By More Options for Accessory Residences (MOAR), a group of citizens concerned with the future of the city, housing availability and affordability. We have diverse backgrounds, experiences and housing situations, but we’re all Seattleites who want our city to allow more options for accessory residences. For us, our neighbors, and future generations. Thanks to them for taking the time to contribute!

If you like our ideas below, please sign the petition and let our community leadership know you support MOAR dwellings!

https://www.change.org/p/sign-this-petition-beyond-cottages-2-address-seattle-s-housing-crisis

For the last decade, backyard cottages — also known as Detached Accessory Dwelling Units, or DADUs — have been popping up all over Seattle’s neighborhoods. Based on their success, making backyard cottages and mother in law apartments easier to permit and build was one of the important recommendations of the City’s 2015 Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) Final Report (labled SF1 in the report).

After Councilmember O’Brien introduced land use code revisions to open the door for more of this important housing type, a small, wealthy group of Queen Anne homeowners successfully derailed the ordinance. Now the City of Seattle is now starting over and plans to study in depth the impact of accessory dwellings.

Because of their size and location, backyard cottages are an almost invisible form of increasing neighborhood density. They have many other benefits:

They begin to undo past exclusionary land-use wrongs by opening up our city’s parks, schools and other amenities to people that could never afford to rent or buy a multi-bedroom single family detached home in the same neighborhood

Many older Seattleites who want to age in place see backyard cottages as a solution. Backyard cottages help people finance their retirements, or facilitate multi-generational living arrangements, or downsize while maintaining neighborhood connections.

They are a perfect size for our smaller households (2.1 people according to the latest demographics) and are relatively more affordable

An investment in DADUs is a powerful disincentive to future tear downs and the greater environmental, visual and noise impact of out of scale McMansions.

A Call to Action:

In order to support Accessory Dwellings during this housing shortage, please cut and paste the language below into the online forms and in emails to Council

October 17, 2017, 6:00–7:30 p.m. Location: High Point Community Center, 6920 34th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98126

October 26, 2017, 6:00–7:30 p.m. Location: Hale’s Ales (in the Palladium), 4301 Leary Way NW, Seattle, WA 98107

Are there additional topics or concerns that you would like to see addressed in this EIS?

Given the scarcity of housing and astonishing escalation of rents and home prices, the very minimum is to allow more accessory dwelling units into Single Family zoning. This is a perfect opportunity to look beyond the backyard cottage at what more we could do to solve our housing shortage.

Do you have other comments or suggestions related to the scope of the EIS?