Another quote from the Seattle Weekly feature:
… the 1994 Comprehensive Plan … insulated single-family neighborhoods, which cover most of the city, from the biggest surges of development, because it funneled so much growth into urban villages like the University District, Ballard, and Capitol Hill. In this way, the Comp Plan tried and largely succeeded to have it both ways: lots of density in some areas and very little elsewhere.
About 75 percent of new households and jobs in the last 20 years have been located in hubs like downtown, Ballard, and Beacon Hill. A map of the Urban Villages from 1994 is here – and, particularly, of Ballard.
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There are two sections of Ballard – north and south of 59th Street – with different forms of density. ‘Downtown Ballard’ is to the south. With respect to the northern section, there’s this item from Livable Ballard (which is not a fan of the change happening there):
Changes in Land Use Code
In 2010, Seattle changed its land use code for low-rise multifamily zoned areas. This has had a dramatic impact on Central Ballard, particularly the area that extends north from NW 59th Street to NW 65th Street, and west from 15th Ave NW to 28th Ave NW (where zoning was changed from LDT to LR1). This area primarily consists of single-family homes with some duplexes and a few small multifamily buildings.
Now, under the code changes, modest and affordable houses and duplexes are being torn down and replaced with tall, expensive groups of three or four townhouses, which tower over the existing houses and sidewalks and are not at all compatible with the neighborhood.
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So what does all that actually look like on the ground. Last month I went walking with my camera, and here is what I saw:
We spent a couple of days in an airbnb converted garage in Ballard last month. What struck me was the amount of oxygen around the houses, partly because there are no back lanes and the houses have side driveways. Very friendly and laid-back, it made Vancouver’s neighbourhoods seem tense and pressured; there were some townhouse-type infills but they were on small parcels of land and seemed to fit in. And the 6-storey condos around Market and south toward the ship canal seemed very urban, very European — different from Vancouver’s high-density typical developments.
A note from my daughters currently travelling Vietnam –
“The Chinese have discovered this sleepy little town as have they discovered Da Nang . . . The Chinese are buying up waterfront properties the length of Hoi An, to the point where the Vietnamese government is having to impose restrictions on the sale of land to them.”
“Vietnamese government is having to impose restrictions on the sale of land to them . . .
NOT in Vancouver: NOT NEVER EVER!