Published April 2004

Home developers seek
well-developed PRD rules

Photo courtesy of Triad Associates Greenbriar, a Woodinville residential development, is representative of high-density housing that attracts homebuyers while still being viable for developers.

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

Subdivision development and home building in Snohomish County are changing as limits set by the Growth Management Act not only reduce the number of properties that can be developed but also dictate how the development proceeds.

Ideally, developing more homes on less space can produce impressive results, with homes, yards, landscaping, common areas and wetlands blended together in a pleasing arrangement that creates attractive lifestyle options for residents.

Practically, however, developers need more than creativity; they need well-developed planned residential development (PRD) limits, restrictions and options that protect the site but still make the small parcels of land viable for investors and marketable for real estate firms, according to officials at Triad Associates.

The Kirkland-based firm is involved in both innovative land development and creative PRD regulations so that both county planners and builders will be comfortable with the results. Much of Triad’s work in recent months has been with the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties.

On behalf of its more than 3,300 member companies, Mike Pattison, the MBA’s Snohomish County manager, has offered detailed suggestions to the Snohomish County Council to ponder as it prepares to make changes in the county’s PRD ordinances this spring.

What’s important, Triad executives believe, is to have enough incentives for builders mixed in with restrictions to make PRD neighborhoods attractive both aesthetically and financially.

Triad is drawing on its experiences with new PRD developments in King County and on its experience working with Snohomish County land developers and planning officials. The firm has worked on local projects for the past 20 years, including a mixed-use development in Monroe’s Fryelands, River Crossing in Mill Creek and Brandemoor in Lynnwood.

The company’s expertise includes commercial and industrial properties as well, but it is heavily into PRD projects, providing land-use master planning, environmental impact analysis, civil engineering, landscape architecture, project permitting and land surveying, including aerial mapping.

George Newman, Triad’s director of planning and a principal with the firm, knows the county’s issues well. An Arlington resident and previously the county’s land-use manager for several years, Newman sees and hears public concerns as well as developers’ concerns.

“People tell us they don’t like ugly storm-water detention facilities with fences around them and monotonous rows of crowded, look-alike homes,” he said. “We’re doing detached single-family condos with auto-courts and site arrangements where the streets aren’t dominated by garages and driveways.”

Newman said the market is ripe for high-density PRD development that uses open space and doesn’t have the appearance of being high density. The result is a winning situation for homebuyers, developers and the county.

“We’re hoping to see changes in county PRD ordinances over the next couple months that will allow using some of these new site planning and landscaping tools the industry has been applying elsewhere,” Newman said.

The new reality of housing in Snohomish County after living with the Growth Management Act for 13 years is that large tracts of land on the edges of the county and its cities are dwindling, while demand for traditional single-family communities remains strong, according to Triad representatives.

One community already sold on higher-density development of smaller parcels of land is Mukilteo, they said, which has created a “cottage housing” development regulation.

The whole idea behind designing high-density living on limited sites, Newman said, is creatively adjusting the traditional approach for developing larger sites to the development of small sites without losing its appeal, raising costs or being so limited that the projects don’t pencil out for investors.

Some of the newer approaches for high-density PRDs include such elements as:

• Minimizing right-of-way and pavement width, since they are impervious surfaces that create water runoff problems.
• Changing building setback restrictions so different-size housing works on smaller sites.
• Allowing required open spaces and wetlands to be counted as percentages of the whole site, not as part of the “net” site area, which severely limits development options and site feasibility.
• Rain-garden drainage from rooftops to capture water instead of having it run off-site, which also reduces the need for such large detention ponds.
• Creating alleys to move vehicles away from the main streetscape.
• Building smaller units with 1,000 square feet of space and single-car garages, part of the growing market that is developing for quality, high-end homes in sizes that fit the lifestyles of many Puget Sound residents who don’t want or need large split-level residences and large lawns.

“How well we sell these new concepts is critical to the county’s future housing development and pricing,” Newman said. “Tremendous population growth is predicted for Snohomish County by 2025. If we run out of land, we will have to establish new communities in the foothills or open up new land areas in growth management zones.”

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