The seattle department of construction and inspection (SDCI) has released it's recommendations for easing land use restrictions on building backyard cottages. These recommendations will go to city council for approval with anticipated action in July and possible adoption in August.
The recommendations look a lot like the ideas to encourage the construction of backyard cottages previously presented in public meetings. As a mater of fact all of the policy suggestions presented in the meetings are being proposed with some additional details.
The most significant changes are an increase in allowable size for detached accessory dwelling units from 800 sq. ft. to 1,000 sq. ft. and decoupling the garage area from the allowable size. An increase in height limit will also make a big difference in some situations. Under the proposal owner occupancy would be required for only one year, rather than being abandoned altogether, in an attempt to limit speculative development interests. There are also a host of common sense code updates that are likely to improve the design of cottages whether or not they actually encourage more people to build them.
For a complete summary of the proposed changes
proposed code revisions
The public can comment on the proposed revisions through June 2nd by emailing Nick Welch at nicolas.welch@seattle.gov
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