Microhousing developers all over the city got this letter below in response to a Superior Court decision that ruled that microhousing rooms are really units. For purposes of enforcing code requirements, a kitchen counts as a unit. Units trigger extended review under SEPA and also require design review. Part of what makes microhousing work, is it’s innovative use of shared kitchens and the allowance of up to eight unrelated people in a unit. Therefore, a unit can have up to 8 rooms. Each room can have a sink and a countertop, a refrigerator, and a microwave. Typically, these items have not been considered kitchens.

But the letter from Department of Planning and Development head Diane Sugimura was sent to people who already have gone most of the way to getting permits for their projects. Applying the court decision this way is a questionable reading of the law, but it also ensures that many projects now won’t work or will have to go through extended review or revision. The “fix” for DPD: move your sink into the bathroom and lose the refrigerator. We’ll be working on a response, and this decision is likely to mean some legal response. We’ll keep you informed. 

I wanted to let you know about the status of your micro-housing residence project. Approval of another project with a configuration similar to yours was recently challenged in King County Superior Court. Like yours, that project included multiple bedrooms, each with a private bathroom and a counter area, including a sink, which appeared to be suited for food preparation.

In a decision issued August 13 and currently under appeal, the judge ruled that each bedroom was configured for use as a separate dwelling unit, and must be regulated accordingly. We have re-examined other similar projects, including your own, in light of that decision. We have concluded that the individual rooms within your proposed development, project no. 6404485, also must be regulated as separate dwelling units.

If you want us to proceed with review of your project before a decision is reached on the appeal, you must either revise the project to meet code requirements based on the larger number of dwelling units, or else modify the plans so that the bedrooms no longer would be regarded as separate dwelling units.

If you wish to revise the project to reflect a larger number of dwelling units, it will be necessary to add Design Review and SEPA. Development standards based on the number of units, such as requirements for bicycle parking and trash storage areas, and any applicable density requirements, must be met. Alternatively, you may wait and redesign based on standards for small efficiency dwelling units, currently under consideration by the City Council, once those standards have been adopted.

If you wish to modify the plans so that the rooms are no longer counted as separate dwelling units, you must modify the plans so that bathrooms are shared rather than privately associated with individual bedrooms, or else you must eliminate food preparation areas within each room, including sinks outside of bathrooms, cooking or refrigeration equipment and built-in counters and cabinets.

Additional modifications may be required based on Building Code standards for separate dwelling units. If the project has received bonus floor area for provision of affordable housing under Section 23.58A.014, that approval must be reviewed to ensure continued eligibility based on the change in unit count or any changes to the structure.

Please let us know how you wish to proceed. If you have questions or concerns about this letter, please contact Christopher Ndifon, at (206) 233-7938 or christopher.ndifon@seattle.gov.