Jonah Spangenthal-Lee was dead on right about neighborhood reaction to certain development. He sees that many Seattleites support density. They just don’t want to live in neighborhoods that are poorly planned and with cheap, ugly and poorly constructed buildings.
Some developers, like Dunn & Hobbes and Pryde & Johnson, have worked to build projects which mesh with the neighborhoods they’re in—building aesthetically pleasing, “sustainable” projects—but other developers are quick to throw up dozens of townhomes as quickly and cheaply as possible.
“It begins to destroy the character and uniqueness of neighborhoods,” says city councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who’s been a staunch supporter of density, voting for an increase in height limits downtown and on Capitol Hill. However, Rasmussen is also quick to criticize the wrong kind of development.
“What I see happening is we’re losing landscaped yards and planting strips; we’re having fences or concrete walls built right up to the sidewalk. [It’s] sterile and bleak.” Rasmussen points to a string of boxy, cheap-looking townhome developments along North 85th Street near the Aurora corridor as an example of development gone wild. Rasmussen says he’s continually been told that good design isn’t cost-effective. “Does good design always cost more money?” Rasmussen asks. “Can’t we be more thoughtful and careful [in the design process]?” Rasmussen says he’d be willing to take a look at revising the city’s land-use code in order to put tighter regulations on development.
Check out the full article here.
Leave a Reply