Today I’m attending a forum on providing middle income housing opportunities in the City of Seattle and surrounding areas. It’s called the Workforce Housing Action Workshop. The morning is mostly consisting of listening to speakers and a panel discussion and this afternoon will be set up to do group work and to provide feedback for moving forward.
From what I’ve seen so far on the development side there are questions about the amount of time needed to go through design review and permitting processes as well as parking costs and requirements. One of the financial issues that is coming up is whether or not subsidizing of middle income housing is appropriate or available. Politically, I can’t see this being very popular. Thankfully, as the day progressed it was notable to many that this option was steered clear of by pretty much everyone (which was roughly 150 people) and consensus was that this shouldn’t be the answer.
Environmental concerns flowed throughout the conversation with people from Cascade Land Conservancy being present but that was of interest even without them being here. Business energy tax credits are also thrown in as part of the possible methods of incenting developers to make good buildings and projects but overall there is a belief that for the Seattle and King County public we must make this part of the overall package just to make anything that is put together amenable and acceptable to the public. While many of the participants were in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s there was much discussion about how we must get the 20’s and 30’s involved in helping get higher density neighborhoods and planned acceptable into neighborhoods and to prevent or reduce NIMBY-ism as it normally applies to these topics.
Overall, the consensus was that permitting process need to be streamlined; zoning and building codes need to be revisited and perhaps overhauled since Seattle is more difficult than any other local municipality; and that it’s going to be important that businesses get involved in considering how they might help with making middle income housing affordable for their workers, which led into the additional element of today’s discussions of possible Employer Assisted Housing. One area of interest as a model is Austin, TX where they do “SMART Growth“.
As the notes from today’s meeting come out I’ll do an update to provide a window to you, the public, into what considerations are being made. We need a healthy real estate market in all housing levels for the Puget Sound area to remain vibrant and liveable and to continue a big part of our quality of life around here. This will mean that we need your support too to get the politicians to agree with these plans and to implement them. Let’s all get educated together…
