CAST’s co-founder Matt Hutchins, AIA, CPHD, and Seattle Planning Commissioner talks about the major update to the Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan.
one seattle for all - 2025/02/08 10:37 PST – Recording

Seattle is growing (and that’s good)!

How do we make room for new housing and be the kind of city we want to live in?

Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan major update – a 20-year growth strategy.

-        Must include affordable housing and middle housing

-        Housing planning aligns with planning for transportation, utilities, climate and the environment, capital
facilities and parks/open space

Two kinds of affordable housing:
1. Subsidized and deeply affordable
2. Less expensive housing by size, type, and age (ie. ADUs, small apartments

-        Neighborhood centers can hold both types of affordable housing

-        Middle housing is less expensive and a great option

-        Urban Neighborhood housing types: single-family housing with ADU, duplexes, townhomes, stackedflats

We need more affordable housing – where does it go?

-        Neighborhood centers can support both types of affordable housing

Let your city council member know you support affordable housing, and you also support neighborhood centers and middle housing.
oneseattleforall.org

Matt Hutchins addresses the critical issue of “missing middle” housing in the U.S., exploring the housing gap that falls between single-family homes and high-density apartments. Serving as a jury member for the Denver Single-Stair Housing Challenge organized by Buildner, he focuses on innovative solutions to promote accessible, medium-density housing options.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orW8tnmPSv0

Missing-middle housing is a housing type that fits in the middle between single-family detached houses and larger apartment buildings. That’s duplexes, tri-plexes, four-plexes, ten-plexes, and small apartment buildings. It’s any sort of increment of density that is greater than a single-family house, but isn’t the blocks of apartment buildings that is much of what we see in the development world today. Missing-middle housing is important for urban development because American cities have lots of space. They are nowhere near full. We have empty parking lots. We have lots that were never developed. We have space in our cities we can use or reuse. There are many opportunities within our cities to densify and make use of existing infrastructure without having to assemble a whole block or use more “high-wire acts” with regard to development.

• Make good use of small lots

• Use of single-stair buildings is a critical tactic for taking advantage of small urban lots

• Adapt building regulations and make required changes

• Use underutilized urban land

• Use space correctly

• We have already invested in the urban infrastructure

• We can have a more efficient city and residents with a lower carbon footprint

• ADUs and DADUs are powerful tools to keep communities together, keep the property in family, and create generational wealth

• Missing-middle housing is compact, efficient, and sustainable

Published at Seattle’s Daily Journal of Commerce https://www.djc.com/news/ae/12162400.html