Seattle One Plan Unpacked- Big Changes for DADUs & Development

Christian: [0:01] Welcome to another episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. This is your host, Christian Nossum, of the Awesome Nossum group here at Wilson Realty Exchange, Inc. We are a group of Seattle area real estate agents and also investors. And today I'm joined with Varun Jain of the Awesome Nossum Group and also a local Seattle real estate investor like myself.

Varun: [0:21] Hey, thanks, Christian. Nice to be here. And it's gonna be great talking about this new, uh, Seattle, One Seattle zoning change plan. This is essentially the plan that was revealed by Mayor Harrell now a couple of weeks back.

Christian: [0:37] Yep.

Varun: [0:37] So yeah.

Christian: [0:38] Yeah. It's a, it's a beast. This is a massive document, a massive plan, but I'm super excited to dissect this. I've learned a ton. I mean, Varun and I have both probably spent 20, 30 hours at least dissecting this. At least, yeah. At least if not more. Yeah. Um, I've watched numerous city, neighborhood Zoom calls that have been hosted. Like, I've done a ton of research, read through the document obviously and the website. Played with

Varun: [1:06] the interactive map.

Christian: [1:06] Yes, played with the interactive map, looked up properties that we were th- considering buying on that interactive map- Yes. … to see if they're on there. Yes. There is a lot to go over, and we are going to dissect this for you so you don't have to do all the research that we did, so that you can better understand, um, what exactly is the plan moving forward. And this is gonna be a game changer for our city, for both investors, agents, homebuyers. And again, we've done the hard work of reading through this entire thing, watching all the community outreach meetings, and now you just get to learn from us, so you don't have to read through it all. So that's what today is all about. So first up, we're gonna talk about embracing middle housing. So what is the One Seattle plan? Well, basically, it's a roadmap for where Seattle is going to grow over the next 20 years and beyond.

Varun: [2:00] Yep.

Christian: [2:00] It's a big deal. This is exactly what they're trying to do, and this is the… Well, the first draft plan and draft growth strategy was released in March of 2024. Then a new draft growth strategy was released in October 2024, so that's the most recent one, and that's where so much of this was added in. Yeah. And this is really giving us a glimpse into what is to come with the new legislation and all of this is happening because of the statewide House Bill 1110, as well as, was it 1137 or 1037?

Varun: [2:42] Yeah, 1137.

Christian: [2:43] 1137.

Varun: [2:44] I think so.

Christian: [2:45] Yeah. So the state is mandating that every city in the state has to create their own game plan to allow upzoning by June of 2025. So this One Seattle plan is just Seattle's plan. Every other city is going to have their own.

Varun: [3:03] Right.

Christian: [3:04] So you definitely, if you're investing or buying in other areas, you're gonna wanna see and keep an eye on what their plans are.

Varun: [3:11] Yeah. Some cities are ahead of the curve, some are kind of at the back end, so yeah, just keep a track of your local- Municipalities and you should be able to make decisions based on that.

Christian: [3:22] Yep. So again, this is just a draft. That said, pretty sure a lot of this is gonna make it through to the final bill that is passed. Yep. And we'll know for sure in June of 2025. All right, so if you wanna hear more information about what exactly this One Seattle plan is, you can check out, and you should definitely check out, the zoning.oneseattleplan.com website. Uh, the city is seeking feedback. They want to know, and they're actually taking the feedback into consideration, which- Yeah in watching some of these neighborhood outreach meetings, they incorporated some of that feedback, and I'm like, "That was dumb." But they did what they did. You'll see some of the artwork where they added in trees, but then made it almost impossible to tell what they're trying to build.

Varun: [4:08] Yeah. Yeah,

Christian: [4:09] yeah. Like, it was ridiculous. So that was one of the feedbacks.

Varun: [4:11] Yeah, but, uh, the big part of the new plan is, the biggest game changer is allowing four units on every single family-zoned lot or neighborhood residential zoned lot in the city, and that is just going to change what the city looks like, what your neighborhoods look like, and they're kind of focused on a few big kind of ticket items with this upzoning. One of the things is focusing on transit, use of transit versus cars, and so to allow more density near transit, not only will the new law allow for four units on every neighborhood residential lot, but you can build up to six if you're within quarter mile of a major transit stop. In Seattle, that means a light rail stop or a rapid bus stop, a rapid line bus stop, and so that would push more density towards transit and reduce the number of cars in the road. That's the hope.

Christian: [5:05] That is the plan. And if you're outside of that quarter mile of a transit stop, the current proposal would allow you to build six units if you made two of those units affordable housing, income restricted units. Uh, so this really could have a profound effect potentially on, uh, allowing more affordable housing in the city.

Varun: [5:26] Yeah.

Christian: [5:26] We'll see if it financially makes sense for developers to do that or not. Right. I don't know.

Varun: [5:31] Yeah.

