Those of you that actually live in Seattle proper may be interested to read Councilmember Sally Clark’s guest editorial in today’s Seattle Times: Town homes: We can do better
While some new town homes blend into the neighborhood or, even better, stand out as well-designed additions, others are reviled by the neighbors for mediocrity, canyon-creating fences, asphalt wastelands and impossible-to-navigate garage entries. The fault lies not just with imagination, but also with Seattle’s development rules. We can do better.
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When I talk to the developers who build town homes, they, like the unhappy neighborhoods, also have common themes: They do what the land-use code makes them do; they don’t have buckets of money to try different designs; and when they find a design that meets the requirements spelled out in Seattle land-use code, they use it — over and over again.Clearly, Seattle needs to use its land-use code to encourage great town-house design.
She is inviting interested residents to join her in a “community event” to help the city get input from “developers, neighborhoods activists, architects and planners” about how to improve on the currently atrocious aesthetics of the townhomes that are popping up all over Seattle like a bad case of acne.
It’s good to know that people in local government are interested in doing better, because I don’t think anyone wants townhome development to keep proceeding the way it has the last few years.
(Sally Clark, Seattle Times, 06.04.2008)