NIMBYs ye shall be heard

[PDXPaul]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...10_joni19.html

A nagging sense that growth is cramping our style

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Most of the time, the feeling is very subtle: a slight clenching of the jaw, an unintended furrowing of the brow as if caught in sunlight that is way too bright.

Seattle is gorgeous, glorious and discovered — and crowded, traffic-congested and discovered.

All of us in Seattle and other Puget Sound cities have had that reaction. This is such an extraordinary place to live we sometimes feel a little claustrophobic, even anxious, about all the new people coming here and setting up camp. What's the big deal?

The big deal is that growth and density — over the last seven years, King County added 124,000 new residents — are having impacts in ways large and small. You see it in the building cranes towering everywhere, streets blocked for construction of more buildings, roads backed up with traffic that wasn't anywhere near that bad even last year.

Two neighbors you have known for years decide to move away. You will miss these nice, quiet people living in a house that fits harmoniously with the land.

Within a week of their decision, neighbors are whispering about what, not whom, will replace their reasonably sized home. Will it be a dreaded McMansion, one of those monster homes that reaches high in the sky and stretches lot line to lot line?

What will become of the neighborhood?

As part of the neighborhood-planning effort, certain neighborhoods agreed to accept higher density in exchange for urban amenities, such as traffic circles, parks and libraries. Seattle is bracing for another 100,000 residents over the next 15 to 20 years.

In a good news/bad news conundrum, Seattle's real-estate market is still humming while sales in other parts of the country are slowing.

That means a host of developers and would-be homeowners are still willing to pay $800,000 or more for a teardown. There is a cost to a neighborhood if the teardown's replacement overwhelms all the other more modestly sized homes with noise, construction dust and view-blocking megahomes.

There it is again: that knotting, clenching, uncomfortable feeling. Will our city feel as livable after all the real-estate money sloshes around and maxes out so many comfortably sized lots in neighborhoods where scale and taste used to mean something?

Been to a city park lately? Been to Capitol Hill? Then you can guess where this train of thought is headed: There is no parking anywhere!!!

At the risk of scaring the City Council, most of whose members believe cars are wicked, it used to be so easy to get around Seattle. If you needed something at a hardware store, you hopped in the car and pulled almost in front of the store, got out and made your purchase. Not anymore.

Seattle recently was named the third-most-popular travel destination, after Orlando and Las Vegas. Yikes. Whether that is really true or not, the flood of visitors is good for certain businesses, not so great for residents who find every place more crowded.

The very things we fell in love with here — I am nonnative myself — seem more packed, more of a hassle every day.

Seattle City Councilman Richard Conlin is trying to do something about the proliferation of megahomes.

Conlin's proposed changes to the housing code would shrink the residential height limit from roughly three stories to two, with some exceptions. Homes could occupy only up to 35 percent of a lot.

The legislation also would end the practice of replacing multiple neighboring houses with fewer buildings. Buyers could not continue to purchase two side-by-side single-family lots and replace them with one large megahome.

Seattle is not alone. Other popular upscale communities with beaucoup real-estate cash are trying to get a handle on McMansions.

Austin, Texas, Marin County, Atlanta and many other communities are trying to get a handle on homes that block sunlight and views and take some of the charm out of a neighborhood. The Bellevue City Council is working the same issue right now.

Even though Seattle has to accept some growth as part of state growth-management rules, the city should get a grip on that uncomfortable crowding that comes with increasing urbanization and density.

New laws will help. But some things can't be fixed. More people means traffic keeps getting worse all the time. Home prices are soaring into the stratosphere. Quality of life here remains quite good but you can feel some of our world-famous livability ebbing. Our angst is palpable.

Joni Balter's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is jbalter@seattletimes.com; for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to Editorial/Opinion at seattletimes.com

[James Bond Agent 007]

GO AWAY WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE!!!!







Hey I haven't said that in a while.

[seaskyfan]

I'm with Conlin on the megahouses. A lot of the historic bungalow neighborhoods are being trashed by crappy megahouses. The two story height and 35% coverage limits make a lot of sense to me.

These things don't increase population density, in some cases they even reduce it by replacing two houses with one.

[NW Mike]

And have you ever been in one of those Mega homes?... They are built like crap. I can not imagine paying the money for what they get in return...A home that is falling apart in a few years.
I agree With Bond....Go Away!!
(even though I am one of those people that moved here in the last 5 years because I knew it would be a great place to live)

[mhays]

I love population growth as long as it's accommodated through density.

What strikes me is that most anti-growth sentiment is about cars. Either traffic or parking. Neither affects me. Also, difficulty driving and parking is good medicine for the community.

[destroybananas]

Those people that think density is unconfortable will move out and the people that embrace other humans and life in general will make this city livable just like San Francisco did. It's no wonder why San Fran has a better quality of life than Seattle.

[zilfondel]

I hate McMansions.

[Drmyeyes]

Too many people with too much money and look what they spend it on....big ugly McMansions, often with very little yards/gardens or spacing from neighboring property lines and houses. And then when they tire of the damage these monsters inflict on older,modestly proportioned homes, and in other places, the ugly phenomenon of acres of these things that they've helped produce, they load up their cash and move on to the next diversion.

Some people like to laugh all this off as NIMBYISM. Well, maybe it is and maybe it isn't. As streets get progressively darker, with less and green and blue sky, a lot more people aren't going to be laughing with them. Creating ugly places that inevitably, less fortunate people are obliged to try living within aggravates unhealthy social anxiety that the entire society may eventually have to address.

Density can be good if it's consciously designed to effectively counter fundamental negative consequences of density. Unfortunately, designing density this way is far from being a common, consistent practice.

[2oh1]

MHAYS!!! What a superb comment. I couldn't agree more.

[Symi81]

Overall Seattle's additional density is a good thing, but I agree thats as we grow its important to remember/preserve some of the qualities that made Seattle special in the first place - including the original housing stock, trees and green space, views, & neighborhood schools. IMO limiting tear-downs and McMansions is a good step in that direction.

I understand/partly agree with the musing about just taking the bus or walking to avoid the congestion problem. If more people took transit, traffic and parking wouldn't be an issue for them either. Unfortunately, probably at least half the cars in Seattle at any time (especially during weekdays) are not registered in the city. I noticed this firsthand when Seattle car owners were required to use Seattle-specific monorail-tax license-plate tabs. Anyway, my point is as the surrounding region becomes more populated with mostly driers, Seattle will become more congested even if walking/bus is the norm for Seattle city residents. San Francisco exhibits this character even more so than Seattle.