Document Actions
Seattle tries to find solution to unappealing townhouses
A forum was held recently with community leaders in an effort to solve the issue of proliferating unattractive townhouses. There is no clear strategy on how to proceed yet, but most agree that something needs to be done to prevent these bland homes from being constructed at the rate that they have been.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By Aubrey Cohen
Seattle developers, city planners and neighborhood activists agree many recently built townhouses are ugly.
But some say the solutions planners have come up with are just a start, while others insist they'll make a bad situation worse.
Townhouses sit on individual lots, like traditional Seattle houses, but the lots are smaller, and the houses share at least one wall and usually a driveway with neighboring homes.
City officials see townhouses as a way to generate more affordable homes. And builders like that they don't have many of the insurance and liability problems associated with condominium projects.
"There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the townhome," City Councilwoman Sally Clark said Saturday at a forum. "But I think we all agree that, as a community, we're seeing some things that we think we could do better."