Christian: [5:31] Time will tell. All right, so the One Seattle plan also creates three new names for different neighborhood districts across the city. Some of these are confusing. Existing urban centers have now be- been renamed regional centers. Urban villages were renamed urban centers. Again, confusing, 'cause the old urban center is now a regional center. And then they added 30 new neighborhood centers- Yeah … which these are places with a range of housing options centered around local commercial district, uh, and frequent transit. You can check this out where all these zones are in more detail on a map that the city, um, has on the One Seattle website. This is kinda showing you, and if you're not watching on YouTube and you're only listening to the podcast, you should definitely try to check out the YouTube video because we have visuals for all this stuff too that we took from this One Seattle website. These neighborhood centers are new, and this is kind of a big deal.

Varun: [6:26] Yeah.

Christian: [6:27] And this is where I think there's a lot of opportunity potentially, because these are generally smaller neighborhood, kind of the main drag, the main street of these neighborhoods, like Wedgwood or any of these small neighborhoods, where you have a couple coffee shops, maybe a restaurant, a bakery, a yoga studio, dry cleaner. Yeah. You know, all the normal neighborhood things. They're promoting this more now.

Varun: [6:48] Yeah.

Christian: [6:48] Which I think is smart.

Varun: [6:49] Yeah.

Christian: [6:50] Because again, the city's goal is to not be so car-dependent. They want us to walk. Yes. And we'll talk about that in a minute as well. And these are all places that people walk to. These are not places that people from other neighborhoods are gonna drive to to get there, unless- Driving. Yeah. Yeah. Unless there's, like, some amazing shop that is super, you know, popular on TikTok or Instagram- Yeah … and people wanna go, but I doubt that. So these are … This is what the neighborhood centers look like. So there's, again, it's kinda these core neighborhood main drags, and they added 30 of these around the city.

Varun: [7:26] That's kinda huge, yeah.

Christian: [7:27] Yeah. One of the things that they're also promoting are corner stores. And corner stores, I don't know why they were outlawed before, because the original ones that are around, and I actually know the one that's on the screen right now, that's in Wallingford on 40th. They're kinda all over the city and I But there's not a lot of them. Yeah. And they didn't allow them for some weird reason. It makes so much more sense if they do want that walk-ability to add these back in. Exactly. So I think that was smart.

Varun: [7:57] Yeah.

Christian: [7:58] Uh, and there's, there's a lot of rules and restrictions that they lifted to promote these. The one thing that they added was obviously it has to be on a corner, hence the name corner store. Corner store. Yeah. They also expanded the size of several regional and urban centers, so they just made them much larger and they created a new, a new urban center at the future, uh, 130th Street Light Rail Station that's right along I-5. Yeah. So the Pinehurst area, that whole area is getting rezoned and into an urban center. So there's gonna be a lot of development right around there as well, which it's… Honestly, it's pretty ripe for development.

Varun: [8:33] Yeah, it makes sense. I-5's right there, light rail's right there, and it's not too far from 99 either, so it makes- No, exactly … total sense.

Christian: [8:39] Yeah.

Varun: [8:40] Yeah. Um, so let's talk about regional centers. So regional centers are areas like Downtown, Capitol Hill, South Lake Union, U District, and they added a new one in Ballard. Uh, uh, and I'm guessing that's because, again, more density, more businesses are now also in Ballard than- Mm-hmm … they were when last time Seattle updated their long-range plans. The plans.

Christian: [9:01] Yep.

Varun: [9:02] And then, again, urban centers are slightly different. Names are confusing right now, but- … urban centers are less dense than regional centers, and these include areas like Fremont, Wallingford, Upper Queen Anne, Green Lake, Roosevelt, West Seattle, and Morgan Junction, and almost the entire light rail corridor on South Seattle. And so that's gonna be the urban center, and some of these areas have been expanded in size, as Christian mentioned. Some are totally brand new, like the light rail station at 130th. So these are gonna change what density of housing we see in different neighborhoods and different areas acro- a- across the city.

Christian: [9:40] Yep. All right. So let's move on to talking about specific zoning changes that are coming across the city, Varun.

Varun: [9:45] Yeah. So o- o- one of the biggest change… or two biggest changes to allow this density are change in the parameters called FAR, which is floor area ratio- Mm-hmm … and then the lot coverage. And, and these are the two parameters that this, that are, essentially tell investor or a builder what they can build on a particular site. I can double-click on both of these. So floor area ratio, or FAR, has gone from 1.0 to 1.2. What that means is if I have a 5,000 square foot lot, the amount of square footage I can build on that particular s- lot in current zoning is 5,000. That's gonna go to 1.2, and so now I have that much more square footage I can add to that lot, and that goes across the spectrum of any size lot. That is one way to kind of figure out how much I can build. The other is what area of that lot I can cover with a building or with not- The footprint … with the footprint of the building. Yep. And that's what lot coverage defines. And so lot coverage has also been updated from the current 35 to 40% all the way up to 50%. And so, again- Go wider and deeper into the lot and go higher is essentially what the new parameters allow builders and uh, investors to do.

Christian: [11:04] Yeah. Yeah, and increasing the lot coverage ratio up to 50% will allow for much more of the lot to be built. And in my opinion, I mean, I don't know how else they were gonna fit four to six units- Exactly on a lot if they didn't update this.

Varun: [11:17] Yeah.

