By Mike Richard, The Lens News

Two Seattle mayoral candidates and one city council candidate shared their perspectives this week on hot housing topics in the expanding city, including affordable housing, clean energy, and density issues.

The contenders took part in a panel that discussed ways to make the region “inclusive, resilient and vibrant” as part of Built Green’s 2017 Conference on September 14. The annual event brings construction sector stakeholders together to learn about current best practices and technology for environmentally friendly building.

By Mike Pattison, Snohomish County Manager

In December 2016, the Washington state Supreme Court struck a blow to vesting rights when it ruled that newly adopted stormwater regulations do not vest. The Court let stand a window for certain projects to remain vested. The new stormwater regulations will apply to all applications submitted after July 1, 2015 and projects approved prior to July 1, 2015 which have not started construction by June 30, 2020.

The case, Snohomish County, et al. v. Pollution Control Hearings Board, will severely impact applications that have been submitted to a jurisdiction but are not yet approved. The opinion eliminates vesting for environmental regulations mandated by the state, including stormwater.

An editorial by MBA President Mike Walsh was recently published in The Herald discussing the case and explaining why vesting is so important to the homebuilding industry.

While there is no ability for local government to overcome the decision with local legislation, King and Snohomish counties are currently petitioning the Court to reconsider and clarify some of the opinion.

Further, there is a proposal before the Washington State Legislature, Senate Bill 5212, that would restore vesting rights.

For more information, contact Snohomish County Manager Mike Pattison, 425.460.8203.

Forget your favorite tiny home hunter show for a minute—this is real life. Despite what the media tells us, homeowners and homebuilders, have only very recently begun to shrink their standards in favor of more compact confines.

In the 1990s, if you can remember back that far, about 23.2 percent of homes built were 3,000 square feet or more according to a builderonline.com article based on data taken from the Census Bureau American Housing Survey (AHS). But after the recession, square footage dropped, right? Not so much. The study, which looked at the years between 1990 and 2015, saw the number of 3,000-plus square foot homes built actually increase to 28.6 percent from 2010 to 2015. In fact, the tiny trend didn't really start picking up steam until mid-2016, when millennials and other such first-time buyers became a big enough segment to affect census numbers.

What's interesting is that the minor dent young folks and first-timers are putting in the overall evolution of expanse isn't enough yet to pull builders off course. As labor and land costs expand with our house sizes, builders are less likely to put themselves at risk, opting to operate in the higher-end housing market boasting secure returns, as opposed to taking a less calculated dip into the lower-end income pool and the smaller—dare we say ‘tiny'—household segment.

Does that mean lower-end shoppers are out of luck?

Not necessarily. Townhouse construction is on the rise, accounting for 9 percent of single-family homes from 2010-2015 (up from 6 percent during the ‘90s), and, according to the Builder article, recent data reports show townhouse construction making upwards of 12 percent of total construction in current quarters.

Will townhomes and tiny houses continue to creep into the bigger picture? Time will tell, but it's safe to say as costs continue to rise and people continue coming to hotspots like Seattle and the Puget Sound region, both builders and buyers will continue to push traditional housing boundaries and seek out less expensive, more practical means of housing.

Should be an interesting evolutionary ride.

Craving more on less? Check out Seattle's tiny home revolution.