Remember When We Planned to Build an ADU?

I spoke today with Permit Specialist Fatima with the City of Seattle. She was nice enough to call to follow up with her email response to my email request. 

1. You can park in your front setback, but you can't establish parking in your front setback for the purpose of satisfying the 1-car parking requirement.
2. You can't have a driveway unless it leads to a garage (or a valid off-street parking space, not in the front setback).
3. A variance is expensive, unlikely to be granted, and fees are non-refundable.
4. She looked at street views and saw a garage. I told her the previous owner had converted the garage and I could find no record of a permit and she took several sentences to say "You're screwed."

Essentially, the unpermitted garage conversion blocks consideration of a new permit that does not include it. She didn't say it that directly, but that was the gist. That is, the current ADU plan would be fine--we would be requesting a permit for the existing bath and living space--but that's a garage and it can't come closer to the street than the house.

Actually, we discussed parking in the front yard but we did not discuss 23.44.016 (F.1.a), the rule about a garage closer to the street than the house. I will reply to her email and ask, but I suspect she'll take a hard line on that code, too.

If for some reason that rule can be bent, I realized that it's just a structural issue to move the rear wall of the workshop/garage south into the ADU space. 

Since the power has been out for the last two days, I've been in "make myself comfortable" mode. So, if the City takes a hard line on its rules, fine: I'll convert BR3 back into a garage, redo the kitchen and BA1 (and the other Main House things) and live happily ever after. I never liked the idea of a sewage ejector anyway.

It would probably make sense to a realtor to build an ADU above the garage and breezeway. Sounds like a hassle for me, but it's just a 500 SF addition--$150,000 or so and the garage is practically free. Lazy me says convert the garage back and show potential buyers that they could build an ADU above it.

We also discussed building in the backyard and she said something about the ECA requiring an additional 15' setback. The problem is that there are overlapping jurisdictions--the ECA people, zoning, soils, fish and wildlife. To put it mildly, they don't agree on a common set of requirements.

See this post and this post for setback requirements. Setbacks, indeed.

Parking Requirements

23.54.015 - Table B, line K "Single-family dwelling units" need 1 space.

23.54.03

A.1. "Large vehicle" 8.5' x 19'

A.2. "Medium vehicle" 8' x 16' - use for SFRs (B.1.a)

A.3. "Small vehicle" 7.5' x 15'

A.7. If along a property line, must be 9' wide

D.1.a. Driveways 10' min. width.

D.1.e. Turning radius (one-way traffic) is 18' inside, 30' outside, 12' driveway width. (24' center radius)

According to 23.43.030 Table A, we are permitted 2 curb cuts because our 90' frontage is not located on a principal arterial or easement frontage.

Proposal

Okay, so here's what we do. We proceed with the ADU/Workshop as planned and do what we have to do to get inspections on the non-permitted work--we're already opening the floor and redoing walls, it might as well be studs out--don't try to save some drywall in the existing BR3.

We grade the front yard to add a parking space between the kitchen and the workshop. Not my first choice, but the ADU can use the off-street parking (and the workshop can use the outdoor workspace. Seattle wins--they can screw up the neighborhood with their arbitrary rules (they certainly have done so with their prior approvals of various monstrosities), but we get what we want.

The far end of the new parking space could be at nearly 263' (the kitchen and breezeway fin. floor) if we raise the workshop and mudroom a foot or so (which could take a couple of risers out of the breezeway stairs. Raising the workshop regrades the driveway to put positive drainage into the street (they won't like that, but it would be helpful) and gives the Douglas Fir roots a bit more cover. The downside is that it makes the west side yard grading not as good.