Christian: [11:18] And the state mandated that we have to be allowed to fit four, or potentially six in some cases, units on a 4,000 or 5,000 square foot lot now.

Varun: [11:26] Yeah.

Christian: [11:26] So how else would you do that if they didn't update these things? So speaking of flexibility, the front and rear setbacks are also being reduced. Again- Yeah … they had to. There was no other way to fit these property or buildings on a lot- Right … without that. To explain what a setback is, a setback is the distance between the edge of the property line and the start of the building. So this change will allow for a wider range of layouts. The sides, side setbacks are kept at five feet, so on each side of the property you can have a five foot setback. The front is changed to only 10 feet. I believe it used to be 20 feet.

Varun: [12:02] It used to be 20, yeah.

Christian: [12:03] Yeah. So that's a massive shift. So now the buildings are gonna be able to start closer to, if there's a sidewalk, the sidewalk or the road, whatever is there. They're gonna change the rear setback to 10 feet if there is no alley. If there is an alley, you can build all the way to the alley, which is currently the same as DADU's.

Varun: [12:22] Yeah.

Christian: [12:23] Generally, you're not building right up against the alley. You're leaving a little bit of room. But if you needed to, you… Some people are building right up to the alley. Right. It just depends on the alley and how wide it is, and if you can still get a car in or park or whatever.

Varun: [12:35] Right. And just j- double-click on setbacks. So one way to kind of quickly think about that is going from 20 foot to 10 foot, it gives me extra 10 foot. And assuming a 6,000 square foot lot, which is 60 wide and 100 feet deep that gives me 600 more square feet of buildable area. Yep. That is huge when I can also go vertical on it. Exactly. It's a, it's a big game changer. Uh, it might just seem like a small change on paper, but in- It's huge … in implementation it changes what we can build, how we can build it.

Christian: [13:04] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [13:04] And then the new rules also encourage porches, and they don't count against your floor area ratio or lot coverage. This is, again, s- the city trying to, as it's promoting density, it's trying to also incorporate open spaces into new construction. Mm-hmm. So this is, again, city's way to promote n- you know, you talking to your neighbor- Community, yeah … and having a more community feeling rather than just having a boxed in building. You have more open spaces where you can have maybe a chair outside or a couple of plants.

Christian: [13:34] Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think that's huge. Another proposed big change is allowing ADUs to be divided via lot subdivision instead of making them condos. And currently if you build a DADU, for instance, like we do, in order to sell the original house that was there and the ADU, the detached ADU, and the AADU, which is attached to the property, you had to make them condos. And this process is costly. It's around $7,000. It can take a month or two. There's a lot of coordination with an attorney, a surveyor, and, and the investor. Pivoting to a unit lot subdivision is a significant update, and it allows for fee simple ownership of these homes. And it's gonna make it easier for developers. It's gonna make it less complex for homeowners, and it's just removing that additional expense from all of this- Okay … as well.

Varun: [14:26] Totally agree. Yeah.

Christian: [14:27] We just did in one of our DADU projects that we sold a few months back, we've been going through all of the, with a condo you have to have meeting minutes, and specific meetings, and bylaws, and all this stuff. And it's just a pain.

Varun: [14:40] Yeah. And managing the funds, and then you have- Exactly … a condo association.

Christian: [14:44] Yes.

Varun: [14:45] It, it's a, it's a whole process.

Christian: [14:46] It's a whole process, and it's annoying, and it doesn't need to be there, so removing that and just making it a fee simple lot, meaning you own the lot, you don't have condo rights, it makes it so much easier. So that's a huge plus.

Varun: [14:58] Agreed. Now let's ch- shift gears to talk about different housing configurations- Yeah … uh, under this new rule, right? Again, if you're listening to the podcast, we have a screen here that shows all the different configurations, or samples of some of the configurations that- Definitely not all of them.

Christian: [15:13] I guarantee- Yeah … some brilliant architect is gonna come up with some other way to maximize this.

Varun: [15:19] Exactly. It, it always happens. So these are some of the examples the city is proposing on the screen behind me. Uh, again, you're, if you're listening to it, highly encourage either watching this on YouTube or going to the city website and looking at- Yeah these yourself. But yeah, there are a bunch of different examples on the One Seattle website which shows configurations. For example, you have a … You, you can build three detached houses, all three stories tall, 1,500 square foot each with a parking spot assigned to each one of them on a 5,000 square foot lot. This meets all the updated lot coverage and floor area ratio requirements as per the new law, while adding more units on the lot. And again, as the, uh, as Christian mentioned, these can be all subdivided as, uh, individual lots rather than a condo association. That, that means, again, we are squeezing a lot more housing out of the same lot of land.

Christian: [16:13] It's actually funny. I'm looking at this, uh, example, and they have, like, actual photos- Yeah … of properties where they've done this, and I sold in Ballard the, uh, the three unit one. No way. Um, I sold the- That is cool … I sold one of the units in the back years ago. That is

Varun: [16:28] cool.

Christian: [16:30] Yeah, that's, that's funny. And the biggest news, which you just mentioned, but I'm gonna make a big deal out of, is in this entire plan, I feel like the biggest news is that you can now build ADUs or DADUs, detached ADUs, up to 1,500 square feet.

