According to The Architect's Newspaper, Seattle's new Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) legislation requires developers to contend with several new sets of regulatory multifamily hoops. The legislation hopes to add 6,000 low-income housing units to a city with a shortage of affordable homes. In some neighborhoods builders will be required to include affordable housing in their plans or pay into a fund that the city will use to provide affordable housing in other areas.
The MHA regulations were approved this spring and are expected to add over 6,000 new low-income housing units to the city’s housing stock over the next decade. The changes are part of the city’s Housing Affordability and Living Agenda, a three-pronged effort undertaken by city agencies several years ago to increase housing supply in order to stem escalating rents and property values across the thriving region.
The new regulations span five categories of development density, from low-rise detached and row house neighborhoods to taller mixed-use districts where buildings will be allowed to rise to a height of 95 feet or more. The efforts will upzone roughly 6% of the city’s single-family zones. Single-family zones ultimately make up over 80% of the city’s residential areas.
MHA regulations, according to planning documents provided by the city of Seattle, will be pegged to the degree of upzoning that takes place: Under the plan, areas that have been upzoned most significantly will be required to add a relatively higher proportion of new affordable housing. The required fees administered in lieu of on-site affordable housing construction will start at $5.58 per square foot for projects located in low-rise areas outside downtown Seattle and will go as high as $35.75 per square foot for larger mixed-use developments, according to city agencies.
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