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Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affordable Housing

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Re: Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affordable Housing

#121

Post by JumpCrisscross »

tehlike wrote: post #29
jimbob45 wrote: post #18

Affordable housing is little better than the drinking fountains for colored people from years past. You don't build affordable housing. You build housing and then prices decrease from the increase in supply. If you're feeling extra bold, you build dense housing to massively increase the supply.

This is kind of true, but misses an important point. Builders won't increase the supply if unit price is close to unit cost as their profit would be narrowed. This is to say, if materials, labor etc is expensive, affordable housing may not be affordable either.

> if materials, labor etc is expensive, affordable housing may not be affordable either

San Francisco's problem is "a worker shortage, long waits for permits, restrictive zoning and high fees" [1]. Three out of four of those are direct results of planning rules. The first, related to the high cost of housing.

Issue permits quickly, loosen zoning and make fees low and predictable and you'll see affordable housing.

[1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-is-one-of-the...

Re: Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affordable Housing

#122

Post by cmh89 »

zamnos wrote: post #109
zip1234 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don’t even need high rises—change the 1 story 800sq foot bungalow into a 2 story 4 plex and all the units can have more living space than the original and 4x more people can live somewhere—-but that is banned in most places even

Maybe we live in different corners of SF, but I see mostly 3 story buildings in my neighborhood. What's needed are lots more 5 and 10 story buildings.

Considering the land value and demand, neighborhoods like Sunset are extremely low density. SF seems to have a lot of duplexes, even closer in where a two or three level building has two living units in it.

Re: Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affordable Housing

#123

Post by bobthepanda »

__derek__ wrote: post #74
nerdponx wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two new apartment buildings recently went up where I live. Both have roughly the same number of units inside, and the units are of similar size. One is ugly, and the other blends nicely into the neighborhood, even incorporating some green space and planted trees. There's no reason why the ugly one couldn't have been nicer looking, other than that the developers didn't bother to make the place look more like the surro…

Can you name a functioning example of design review, though? My experience with them is specific to Seattle, and the program absolutely does not work as your comment hopes.

If anything, buildings in Seattle are uglier than their counterparts elsewhere.

Re: Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affordable Housing

#124

Post by screye »

zamnos wrote: post #111
screye wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At approximately 5x5 miles, SF is one of the smallest American cities while having among the worst housing crunch in the world. SF doesn't need high speed metro. Cheap options like BRT, trams & separated bike/scooter lanes solve most of its variable demand. In SF, the transit vs housing conundrum is trivial. Build transit, and remove height restrictions in a 1000-ft radius in each stops location. LA is harder to reme…

I don't mean to nitpick, but why state it as 5x5, when it's far more popular for it to be denoted as 7x7, to the point that one of there local magazines is called 7x7. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/7x7_(magazine)

What a coincidence! I had no idea there was an existing phrase for this. I merely eyeballed it from google maps.

I guess all people deal in the same tired cliches. I am not exception.

Re: Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affordable Housing

#125

Post by cmh89 »

steponlego wrote: post #107
vkou wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone wants NIMBYs in their nice neighborhood, but we end up having to tolerate them. The way state-level political winds are going, it looks like you'll have to tolerate things you dislike, as well.

No I won’t. Lawsuits like this are the proof. I don’t want bus lines, walkable cities, or section 8 in my nice quiet community and neither does anybody else who lives here. Democracy has spoken.

The lawsuits exist because democracy spoke and the NIMBYs didn't like what it had to say.

The builders are operating under the laws of the community. The NIMBYs are abusing the legal system in an attempt to subvert the will of the people.

Re: Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affordable Housing

#126

Post by bobthepanda »

nerdponx wrote: post #40
__derek__ wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a contradiction in terms, AFAICT. I was excited to find this in the post: > Meanwhile, a bill moving forward in the legislature introduced by Representative Amy Walen (D-48, Bellevue) would ban design review for housing projects statewide. I have this bookmarked to contact my reps and senator to join as co-sponsors.[1] [1]: https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=1026&Year=2023...

Two new apartment buildings recently went up where I live. Both have roughly the same number of units inside, and the units are of similar size. One is ugly, and the other blends nicely into the neighborhood, even incorporating some green space and planted trees. There's no reason why the ugly one couldn't have been nicer looking, other than that the developers didn't bother to make the place look more like the surro…

If these people wanted to protect their views, there is a way; Seattle allows neighbors to buy a lot’s unused development rights to preserve views.

They just want to do it without spending money.

Re: Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affordable Housing

#127

Post by steponlego »

vkou wrote: post #117
steponlego wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody who lives here is a NIMBY. Can’t fight that. Why not make a walkable city for the homeless? A fresh one from scratch.

> Everybody who lives here is a NIMBY. Can’t fight that. State-level laws will end your fight to stop development, as just happened in California, and is working its way through state legislatures in Washington.

Don't worry - people are fighting these tooth and nail. There isn't enough WEF money in the world to bribe people who have to live in the communities they represent.

Re: Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affordable Housing

#128

Post by steponlego »

pwinnski wrote: post #120
steponlego wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'm not sure whether your replies here are more stupid, or more nasty. The two attributes are neck-in-neck thus far. Not everyone is as selfish as you are. I'm a happy YIMBY, disappointed that the houses they're building on the corner are $900k+, hoping they build cheaper on the giant lot across the street from them.

I just oppose whatever the astroturfed trends are, usually. It's never backfired on me. I don't mind the pleas, projection, and wheedling, either. I've been doing this a LOT longer than you.

Re: Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affordable Housing

#129

Post by cmh89 »

lbarrow wrote: post #51
lvl102 wrote: post #34

I am just curious why we are allowing foreigners to buy homes in the US when we have a housing crisis. Here in New England, Chinese/Russians came in and started buying homes in the past two decades. Not only that, we end up educating their children for free in our public schools. Why? They don’t even let our companies operate in their country. Edit: they should not be able to invest in real estate in the US if US cit…

I would simply avoid having a housing crisis by allowing people to build more housing. Seems pretty win-win to me.

>I would simply avoid having a housing crisis by allowing people to build more housing. Seems pretty win-win to me.

The housing crisis is primarily driven by wealth inequality and poor financial decisions by the US government. Not building is a secondary problem.

I'm all for building more and denser housing, but if all the units are snatched by banks and wealthy investors, its not going to make the country more affordable.

Re: Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affordable Housing

#130

Post by [deleted] »

vel0city wrote: post #67

I'm reminded of a recent housing development that was planned in the city where I live. They wanted to build a few hundred near zero-lot-line single family homes and townhouses. It was on land that was previously zoned industrial, so it required a pretty lengthy approval process. The neighborhood next to it fought the proposed zoning changes. Too many houses near by, increasing traffic, too close to the creek, etc. P…

[deleted]
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