Varun: [16:46] That's huge.

Christian: [16:47] From 1,000 to 1,500, that's a massive change. You can easily… Uh, and, uh, I guess another way to put this is we were, as developers, we were playing with the rules and figuring out, like I said earlier, alluded to earlier, how we could add more square footage than just the 1,000 square feet. Right. Because if it's on a hill slide and… Or a hillside, and you have some of that square footage underground, that didn't count. If it's a pitched space and it's under seven feet, that didn't count- Right … toward that 1,000 square feet either.

Varun: [17:21] Exactly.

Christian: [17:21] So the biggest one that I ever built was actually over 1,300 square feet for a DADU.

Varun: [17:26] That's crazy, yeah.

Christian: [17:27] If I can do that with 1,000 square foot and get it to 1,300, just imagine how big some of these 1,500 square feet to- or DADUs are gonna be. They're gonna be big houses.

Varun: [17:35] They're gonna be- Yeah … Speaker: 16, 1,700, 1,800 square feet. That's a full-on house. We're not- That's a house … Speaker: we're not talking tiny home, backyard cottage, like, little quaint thing in the back. We're talking full-on houses now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Christian: [17:48] And I think that's honestly what they're trying to do. They want more availability for affordable family homes.

Varun: [17:57] Exactly.

Christian: [17:58] And when Bruce Harrell, Mayor Harrell proposed this increase to 1,500 square feet, that's exactly what he said. He wants more affordable family-sized homes. Right, right. And- And this is how to do it.

Varun: [18:10] Exactly.

Christian: [18:10] Yeah, just- This is, this is great. Yeah. It just makes much more sense. Another important element and one configuration I want to go over is that you can do two DADUs now. That is huge. Which before, previously, you could only do one, and you could do one that was an ADU, AADU, attached accessory dwelling unit. So the original house, or if it's a new construction, you would have a new construction house with an attached unit- Yeah … and a detached unit. Now you can just… They got rid of the ADU part. Now you just do two detached units.

Varun: [18:41] Yeah.

Christian: [18:42] Makes a lot more sense. Totally. It's what people want.

Varun: [18:44] Exactly. Yeah. No

Christian: [18:45] one wants to share a wall if they don't have to. Um. And this allows that.

Varun: [18:50] Yeah. And, you know, as investors, there were so many different ways we were trying to make this attached- Yeah … but still not attached.

Christian: [18:56] Exactly.

Varun: [18:57] Now the law allows for a clear, clean- Yeah … detached unit. That'll be a game changer for a lot of people. Yeah. And plus a 1,500 square foot. It's 50% more than what's allowed in today's code. Exactly. Like, the, the absolute number is huge, but also the jump in percentage is- Is massive … awesome. Yeah.

Christian: [19:14] Yeah. I hope, hope that that part is not changed at all. Um. Yeah. If anything, I hope it goes up a little bit- … because I think people would actually appreciate that.

Varun: [19:23] They would.

Christian: [19:24] It would allow more affordable family-sized homes-

Varun: [19:27] Yeah … Speaker: that aren't… Because I feel like any new construction single family home built now is $2 million or more. Yeah. Every time. Ex- There's nothing around $1 million-ish that's brand new construction that's not a town home. Right.

Christian: [19:43] These DADUs at 1,500 square feet I think are gonna be closer to $1 million. Now, I get it, $1 million is fricking expensive. I agree. But compared to what else you can get that's new construction, that's well-built, that is a detached home in Seattle.

Varun: [20:01] And you're not gonna outgrow it in two years. No, exactly. You can easily have a couple of kids and still spread out- Yes … in that house. And it's new construction, so you can not worry about maintenance and-

Christian: [20:12] Exactly … Varun: leaky roof and all of that stuff, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's huge. It's a game changer.

Varun: [20:17] Yeah, and the another configuration is when you have a detached home, now under the new law, you can build a two, three story attached home in the rear- Mm with garages off, like a shared space.

Christian: [20:30] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [20:30] Again, these parking spots or gara- uh, not the garage, but a parking spot or a parking pad can also go in within the setbacks.

Christian: [20:37] Oh, nice.

Varun: [20:38] Which is great for- Mm-hmm … again, more density. Yeah. Uh, if you can't build two detached homes, you can build essentially a duplex in your backyard.

Christian: [20:47] Yeah.

Varun: [20:48] Promotes affordable housing. Mm-hmm. You can rent them out. You can sell them. The, and it gives homeowners options, it gives investors options, and again, hopefully meets the end goal, which is more middle housing.

Christian: [21:00] Yep. And this is a great layout for maximizing space while still providing separate entrances for people. Yeah. Which is, again, that's what people want. They don't wanna have to share an entrance and then there's an inner corridor to two different- You know what I mean? Like, no one wants that. You don't wanna see your neighbor. Yes. 'Cause honestly, it's, s- people just don't. It's the truth. We could also see two three-story attached homes adding or being added behind an existing home with half the floor area in the existing home exempt from the FAR limit. That's huge.

Varun: [21:31] That's huge.

