Doesn’t Seattle already allow duplexes and triplexes? This is a question I often get from listeners when I cover efforts to legalize “missing middle housing” here.
So I’ve been asking some questions. Here’s some of what I found.
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The misunderstanding comes from the idea that when Seattle allowed backyard cottages and mother-in-law apartments, this effectively allows 3 units per property.
But there are substantial differences.
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“The key difference here has to do with principal dwelling units versus accessory dwelling units and the size limits and land division options that apply to each,” says Nicholas Welch at Seattle’s Office of Planning and Development.
ADUs and DADUs face more restrictions.
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Here is a duplex unit, in a what is likely a multifamily zone, which is where they are allowed.
Each side may be sold separately.
This arrangement, where you buy the home plus the land under it, is called “fee simple.”
In contrast, ADUs and DADUs aren’t sold separately.
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“Fee simple” is the primary reason why townhomes are so vertically organized, even though it would be more efficient for multiple units to share a stairwell.
I once heard the architect David Neiman tell students this is why “stacked flats” seldom work out.
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Back to ADUs and DADUs.
Because they’re not “fee simple,” and because the land they’re on generally cannot be subdivided, “they must be rented or owned as condominium units without subdividing the land,” OPCD’s Nicolas Welch says.
Or rented out as Airbnbs, I’d add.
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., who works at an architecture firm in Seattle, pointed out that not only must ADUs and DADUs be much smaller than the main home, they can’t even have their front doors facing the street. It’s like we’re treating them as lesser, both in size and status.
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When I went to architecture school, instructors emphasized the symbolic value of having your own front door. So we’d render them in wildly different colors.
Now I understand why some students today hide multiple homes behind a single front door.
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Another thing needle pointed out was ADUs can’t be built on lots under 3200 SF.
I don’t have a map of that, but we do have one of lots under 5000 SF. These are in older parts of the city, before minimum lot sizes kicked in. On some of this land, ADUs & DADUs can’t be built.🧵9/?
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If you care about affordable home ownership, and want alternatives to condos, look for homes that can be sold “fee simple,” where you own both the home + the land beneath it.
👇2 story cottage for $715k in Greenwood. Seems $$$ but new SF homes on next block are $1.5-2M 🧵 10/10
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I should add: I have not yet learned WHY banks prefer “fee simple” arrangements over others, such as stacked flats, which under current law I suspect must be treated as condos. Is it liability?
Condos carry their own baggage.
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Corrections dept: I added an extra “h” in one instance of Nicolas Welch’s name
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