House Bill 1110 passed the House earlier this month and is under consideration by the Senate. In summary, it eliminates ALL single-family home zoning in cities where population exceeds 25,000. Your neighbors will now be able to knock their house down and put up a 4-plex, anywhere in a city greater than 25,000, as long as one unit meets affordable housing requirements. Wenatchee’s population exceeds 25,000.
When buying a home, especially those with young families, you now need to do more than consider the current state of the neighborhood. You also have to consider what it could look like in the near future. Simply researching houses for sale on Zillow or Redfin is not going to provide you with “boots on the ground” experience necessary to minimize the potential of making a mistake. Real estate agents will become more valuable then ever, especially early in the buying process, to help you with these decisions once the bill passes the senate and the governor signs it into law.
Eliminating strictly single-family home neighborhoods is Olympia’s answer to an oft mentioned affordable housing crisis. Buildable land may be a scarce commodity in the Puget Sound, but if you draw a triangle from the Rock Island Tavern, to Larry’s Chicken, to the Airport and back to the Rock Island Tavern, we have 5,345 acres of land zoned Ag Use in Service, Ag Use Not in Service, or undeveloped. The ag and/or water rights value to this land has not been significant enough to draw the attention of Goldman Sacks or the Gates Foundation. I doubt we generate enough hydro power from the local dams to fill this acreage with data storages, so that leaves housing as the next best viable economic option. If you assume half of that land would be required for infrastructure (roads, schools, parks), that still leave room for over 9,000 building lots of 12,500 sq feet. Land is not a problem in the Wenatchee Valley.
The Bill is sponsored by Rep Jessica Bateman. On March 7th the Seattle Times quotes her as saying “This is about people like my little sister who is a nurse who cannot afford her first home and is postponing putting roots down. We are pricing young people out of the future they deserve”. Hmmm. I guess I missed that day in my economics class when they taught that reducing the number of single family homes will make them more affordable.
Denser housing may sound like a merciful way to deal with a certain segments of society, but there are other downsides that are being ignored. I recall the basics of my sociology course at the UW some 35 years ago (shout out to Professor Stark for those in my age bracket). The basics were this: The more people you pack into a smaller area, the more long-term psychological issue will be created.
A monumental Swedish study of 4.4 million people 20 years ago found that denser housing lead to a 68-77% greater risk of developing psychosis and a 12-20% greater risk of developing depression. See link https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15056572/. The New Geography article cites other studies of similar conclusions regarding children, health, and housing density. http://www.newgeography.com/content/003945-health-happiness-and-density.
Crime also elevates in neighborhoods as housing becomes more dense. A study by Indiana University concluded “There seems to be something about (high-density residential) units that is associated with all types of serious violent crime, even controlling for the other factors in the model,” the authors write. “Apparently, high-density housing units promote serious violent crime.” The link is provided here. https://tinyurl.com/msj7d2df
Many large Washington cities have already eliminated single family home zoning. Oregon has done it statewide. Even in Wenatchee there appears to be a new zoning tolerance for upbulding. Don’t believe me, drive down Springwater and you will see a new 3 story multi family structure that popped up this winter on a postage stamp lot. The city of Wenatchee has 2,000 houses with an assessed value under $300,000 built before 1950. All could be economically ripe for a tear down and rebuild into a 4-plex. Choose your next home purchase with this in mind.
Written by: Brian Fair