Christian: [21:32] Yeah. And I gu- maybe break that down because that's one sentence that is, has a lot of meaning to it. So the existing house, and help me out here.

Varun: [21:43] Yeah.

Christian: [21:43] The existing house, only half of that floor area ratio is being counted towards the lot coverage.

Varun: [21:50] Yeah. And so just putting it in numbers, right? If you have, let's say a 2,000 square foot house-

Christian: [21:56] Mm-hmm … Varun: and your total f- floor area ratio that you can build up to is 4,000 square foot. Mm-hmm

Varun: [22:03] Technically, in current code, all the 2,000 area of the current house would get deducted from that 4,000, and you would be left with 2,000. In the new proposal, only 1,000 is deducted from the total 4,000, so now you have 3,000, which mean you're… Which means n- now you're building two 1,500 square foot units. And as you alluded to earlier, 1,500 does feel bigger-

Christian: [22:25] It's

Varun: [22:25] a much bigger home … than what we have today.

Christian: [22:26] Yeah.

Varun: [22:26] Yes.

Christian: [22:27] Yeah.

Varun: [22:28] Plus, there's an option of three attached homes, uh, with a shared open spaces, uh, in the back of the site or the side if you have room.

Christian: [22:34] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [22:35] With the goal of, again, if you want a more community feeling, it allows for more community interactions. They have more shared space. There's more open space. The city is trying to pa- play this balancing act of promoting more density while not taking away all the open space from the neighborhood. Mm-hmm. So again, th- all these configurations all play into that picture of let's build more housing, but let's not just cover the city with concrete. Let's make sure we protect or increase open spaces-

Christian: [23:03] Yeah … Varun: while building more houses. Yeah, and I think that is what it's doing. I think it's actually gonna make more open spaces that make sense-

Varun: [23:09] Yeah

Christian: [23:10] versus just having some random side yard thing that doesn't make any sense.

Varun: [23:15] Exactly.

Christian: [23:15] They're, they're doing a good job. They actually really thought this through. I, I'm impressed with it. There's obviously little things here and there that can always be tweaked, and they probably will. Yeah. But it… Overall, this is a very, very impressive plan. Another configuration. Again, there's tons of configurations. This one I love a lot.

Varun: [23:32] I like this one the best.

Christian: [23:33] Yeah, same. This is where you build four detached homes on one lot Two are facing the street, two are facing the alley, so it's almost like there's two different fronts of the building. There's narrow open space running lengthwise between the buildings, and this design optimizes the use of space while still providing the outdoor area. It's similar to the common townhouse setup minus the shared wall.

Varun: [23:59] Yeah.

Christian: [23:59] Where you got two in front, two in the back, maybe an auto court if they're… Well, I guess in this s- situation there's an alley, so you could just go straight into the- Yeah … drive straight into your garage- From either side, yep … from either the street or the alley.

Varun: [24:12] Yeah.

Christian: [24:13] And then you got that middle between the two buildings where it's a common area, which, again, people can hang out there, barbecue, let their dog run around, kids play, all that fun stuff.

Varun: [24:22] Yeah. And again, if you don't have the space, if you have a narrower lot or there are other things at play, uh, where you can't build four detached homes- Mm-hmm you can always build two back-to-back duplexes.

Christian: [24:33] Yeah.

Varun: [24:33] Essentially two attached to them in the front, two in the back. If you don't have an alley, you can give access from the side of the lot. Again, more options- Mm-hmm … is the key takeaway here, is a lot more options available to investors and, uh, builders.

Christian: [24:48] Yeah. Yeah, and there, there's a lot of exciting new configurations. I'm pumped to see, and I, I want to, and if any architect is watching this and wants to discuss some potential, I'd love to have you on this podcast- Yeah … to go over some maybe innovative designs that, that could be used. Um, because I think that is going to be where the fun of this is. How can we make these new rules make the most sense for people?

Varun: [25:16] Yeah.

Christian: [25:16] With detached homes, 'cause that's what everyone wants, at an affordable price, that are as big as they could possibly be, with some open space as well.

Varun: [25:25] Yeah. And one thing is people think of affor- affordable housing as old run-down homes. This will change that. Like 100% change that. Your- Yeah … affordable housing will look nicer. Yeah. It is new construction. It is low-maintenance. And so, yeah, really excited to see what's, uh, going to come out of all of this, not only the proposed designs, but what some awesome architects can cook up when they are- Mm-hmm kind of going through the detailed plan in June of next year.

Christian: [25:51] Yeah.

Varun: [25:51] Uh, let's, let's, uh, talk about height limits. So, uh, one of the other things that the plan addresses is the height limit. Mm-hmm. They are increasing the height limit from 30 feet to 32 feet, again, adding more livable space, uh, better designs. And also pitched roofs are already allowed, uh, but they, they extend up to five feet above the height limit, uh, if they meet the minimum pitch of 4/12.

Christian: [26:17] Yeah.

Varun: [26:18] And lastly, as we are also adding more housing, which means we n- need more energy, so s- again, going back to how much thought has gone into the plan- Mm-hmm I, I really like h- and commend the City of Seattle on how much work they've put into it. Yep. In one of the new proposals and one of the things is a height exception for a shed roof, which is essentially a sloping roof that allows you to mount solar lu- ru- uh, solar panels that face the sun. Again, good innovative thinking. Small change with a huge impact.

