As the Seattle City Council continue to consider legislation governing the building of homes in the side lots of existing houses, the debate has grown heated and, according to the lobbying group ‘One Home Per Lot’, misleading.
The organization called ‘Smart Growth Seattle’ has been issuing alarming notices that the current legislation would keep existing home owners from expanding or adding a second story to their houses. An example is the blog post on the Smart Growth Seattle website. Yet, Smart Growth Seattle lobbies on behalf of developers and others likely to make money if it remains legal to build on partial lots.
The One Home Per Lot group suggested a KIRO news report for another view on this effort.
‘One Home Per Lot’ also asks that everyone use caution when listening to news about Council efforts to legislate on the building of homes, described as ‘Tower’ or ‘Monster’ homes. These homes, built on small, overlooked, side lots of older homes, often have three or four-stories, built narrowly to fit on the partial lot, and loom over neighboring homes.
One Home Per Lot does allow that the proposed legislation could limit existing homeowners on the heights to which they could build, but a second story (up to 27 feet high) would still be allowed. One Home Per Lot gives a report that uses graphics to break down the technical aspects about this issue and, in their statement, set the record straight. Also, on the One Home Per Lot website find more e-mails where they attempt to clarify the proposed legislation further.