by Sierra Club Seattle Group

Providing residents with more flexible housing options is a win for the community and for the environment. That’s why we’re excited about making it easier to build backyard cottages (AKA Detached Accessory Dwelling Units, or DADUs) and Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) within Seattle. The City of Seattle’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) published October 4 brings us one step closer to finalizing a set of regulations that will pave the way for more of these housing units.

Since 2011, Seattle rents have risen 59%. And since 2012, home values have increased 85%. This means that fewer people can afford to live in Seattle, and they’re pushed out to the suburbs or even further. Those homes are often in areas that used to be farmland or forests, where public transit is scarce and driving is the default form of transportation.

In the meantime, transportation continues to be our city’s largest source of carbon emissions. Forcing more people to endure long commutes in their car because they cannot afford to live near their work or transit options makes our climate crisis worse.

Access to more housing choices is a win because building more units can help stop sprawl and encourage sustainable transportation when more people can afford to live in the city.

In this way, removing barriers to building more ADUs and DADUs helps build greener, more affordable housing. Also a win: smaller homes generally use less energy and have a smaller climate impact.

This type of housing can give owners more flexibility and support community as well. Backyard cottages and ADUs:

Support large or intergenerational families who have outgrown their existing home or whose elders have moved in with their younger relatives.

Provide an opening for a young family to buy a home and offset their mortgage through rental income — allowing them to build equity in a difficult market.

Bring us further from outdated regulations that stigmatize non-traditional relationships and burden those who live with roommates in order to afford housing, by allowing more unrelated people to live on the same lot.

We also believe that the development of more ADUs is an equitable solution that represents our work in centering equity, justice, and inclusion. According to the City’s research, allowing more ADUs means fewer physical teardowns, and thus less physical displacement, than taking no action. According to the FEIS, this is specifically true for lower-price neighborhoods.

Lowering displacement pressure through ADUs, presenting opportunities for intergenerational and/or large families, and mitigating the rise in housing prices through more supply are all steps in the right direction when it comes to housing that’s more equitable.

We are facing both a climate crisis and a housing crisis. We cannot let the desires of some outweigh the needs of most. The City’s proposal to roll back burdensome ADU and backyard cottage regulations, allowing for more housing options in the city, is an exciting step toward a more sustainable and equitable Seattle.