Last night I attended the first of two community meetings hosted by the City of Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development (DPD) on proposed improvements to the Design Review process. Many people, both developers and neighborhoods, are not happy with Design Review. Builders often feel like the process is expensive with very little benefit and neighbors feel like they don’t have enough control over the outcome. Can the process be improved?

I’m skeptical. The problem with Design Review is fundamental: it’s impossible to mandate, or even define perfectly, “good” design. So many of the elements reviewed by design review boards are qualitative. Windows, doors, paint colors, and massing are all important visually, but do they really matter if people can live in the building? Some argue that community involvement makes buildings better and therefore should gain support from neighbors.

But that’s rarely the case. People who oppose new development generally don’t oppose it because of windows or paint colors but because of all the new people. Density is people after all. Would moving windows around on microhousing have made opponents suddenly say, “oh, well, now I don’t hate microhouding anymore!” Unlikely.

The process for reviewing the process includes one more meeting on October 14, from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. at University Heights Community Center, 5031 University Way NE.

According to DPD staff the Council is likely to act sometime next summer. We’ll be watching the process carefully  until then. Our bottom line? As long as design review exists it should be predictable and add as little time and cost as possible. The City Council needs to balance production needs and affordability with design, and, generally, production and affordability should win.