Christian: [26:46] Yeah, exactly. And adding that as not counting toward that height is, the height restriction, is massive.

Varun: [26:51] Yeah.

Christian: [26:51] And a- again, it's just a little thing that they were like, "Hey, we need to do this. We'll add more solar panels this way because of this." Brilliant. All right. So let's talk about some of these other changes. So the old RSL zoning category is proposed to be removed. Areas currently zoned RSL with low displacement risk, which they have a whole section on that. We're not even gonna talk about this 'cause that's a whole nother discussion.

Varun: [27:15] Yeah.

Christian: [27:15] If you wanna learn more about that, go to the One Seattle plan website and learn all about that. But currently zoned RSL properties with low displacement risk or near light rail stations will be rezoned to low rise one, so LR1 is what that's called. Yeah. Allowing for more floor area and a symbol, similar number of units. This makes sense as it it was, was originally created with the intent of adding more density, but when the DADU zoning laws were, were added in 2019, RSL rules didn't change at all.

Varun: [27:47] Yeah.

Christian: [27:48] And it almost made it impossible. I mean, you could still do it, but it was much harder to build a DADU in an RSL zoned lot.

Varun: [27:55] Yeah.

Christian: [27:55] So it, removing it just makes all the sense in the world.

Varun: [27:58] Agree. Um- It, it was very confusing- Very confusing … when we had all of these different kind of competing-

Christian: [28:04] Yes … Varun: zoning laws. That's exactly what

Varun: [28:05] it was. And now I think it's a much more simpler, so I agree. Removing RSL is definitely smart.

Christian: [28:11] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [28:11] It does, again, it's a different side of the coin. It comes with its own set of challenges. Yes. Right? What the city's proposing is upzoning a lot of your neighborhood residential zones, NR1, NR2, NR3-

Christian: [28:24] Mm-hmm

Varun: [28:24] uh, to low rise or mid rise to promote density. While that promotes density on paper, the reality of that is low rise and mid rise in the City of Seattle come with extra f- MHA fees- Yep … that need to be paid. Can you talk about more about MHA fees? I think this is important for everyone. Yeah.

Christian: [28:43] So an MHA fee stands for Mand- Mandatory Housing Affordability, and it's when a developer contributes either a payment most of the time or a benefit, like low-income, low-income housing units to a new build construction project in specific zoning areas. So the City of Seattle requires MHA develop- developer contributions to mitigate the impacts of that new development on the current area that's there. The issue is these fees can make new construction less favorable sometimes and could ultimately work against the goal of increasing supply of new homes. Yeah. For instance, personally, I was reviewing and considering purchasing this lot in the U District very near the freeway, very un- or rundown home, lots of issues going on. Sure. Like roof was leaking, furnace was on its last legs. It just was, there was mold. Like it was in bad shape.

Varun: [29:40] Sure.

Christian: [29:41] I decided not to purchase that because there were MHA fees of almost $200,000.

Varun: [29:49] That's insane.

Christian: [29:49] And this is on a 4,000 square foot lot. This is a small-ish lot. This is not a large lot.

Varun: [29:54] Yeah.

Christian: [29:55] So in order to develop that, I would have had to pay an additional 2- almost $200,000, which is ridiculous, and it made it completely unaffordable to do. So now that derelict property is just gonna sit there and deteriorate.

Varun: [30:07] Yeah. And the other challenge with MHA fees is the city wants that upfront before they issue the permit. Yes. And so it creates a huge- Huge expense … burden, financial expense upfront before you can even break ground.

Christian: [30:19] Yeah.

Varun: [30:20] A- and that is why, even though low-rise, mid-rise have existed as zoning, uh, for a while now-

Christian: [30:27] Mm-hmm

Varun: [30:27] we've not seen as much development as we- the city would have hoped- Yeah … because MHA fees are pretty high. Again, MHA fees range from, I think, what, $5 all the way up to 30-some dollars. Yeah. Again, check the Seattle s- website. I do hope they address this part in the final bill. W- either they reduce the fees, or they do away with it completely, or give the builders an option to pay it once they actually sell these units so the financial- Or

Christian: [30:54] construction is complete.

Varun: [30:55] Yeah.

Christian: [30:56] If they're gonna keep it. Right.

Varun: [30:57] Right.

Christian: [30:58] Because doing it at the end makes a lot more sense, because as developers, we are generally borrowing the money to build these projects. At

Varun: [31:06] higher interest rates.

Christian: [31:07] At a much higher interest rate than, like, a standard single family home purchase. Right. So if we have to add $200,000 on top of that upfront, and now we're paying at 10, 11, 12% interest, $200,000 for the entire 18 months or whatever it is to build this property out- That's so much additional cost for us. Yeah. That's- It just makes it not worth it.

Varun: [31:31] It's like 30 grand holding cost over a period of 18 months for a $200,000 loan.

Christian: [31:37] Yeah.

Varun: [31:37] At 10%.

