Since ADU rules were liberalized by Seattle in 2019 (one attached + one detached allowed on any single-family lot, no owner-occupancy requirement, no restriction against separate sale). a number of spec builders in Seattle have been building what may look like a townhouse triplex but is legally a single family primary homes plus two ADUs, one attached and one detached. They are condo-ized and sold individually. Banks seem OK to finance them. For example 8610 37th Avenue S on Beacon Hill. If this property had been in one of the areas zone for more density they would surely have done a normal "Seattle six-pack" of 0-lot-line townhouses but instead they short platted 2 lots to still in effect end up with a six-pack even though in an area not zoned for it, at the cost of having to sell units as condos and deal with other ADU limitations (e.g. 1000sf limit).
In 2023 the State mandated Seattle-style ADU regulations across all urban growth area cities/counties, going even a bit further (2 of any combination of attached/detached allowed). I am contemplating whether to do a similar "hack" on a property in a Seattle suburb. It is zoned multi-family and I could do 14 or 15 straight townhouses but the City in question, while they immediately adopted the latest ADU rules, has archaic multi-family land-use regulations centered on a large apartment complex mentality that are costly for infill / middle housing (1.75 off-street parking spaces per unit, major landscaping requirements, "amenity" requirements, unreasonably large setbacks, etc.). For example one big row of 15 units isn't optimal but if I want to break them up I would have to have 20' between blocks, which would kill yield.
Instead of waiting for them to modernize their multi-family regs (at least a year out, maybe two) or sucking it up and living with the costs as things stand, I could instead do 5 "triplexes" of single-family + 2 ADUs and bypass some restrictions (only 5' setbacks between blocks, 1 parking space per ADU unit instead of 1.75, etc.).
But I'm concerned that Seattle builders may quickly move away from this strategy as HB1110 will (in Seattle and many other larger cities/counties, but not mine) soon enable sixplex townhouses in pretty much all the areas where the condo-ized ADU strategy has been mushrooming. No one in our area has adopted this trick at all (our ADU liberalization being brand new). And, of course, no one has been doing condos at all, pretty much, since the early 2000s, thanks to the builder liability pitfall. If this strategy will be proliferating in Seattle and elsewhere, I feel more comfortable with it. But if these Seattle projects will, two years from now after HB1110 rules are in force, appear to have been an ephemeral thing that came and went among a handful of limit-pushing builders, our development might end up seeming weird (which could impact both buyer appeal & financeability).
I know there's no crystal ball and the State rules have been changing rapidly, and might still change further. But I would appreciate anyone's thoughts.
