Seattle's Answer to Affordable Housing

Zach Patton details the effects of Seattle's zoning regulation which allows for the construction of "backyard cottages." These cottages, writes the author, are a viable way to increase urban density and provide affordable housing.

1 minute read

May 2, 2011, 1:00 PM PDT

By Victor Negrete


From article by Zach Patton on Governing. com:

"Today, almost two-thirds of the city is zoned for single-family homes, so it's harder for Seattle to accommodate its growing population -- the city swelled from 563,374 residents in 2000 to 608,660 last year -- without spreading farther and farther into the forests of the Pacific Northwest. That's partly why the city saw backyard cottages as an attractive new alternative, a way to add affordable housing options without a wholesale redesign of the city's signature neighborhoods."

Patton explains that backyard cottages and granny flats are actually a throwback to common urban design practices of the first half of the 20th century. By the 1950s, however, Americans fled to the suburbs in pursuit of large single-family homes on large tracts of land. Further, "many urban zoning codes of the second half of the century essentially banned the construction of new backyard cottages."

Monday, May 2, 2011 in Governing

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