CITY
OF
SHORELINE CITY COUNCIL
Cottage Housing Bus Tour
City Council:
PRESENT: Mayor Hansen, Deputy Mayor Jepsen, Councilmembers Chang,
Fimia, Grace and Ransom
ABSENT: Councilmember Gustafson
Planning Commission:
PRESENT: Chair Harris, Commissioners
Hall, Koboi, and MacCully
ABSENT: Vice Chair Piro, Commissioners
McClelland, Phisuthikul and Sands
STAFF:
GUEST: Jim Soules, cottage housing developer
The
tour started from the parking lot at the southern end of the Interurban Trail
at
Continuing,
he reviewed that the intent of cottage housing is to provide an alternative to
larger houses on conventional residential lots.
Cottage housing implements the Shoreline Comprehensive Plan policy to
encourage a variety of residential design alternatives and helps the City meet
the requirements of the Growth Management Act.
Cottage housing must be compatible with the existing neighborhood and
comply with all the design standards in the Development Code. He emphasized that the projects may be even
further conditioned and must go through the conditional use process. Throughout the tour, Mr. Cohen described how
site design regulations create quality and cohesive cottage housing
communities. At each site, he pointed
out how requirements for open space, covered porches, parking, landscaping and
shared amenities are integrated into the site design. He emphasized that it is always a balance
between being prescriptive in the regulations to ensure quality and allowing
the developer some flexibility for the specific site.
As
the tour progressed, there were many questions and comments, and discussion of
what was seen at each of the sites.
Madrona Cottages at 158th and
Mr.
Cohen demonstrated how the development at this site meets the criteria, noting
that 12 units were allowed at the time of approval in 2001. He said this would not be allowed under the
current code. He discussed the
importance of tree preservation at this site.
He said that landscaping is required to preserve significant trees and
filter views of the development from the surrounding neighborhood.
Mayor
Hansen and Deputy Mayor Jepsen did not tour this site. Mr. Cohen noted that this is probably the
most successful of the projects built in Shoreline. Here the group had the opportunity to go
inside one of the cottages. It was noted
that only two of the cottages have changed owners. The cottages sell for about $300,000. The owners of the cottage emphasized the
sense of community felt by those living here.
This project has a common building, which contributes to that communal
feeling. The group visited the community
building and there was extended discussion of this form of housing. The developer of the cottages, Jim Soules, joined the tour at this point.
Deputy
Mayor Jepsen did not tour this site. Here
Mr. Cohen emphasized that although there was a potential for five cottages,
only four were constructed in order to save the significant trees on the
site. There are six parking stalls. The group was given a tour of an uninhabited
cottage.
Reserve Cottages at
This
site is currently under construction. It
has six units less than 1,000 square feet, with nine associated parking
spaces. This is a very narrow site, so
that the cottages appear taller. There
was discussion of whether the width of a cottage housing site should be
required to be 100 feet, rather than 80 feet.
Chrysalis Development
The
bus drove by this development, which started as cottage housing but was changed
to construction of eight detached single-family homes with a private access
road.
Hopper Cottages at NE corner
of
The
bus stopped briefly at this site, which is early in the construction phase. This site is unique, in that it is on a
corner lot. Five houses are proposed
here. Mr. Cohen noted that the houses
must present toward the street.
Councilmember
Fimia asked for the
The
bus returned to the Interurban Trail and the meeting adjourned at
_____________________
City
Clerk