The local Seattle land use world has been abuzz lately with talk about small, affordable apartments—otherwise known as aPodments. What’s frustrating about all this talk is that it’s almost inevitable that the talk will lead to some kind of action. Members of the City Council feel like they have to do “something” to address the concern of people who fear more housing in their neighborhoods. That “something” is likely to be more regulation that will increase housing price. Erica Barnett at Publicola has written the definitive piece on the meeting of people who hate small, affordable apartments.

The buildings do not currently have to go through design review because, under the city’s land use code, each floor of a building counts as a single unit with several (up to eight) bedrooms, so a building with 56 bedrooms would count as seven units—below the design-review threshold. Although opponents say this is an unfair loophole, proponents—and I’m one—argue that they provide affordable housing to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to live in the city, and that a lengthy design review process would make that goal harder to attain.

What’s missing from Seattle’s discussion about housing is the idea that people should have more choices about where they want to live in our city. That’s what Smart Growth Seattle is all about: increasing the supply of housing choices for where people live.

Our discussion about housing should be about how to increase those choices across the spectrum of type and size, including small, affordable apartments on one end all the way to new single family homes on the other end and everything in between. After all, what people really want is a place to call “home,” whether they rent or own or their house is small or big. This matters to everyone. When people oppose new places for people to live, they’re making it harder for everyone to find a way to be happy.

If people didn’t want to live in Seattle, our housing prices would drop and we’d be trying to find a way to entice people to live here, including urging businesses to move to Seattle. We don’t have that problem. We don’t have enough housing, which drives up price.

I’ll be at a neighborhood meeting on Wednesday talking about this topic. Please attend if you can.

North District Council
Wednesday, May 1
7:00 p.m.- 8:30 PM
Lake City Library conference room
12501 28th Ave. NE

We need more voices speaking about increasing the choices people have when it comes to housing, so please attend if you can.