Christian: [31:38] Yeah.

Varun: [31:38] So it- It's extremely

Christian: [31:39] expensive … Varun: it's criminally expensive to hold that much, and it just kills the project financials. And as Christian mentioned, those old homes will then continue to sit there- Mm-hmm till the price drops low enough where then a builder will be able to build it. And it's just, yeah. And the only person you're hurting in that situation is that current owner of that property who their property's now worth less because of these fees.

Varun: [32:03] Right. ' Speaker: Cause a developer isn't in the business of losing money, and they're not gonna lose money if it doesn't make sense. Exactly.

Christian: [32:09] Exactly.

Varun: [32:09] So they just won't

Christian: [32:10] do the

Varun: [32:10] project. There is a flip side to this. Yep. I hope they address some of this through the kind of comment process and as they update it towards June 2025.

Christian: [32:18] Yes. And if you are an investor or anybody that disagrees with how these MHA fees are currently set up, you should comment.

Varun: [32:27] Comment, yes. Please.

Christian: [32:28] Please let them know. We're going to comment on this because it is ridiculous, and it's hurting the city in some regards. Yeah. So in some instances, the MHA fees make sense. Like, if you're doing some massive apartment building- Yeah … in an area, that makes a lot of sense. But a single family, little tiny- For four

Varun: [32:43] units, six units, adding on the MHA fees really kills the project.

Christian: [32:47] It kills the project completely, and it's against what they actually want. Right. So. I think we need to definitely voice our opinion on that. And that said, any of these things, if you agree or disagree with anything that we're saying, the city wants your feedback.

Varun: [33:02] They are collecting comments right now.

Christian: [33:03] They are collecting comments. They will review it. They have ch- made changes based on these comments already from the first plan that was released in March of 2024 to October 2024. They made some changes, um, and they're going to continue to do so.

Varun: [33:16] Yeah, and again, they have an interactive map. If you are curious to check out what one of your properties look like or your home looks like and does the zoning change, the interactive map gives you potential future zoning. Mm-hmm. And then you can decide what you wanna do with that property in the future.

Christian: [33:33] Let's talk about parking.

Varun: [33:34] Parking. So one of the parameters of the new state law- Mm-hmm … was no restrictions on parking, which is big because sometimes providing parking or adding parking eats into how many units you can build. So the new state law prohibits city from requiring any parking restrictions if you are half a mile walking distance from the transit stops. So neighborhood residential zones near major transit sto- stops will not have any parking requirements, which will allow more density. And again, this is again, playing into the more affordable housing, higher density play with this, which the city is going for.

Christian: [34:13] Yeah, and this could significantly change how we view parking in residential areas that are near these major transit hubs. Yeah. The city wants to eliminate the need for people to have cars.

Varun: [34:23] Yeah. They want- They've invested so much in the light rail. Yeah. They want the city to use the infrastructure that they've built.

Christian: [34:27] Yep.

Varun: [34:28] Continue to kind of double down on public transit w- Mm-hmm … and

Christian: [34:32] or bikes.

Varun: [34:33] Or bikes.

Christian: [34:33] They spent a ton of money on bike lanes. Exactly. Those two things, and bus and bus rapid transit, all these different avenues that they have promoted, that's what they want. They want to eliminate traffic, uh, which makes sense. I do, too. Oh, yeah. No one likes traffic. So they are promoting all these different ways and changing the rules and the laws to make it so you don't need a car.

Varun: [34:53] Yeah.

Christian: [34:54] Let's talk about trees, everyone's favorite thing. The ever-divisive tree ordinances. So there's an interesting new point system for tree retention and planting. This supposedly incentivize the preservation of existing trees and encourages the planting of larger species. According to the city, it's a win for both development and environmental su- uh, sustainability. I didn't see a ton about this in the One Seattle plan. Maybe I just missed it, but I didn't understand the point system very much, so maybe it's still in the works.

Varun: [35:25] Yeah, I, I think we need a little more clarity on the point system on how they are- Going, like which species they're gonna allow and all of that- Mm-hmm … where the arborists who know the details can advise investors like us on what we can do with certain trees, what we cannot.

Christian: [35:40] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [35:41] So one of the things kind of the city is requiring is it's, it's promoting more greener open spaces, and so it'll restrict some of the trees that are going to take down. But it'll also encourage you to plant other species of trees that make sense, and that'll hopefully contribute to the green cover in the city in the long run. Again, too much detail to go into right now. Mm-hmm. But again, some of this is listed on the website for the One Seattle plan. Mm-hmm. But I do hope they provide a little more clarity in the future as they're gonna go through future draft versions of this- Yeah, they're gonna have to or final version. Yeah.

Christian: [36:17] Yeah. They're gonna have to. They have to explain this, 'cause it doesn't clearly spell out how it is right now.

Varun: [36:22] Yeah.

Christian: [36:22] So, yeah. So in conclusion, while these zoning changes present challenges, they also offer significant opportunities for creating more housing in Seattle.

Varun: [36:31] Yeah.

Christian: [36:31] Particularly affordable housing.

Varun: [36:32] Yes.

