Issue link: http://digital.nexsitepublishing.com/i/901018
BY ROGER VALDEZ SMART GROWTH SEATTLE Smart Growth Seattle Guest Editorial Hello Mayor, May We HALA at You? Earlier this year, Smart Growth Seattle wrote a letter to the Mayor of Seattle and the City Council asking them to take a hard look at the myriad of regulations they've imposed over the last few years that make it harder to build housing. The City has been on a regulatory spree, killing small-lot development and micro-housing, downzoning the low-rise zones, along with imposing unhelpful laws aff ecting tenants and landlords—and they are poised to do more. Meanwhile, the City hasn't fi xed problems with the defi nition of Frequent Transit Service, a problem that has put at risk many new housing projects, requiring them to build large amounts of parking. In the letter, we cite a key section of the Housing Aff ordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) Committee Report (pages 37-39) called "Reform the Review Processes." This section suggests that "long permitting processes and unpredictable timelines make housing projects di cult to develop and add to the cost of new housing." But rather than cost-saving reforms, the City is in the process of actively adding costs to housing production. Here is a PARTIAL list of the issues we mentioned: • Water main extensions • New drainage requirements • System capacity (or similar) charges • Impact fees • Separation from electrical wires • Defi nition of frequent transit service • Design review • Mandatory inclusionary zoning/mandatory housing aff ordability • New registry for vacant buildings We did not debate the wisdom of any of these issues; some are ill conceived and others may have some merit. But what is the total impact of the issues?We think they mean higher housing prices during a "housing crisis." We asked city leaders to stop and get a better accounting of how much these and other requirements cost and how much they are adding to costs of production, and allow the new mayor the benefi t of this information to make better decisions in 2018. READ MORE AT smartgrowthseattle.org 49 master builder WINTER 2017 master builder