Whoa, my favorite blogger in my old neighborhood of 30+ years? I was on the Queen Anne Land Use Review Committee (LURC) some 25 years ago when regional planning for "urban villages" was getting real. The idea being to increase density in parts of the city, and limit sprawl outside of them. My group, LURC, had no real authority but many developers would run plans by us and most were surprisingly receptive to suggestions to improve them. Anyway, very cool you got a chance to visit a great place.
Not relevant in urban situation, but in the Hudson Valley a nonprofit called RUPCO is changing the meaning of affordable housing. They renovate old factories into beautiful condo-like buildings that are also super green. And they are all for low income tenants. They also built a complex from scratch in Woodstock that feels like a pleasant futuristic village. Crazy thing is self-claimed liberal nimbys still oppose these low income projects. Anyway I hope RUPCO’s vision is in the future of small towns everywhere.
Property taxes in Washington are much more complex than you imagine. We don’t have Prop 13 limiting appraisals, but there are limits on how much cities can collect in property taxes. It’s incredibly arcane and confusing.
Don't forget that ADUs/DADUs have a positive role to play in increasing density outside of neighborhood centers. Most are highly livable, can generate income for homeowners, and can be build pretty much anywhere with a large enough yard. (I would like to live in one next, so I would like there to be more of them.) Did you see any?
My parents live in one of those townhouses in a different neighborhood in Seattle. I call them "PC towers" in my head. My main issue with them is that they're highly unfriendly to disabled people. If you can't ascend two flights of steep stairs, good luck accessing anything that isn't the first floor of your house.
I lived in a three-story townhouse (part of a quadplex of them) in Queen Anne over a decade ago. This has definitely accelerated in recent years, but densification has been happening there for a while.
Also worth noting that it's happening more intensely in other, poorer parts of the city, like the Central District and Rainier Valley.
A little late to the party here, but there is still a very long uphill battle to climb with respect to changing the hearts and minds of homeowners to create this kind of "missing middle" infill. I recently got prompted to take a poll via text. It was a straw poll, so the methodology certainly leaves a lot to be desired (would love to learn more about changing methodologies of polling), but Interestingly they allowed comments. I guess that gets you some quant and qual data all in one go. Results were not encouraging:
The attack on CA Prop 13 seems misplaced. New construction in a "Queen Anne" type setting in CA would be assessed at current FMV for the current owner (and reassessed upon future sales). Prop 13 then serves as a limit on increasing the owner's property taxes to 2% a year.
Dense living conditions & mass transit systems are super spreaders during pandemics. Covid-19 blew apart any pretense that urban dwelling & mass transit were good ideas. Follow the science.
Whoa, my favorite blogger in my old neighborhood of 30+ years? I was on the Queen Anne Land Use Review Committee (LURC) some 25 years ago when regional planning for "urban villages" was getting real. The idea being to increase density in parts of the city, and limit sprawl outside of them. My group, LURC, had no real authority but many developers would run plans by us and most were surprisingly receptive to suggestions to improve them. Anyway, very cool you got a chance to visit a great place.
I live in one of these neighborhoods in Denver: Berkeley.
Crappy 1908 single family 1000 sqft houses being scraped and replaced by two 2300 sqft duplex units.
Property tax revenue (and we have our own weird laws) go from $1400/yr to $8000/yr.
Thanks to the work of Peter park https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-park-5897a6a0/ while he was employed by the City & County of Denver.
Not relevant in urban situation, but in the Hudson Valley a nonprofit called RUPCO is changing the meaning of affordable housing. They renovate old factories into beautiful condo-like buildings that are also super green. And they are all for low income tenants. They also built a complex from scratch in Woodstock that feels like a pleasant futuristic village. Crazy thing is self-claimed liberal nimbys still oppose these low income projects. Anyway I hope RUPCO’s vision is in the future of small towns everywhere.
Follow the science. Urban density is part of the solution to the challenge of climate change. https://www.ted.com/talks/norman_foster_my_green_agenda_for_architecture
Property taxes in Washington are much more complex than you imagine. We don’t have Prop 13 limiting appraisals, but there are limits on how much cities can collect in property taxes. It’s incredibly arcane and confusing.
http://mrsc.org/Home/Explore-Topics/Finance/Revenues/The-Property-Tax-in-Washington-State.aspx
Don't forget that ADUs/DADUs have a positive role to play in increasing density outside of neighborhood centers. Most are highly livable, can generate income for homeowners, and can be build pretty much anywhere with a large enough yard. (I would like to live in one next, so I would like there to be more of them.) Did you see any?
My parents live in one of those townhouses in a different neighborhood in Seattle. I call them "PC towers" in my head. My main issue with them is that they're highly unfriendly to disabled people. If you can't ascend two flights of steep stairs, good luck accessing anything that isn't the first floor of your house.
Who knew that increasing the supply of housing would help hold down prices?
I lived in a three-story townhouse (part of a quadplex of them) in Queen Anne over a decade ago. This has definitely accelerated in recent years, but densification has been happening there for a while.
Also worth noting that it's happening more intensely in other, poorer parts of the city, like the Central District and Rainier Valley.
A little late to the party here, but there is still a very long uphill battle to climb with respect to changing the hearts and minds of homeowners to create this kind of "missing middle" infill. I recently got prompted to take a poll via text. It was a straw poll, so the methodology certainly leaves a lot to be desired (would love to learn more about changing methodologies of polling), but Interestingly they allowed comments. I guess that gets you some quant and qual data all in one go. Results were not encouraging:
https://www.voca.vote/r/6b2b41336f44384845675a6e76695133374f3530766e79782f6a44306b676e366c326963435a752f50766854a;c=6f4371585039764d7563426a6b2f526f6574796c726e795a574f6344726331515130505a6544456165545635a
The attack on CA Prop 13 seems misplaced. New construction in a "Queen Anne" type setting in CA would be assessed at current FMV for the current owner (and reassessed upon future sales). Prop 13 then serves as a limit on increasing the owner's property taxes to 2% a year.
Dense living conditions & mass transit systems are super spreaders during pandemics. Covid-19 blew apart any pretense that urban dwelling & mass transit were good ideas. Follow the science.