Vanessa Wong at Business Week:
Micro-apartments, in some cases smaller than college dorm rooms, are cropping up in North American cities as urban planners experiment with new types of housing to accommodate growing numbers of single professionals, students, and the elderly. Single-person households made up 26.7 percent of the U.S. total in 2010, vs. 17.6 percent in 1970, according to Census Bureau data. In cities, the proportion is often higher: In New York, it’s about 33 percent. And these boîtes aren’t just for singles. The idea is to be more efficient and eventually to offer cheaper rents.
To foster innovation, several municipalities are waiving zoning regulations to allow construction of smaller dwellings at select sites.
Is Seattle running toward micro-apartments like these other sensible cities? Will our elected leaders embrace this trend to affordably house workers in the city? No way. They’re running away. Although Seattle doesn’t have some of the preexisting restrictions that prevent small apartments in the first place, as far as I can tell, that’s not stopping Seattle City Council member Tom Rasmussen from pushing for new restrictions that make ’em harder to build. Rasmussen floated a potential moratorium on aPodments—a form of affordable, small housing in which residents share a kitchen—and now the council is indulging a neighborhood campaign against the high-density housing for the working class.
The council is holding a hearing on micro-housing developments on April 18 specifically “in response to questions and concerns raised in several Seattle neighborhoods,” according to a council press release.
When is the council’s NIMBY-oriented hearing? At 11:30 a.m. on a weekday.
Critics say that’s a time when neighborhood busybodies can pack City Hall but a time when workers are at work. So, in an e-mail to the council, Pinehurst neighborhood activist Renee Staton asked if “we will be able to hear from all stakeholders if the meeting is held in City Hall during a time that most people are working.” She suggested the meeting be held in the evening.
My advice to the council: You should only agree to an evening meeting if want to give micro-housing a fair shake.