The Seattle City Council Tuesday afternoon is expected to pass legislation to suspend “required design review” meetings for six months while it works out new rules and an overhaul of the program intended to give the community information and input on major development projects in the neighborhood.
The proposed legislation would “temporarily suspend required design review for six months, making design review voluntary for proposed development.”
“These regulations will be in place while SDCI works to update the design review program and guidelines as required by ESHB 1293, as well as updating affordable housing measures. These permanent changes are intended to update the design review program to be more efficient; better meet the current needs of the city for new investment, particularly in varying and more housing options throughout the city; and focus the program on good design outcomes for developments that are most likely to impact the character of neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of residents and visitors,” a memo on the proposed legislation reads. “The additional time is needed for City staff to respond to the stakeholder and public engagement recommendations and to work through code amendments, Director’s Rules, Tips, and guidance documents to clarify code requirements and procedures.”
The proposed suspension would buy time as Seattle works out a reform of its design review program.
The memo says the council would set to work on updated permanent legislation and the overhaul of the design review system following the upcoming, end-of-year- budget process.
Design review sessions for Capitol Hill-area projects have become a rarity. CHS reported here over the summer on one of the few recent reviews for a nearby development.
CHS reported here on the ongoing efforts to streamline and eliminate design review as critics have said the process is too slow, too unpredictable, and too expensive.
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Mixed feelings about this. The design review process is very broken and does need a major revamp, BUT I do not trust developers and fully expect them to get away with as much as they can in terms of bad/cheap/problematic designs over the next 6 months.
Please describe a “problematic design”
I’m not a builder or an architect so my answer will be fuzzy, but they may do things like like poor dumpster placement/garbage-truck access or parking/driveway placement that causes street traffic backups or whatever to eek out a bit more money. I’m personally less concerned about the “design aesthetics” than about it being a good functional fit for the neighborhood.
At our affordable building at Community Roots Housing. The garbage room is next to the elevator. The elevator is in the lobby. The office is a loft above that lobby. The entire thing smells like garbage the entire time.
Sounds bad. Point is what?
I was giving an example where they loosened those rules and here I am.
That’s the point.
None of those things are covered in design review though. It ends up being discussion about the specific color of hardiboard used and the shades of brick (wish I was exaggerating)
Agree! Unscrupulous developers will try to sneak their lousy designs into approval during those 6 months, and we will have even more terrible architecture.
Everyone complains about the designs now. Maybe they’ll get better without the busybodies telling architects what to do.
I am a Lego master. I put the Millennium Falcon together without instructions! True story.
So I should have final say!
Just maybe, if “everyone complains,” then that means that many of the designs are truly bad.
Design Review has been unfairly vilified. In the absence of Design Review, national for-profit corporate developers will make decisions based solely on profit margins and Seattle’s design standard will go from bad to worse.
It’s been very fairly vilified. Delaying projects years over things like brick colors.
People like you should have 0 right to complain about housing prices.
Pretty sure there are other factors than cherry-picked extreme examples of design review that are driving up housing prices, so plenty of room for complaining, but go off, short king.
It’s no secret that the design review process in Seattle does hinder construction and needs an overhaul, but design review is necessary for all the reasons listed above.
Design Review hasn’t prevented all the shitty designs I see everywhere, so what’s the point? Why hasn’t Seattle developed pre-approved design elements and styles and simplified the process?