Yesterday the Seattle Times continued the confusing Seattle message regarding housing. Just a few days after Earth Day and everyone painting themselves “green” and complaining about growing carbon footprints, the Seattle Times turns on the local townhouse developers and gives another forum to Vlad Oustimovitch, a person simply on a personal crusade against one local developer.
Let me be very clear. I work with people that build townhouses and I sell them. But I truly believe in townhouses. I believe they provide a wonderful opportunity for people that want to live urban but cannot afford a stand-alone single family home, they put people closer to the urban core, they put homeowners in neighborhoods they can walk to amenities and they slow the sprawl across our county. Townhouses are good.
Is every design perfect? No. Can changes be made at Seattle DPD (Department of Planning & Development)? Yes. The question that is not clear is; why builders are the automatic target? If you stop and think about it developers like Soleil Development should have been thanked at all the local Earth Day celebrations. Soleil is providing another housing opportunity in areas where many have been priced out. Soleil makes a profit doing it, they should. When someones goes out on a limb financially and provides housing that the local government is begging for and home buyers are asking for (yes, in any other discussion people are always saying we need more affordable housing in the city of Seattle) they should be rewarded.
Don’t like the code? Don’t like the process? Then get involved at the city. Don’t blame the builders. That is the easy approach and accomplishes nothing. In fact it is just plain lazy. I don’t agree with some of the designs out there and maybe there should be more project review. Just be careful. If you make it more expensive to build (if it even gets built) the end product will reflect those costs.
Want to preserve a piece of property in the neighborhood? Then buy it. All these properties that townhouses are built on were for sale. If you would like to put your vision on a piece of property or control it’s use, then buy it. I always have found it curious that people in Seattle, like Vlad Oustimovitch, love to blame the developer that purchased the property but not the previous owner that cashed out at top dollar due to the development potential of the property.
There are great topics that revolve around townhouses & Seattle housing but repeatedly just attacking local builders is not productive. Stop giving Mr. Oustimovitch a forum to personally attack people and lets actually have productive conversations about building codes and affordable urban housing.
Actually, the developer in question (Dan Duffus) is one of the better ones in the city, I have no personal beef with him. I blame the Department of Planning and Development, that is the police power for land use and project permitting, responsible for ensuring that state and city laws are followed. Sounds like you are the one launching the personal attack. If you did a little research you would know that I was involved in the developemnt of some of the early townhouses in the city, at NewHolly. The project has won numerous national planning awards… and it was an economic success as well. Funny how that is possible. Feel free to give me a call sometime if you want to learn a little more about what I am about. As for townhouse development in Seattle, it is mostly at a remarkably low standard for a beautiful city like ours. Admit that fact, and maybe we can figure out how to make things better for both developers and the communities in which they build.
I agree about Dan. And no personal attack on you was intended. In fact it is personal attacks that I grow weary of. I do know that you are extremely active and hard working for your community in West Seattle. And I have swung a hammer for Habitat building some of your townhouses it sounds like. So we are not that far apart (just a few degrees of separation). It just seems when The Times or The Stranger brings up the subject it turns personal rather than productive. As far as townhouses go there are many, many examples of low quality I agree. There is definite room to create new standards, hopefully implemented in a way that developers are still able to offer new “affordable” housing options to Seattle buyers and keep Seattle beautiful.
Mind if i jump in. I did not read the article which started this conversation but I appreciated the tone of the post. As a builder I get tired of being the bad guy in every conversation about growth. But here’s the thing: how do you legislate aesthetics? Sure, I think a lot of the development along Fauntleroy (I’m there a lot as I live on Vashon and take the ferry) is less than what I would want to see built but I know people who love it. I like many of the new projects myself. Would you recommend a board to oversee design? Another committee for a builder to go in front of? There will always be good designs and bad designs and I for one don’t want to see those kinds of calls in the hands of the good folks at the planning department.