Christian: [36:33] I think there's gonna be a lot more of that. Whether it's technically affordable for everyone, that's a whole different- ballgame that, I mean, we're not in charge of. The market sets prices. That's not anything we can control. But I do think it's going to add more houses that more people can afford that are new and nice and not run-down pieces- Yeah of crap.

Varun: [36:53] Yeah, yeah. A- and again, as we said, right, like, as, as the plan gets finalized, smart architects are gonna come in and figure out how to build more units in. Mm-hmm. More units equals lower prices, price per unit.

Christian: [37:06] Yep.

Varun: [37:07] Again, there are options of if, if builders lean into affordable housing, there are options of stacked units. Yeah. You know, more like four stacked units on top of each other.

Christian: [37:15] Yep. We didn't even go over that, but there's all those

Varun: [37:17] options as well. So there are options. So definitely a pretty exciting time. What that means for investors, developers, end buyers, current homeowners in Seattle is what your neighborhood looks like is gonna change. The landscape of the city is gonna change. Yep. You're gonna see a lot of mixed housing. Yeah. And when I say mixed housing, it's not gonna be just one single family after the other, and not just homes in a row. You'll see homes, you'll see townhomes, you're gonna see small apartment units- Mm-hmm … duplexes, triplexes, all of these. Corner stores. Corner stores.

Christian: [37:48] Yeah.

Varun: [37:48] A- and so it's gonna change what the city looks like for the good.

Christian: [37:52] Yep.

Varun: [37:52] Uh, and again, whether you disagree or you agree, go make your, make your voice heard. Yes. Pro- add comments where it makes sense to you.

Christian: [38:01] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [38:02] And then-

Christian: [38:03] You can do that at zoning.oneseattleplan.com.

Varun: [38:06] Yeah.

Christian: [38:07] That is zoning.oneseattleplan.com. That's where you can voice your opinion. And they wanna hear from us, and they are listening. And I know that for a fact. Like I said, I watched some of these recorded neighborhood meetings where the city was talking with people in the neighborhoods, and they made some changes to this draft plan based on what I heard in those calls alone. That's awesome.

Varun: [38:29] Yeah.

Christian: [38:30] So they are listening. We can make a difference. Um, so if you have an opinion, let it be known.

Varun: [38:36] Yeah.

Christian: [38:37] Even if you like the plan, say that.

Varun: [38:39] Yes.

Christian: [38:40] Don't just disagree all the time, but also agree.

Varun: [38:44] Yes.

Christian: [38:44] Like, that's a thing you need to say, because they need to know this. They need to understand this.

Varun: [38:48] They need to understand what to keep, what to change- Mm-hmm … what people don't like at all. So yeah, make your voice heard.

Christian: [38:55] Yeah. This is probably going to get tweaked as we go through this whole process. Um, like we said at the beginning, the city is going to have, uh, the first- City council proposed, um, plan in May of 20- or, yeah, in March of 2025.

Varun: [39:13] Yes. Spring.

Christian: [39:14] Then they're gonna have a second one, which is gonna be more of, like, the finalized, here, city council approved this- Yes … in May of 2025, and that is just ahead of the June 2025 mandate deadline- Yes … from the state.

Varun: [39:27] Yeah.

Christian: [39:28] So by June of 2025, we will know exactly what this plan is moving forward. Varun and I will continue to update you over time. Yeah. You can follow us on our Instagram, Awesome & Awesome Group, or even just Awesome & Awesome. Both of those are gonna be great for following up. Varun, why don't you say yours as well, your Instagram?

Varun: [39:49] My Instagram handle, if you wanna follow me, is Varun, that's V-A-R-U-N, .Jain, J-A-I-N, .84. Please follow us on Instagram. There are a lot of moving pieces to the plan. As that happens through spring and, uh, early summer of next year, we will update everyone, and we're hoping to kind of see what this turns out to be for investors, homebuyers, and everyone involved. Yeah.

Christian: [40:11] Yeah. And again, this is gonna change the city. So make your voice be heard. This… We have an opportunity right now where they're actually listening. Make your voice be heard. I know that you and I will. I know a lot of other people that will as well, and these are people on all sides of the spectrum, too. The people that want more affordable housing. There are people that want more development-heavy rules in place. There's all these different people. Yeah. And we all need to have our voice heard because this is a city where we actually can work together.

Varun: [40:39] Yes.

Christian: [40:39] Some cities don't do that very well, and I feel like we, we do in Seattle.

Varun: [40:42] Yeah. And an opportunity like this to impact the next 10, 20 years of land use code- Mm-hmm doesn't come around as often.

Christian: [40:49] No.

Varun: [40:49] So when it is available, make your voice heard and make sure you kind of weigh in, your, whatever your opinion is.

Christian: [40:56] Yep. Zoning.oneseattleplan.com. That's it for this episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. I hope you learned a ton. If you think anyone would benefit from watching this or listening to this, please share it with them. We'd love to have all of the effort that, and time that we put into this episode help others, and that's why we do this. Yes. So please share it. If you wanna subscribe, please do that, and we'll see you next time on the next Awesome in Seattle podcast. Thanks for listening. See ya.