council feel like they need to do something to assuage the fears of the opposition. That something might be design review, and the Council needs to know that subjecting microhousing to design review won’t solve their angry neighbor problem and it will put microhousing out of reach for some when prices go up. Here’s a letter we sent Mike O’Brien reiterating our position. Let him know what you think too by sending him an e-mail.

We are asking that design review not be imposed on microhousing projects unless and until there are significant improvements made to design review. 

There is almost universal sentiment that the current system of design review—including so-called Streamline Design Review—is broken. The process is open-ended, too costly, and has no impact on the concerns surfaced by neighbors. Design review has no effect on parking, for example.

Even City staff has made the observation that after going through the design review process “projects showed little evidence of substantial modification” (see page 3 of the report written by DPD at http://clerk.seattle.gov/~public/meetingrecords/2013/plus20130628_4b.pdf).

City staff also refuted charges (in the SEPA appeal) that pending legislation would lead to more microhousing by testifying that the legislation would have a slowing effect on the supply of units because of “the addition of design review requirements.” If the Council wants to drive up the cost of a housing choice currently within reach of many people in the City, imposing design review would do just that.

Adding costs to microhousing with no benefits hurts people looking for housing, and design review should be a useful, predictable, and less costly process for all new projects throughout the city.