By Erich Armbruster, Ashworth Homes, The Lens News

One of the biggest challenges facing our region is a lack of attainable housing, especially near job centers. Continued growth is driving the demand for more housing and the strong demand is outpacing supply, causing home prices and rents to soar. This is making housing increasingly out of reach for families and workers and threatening our area’s quality of life.

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Seattle Times columnist Jonathan Martin recently wrote a column advocating for adopting impact fees in Seattle, arguing that “growth doesn’t pay for growth.” That statement is simply not true. New development already generates other taxes and fees, such as the REET and sales taxes, which pay for transportation, infrastructure, and other priorities.

Our association is concerned about the effect of any added fee on housing costs, especially in light of our current housing affordability crisis. Housing affordability is a concern throughout our region and while the developer or builder initially pays the impact fee for new construction in jurisdictions that charge these fees, it is almost always added on to the sale price of the home. Any additional fees would likely be passed along to buyers or renters, further driving up home prices and rents at a time when housing costs are already skyrocketing. New homebuyers would be forced to pay for the fee with interest over the life of their mortgage.

The reality is that impact fees disproportionately affect new homebuyers, especially those at or below the median family income. The increasing use of impact fees and the costs that they add to development raises serious concerns about the effect of using impact fees to fund infrastructure will have on the affordability of housing.

Furthermore, impact fees are a one-time-only assessment and will never replace other fees/taxes in being a good, stable source of revenue. The city would be better served if a more stable type of user fee were used.

A whirlwind tour of Seattle's most efficient house. Ever.

GET YOUR EDUCATION ON THE AVE (OF NW 61ST STREET IN BALLARD)

Everything's looking Emerald at the moment. Sun is shining, address wasn't hard to find, and I now get semi-private access to Seattle's very first Emerald Star-rated home—which, in a city fueled by organic coffee and clean living, is a big deal.

Happily residing in this city of sustainability—Ballard, specifically—this new home fits right in in terms of the green mindset that permeates throughout the neighborhood. When you picture it in your head, you're probably conjuring up thought bubbles containing just the right amount of eccentricity and eco-friendliness all the way. And you'd be correct. This home is basically the housing version of a vegan organic kale smoothie, except it goes down a lot better.

I've heard nothing but great things about this place; the guts of it all and how clean and efficient everything is—2,218 square feet of industrial-strength efficiency, both inside and out. For a luxury-esque home containing four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, that's a feat that shouldn't go unnoticed. And it doesn't. Funnily enough, there's another number that Dwell likes to flaunt alongside the bedroom and bathroom digits, and that's the 8.0kW of solar panels up on the roof. I've been told that number is quite impressive.

HERE

Nestled snugly in between the seemingly endless rows of unique sweet shops, colloquial little bars, and nuevo waffle shacks, I find it. Of course it's in Ballard. It just makes too much sense.

For the moment, I'm looking forward to a nice side chat with the builder, Anthony, and a bit of quiet time. Approaching the property, one notices, whether they want to or not, that the exterior looks a bit rustic. It actually looks pretty cool and fits the landscape well. Turns out that this rustic appeal is a big part of the story; every aspect of the home is made from reclaimed materials.

There are balloons outside the house and various people I don't know shuffling in and out. Apparently I'd missed the open house sign sitting near the sidewalk. There goes my quiet time.

Shoes off and inside, it's a celebratory atmosphere complete with a photo posing backdrop in the open, expansive living area. I stand near this part very awkwardly, desperately searching for a familiar face to engage with so I can stamp my acceptance as one of the in-crowd. Oh, hey, there's the Built Green crew. I know them. Thank goodness. Turns out they're a big part of the celebration.

OK, you ask, what exactly are we celebrating? Milestones. First, this is Dwell's 100th completed home, which is impressive when you think about it. Even more so, and possibly more important, at least to the housing industry and public at large, is that this home is the city of Seattle's first spec home to receive a Built Green Emerald Star certification—which sounds impressive, because it is. Sorry, formalities; a spec home, short for speculative home, is a home which is built with features that the builder thinks will provide maximum appeal for potential buyers. This is opposed to a custom home, where a buyer purchases early and oversees construction, what goes in, out, and around the home—and what doesn't. This one's aim was true, because it was quickly snatched up for $850,000.

THERE

I know what you've been thinking this whole time: What's so cool about this Emerald Star rating? Taking cues from Built Green's stringent checklist, filled with ceiling-level standards on everything from stormwater runoff to material requirements, this house bursts through the roof by being 100 percent electric, boasting net zero energy use via over-our-head features like triple-glazed wood windows, radiant-heated floors, and a heat pump water heater that defies time and space by somehow providing 450 percent efficiency.

Want to know what's more impressive? This home actually provides energy back to the grid. Think about that for a moment. Not only does it use zero energy over a year, it uses its awesomeness to create energy.

Yep. That's why this house is so cool.

Basically, it's a beast in the best sense of the word. Ivan Drago's scientifically modified body and Rocky's nature-produced strength have merged on a quiet street in Ballard. Remember Rocky's final speech from that movie? We can all change. When it comes to sustainable housing, we all will change, eventually. Someday we won't have a choice. It's not today, but experiencing this house makes one want to expedite the consensus to the rest of the industry.

Oh, and you know what may be the most impressive part of this place is? It's really comfortable. I want to hang out in every crevice of every room for a few minutes before moving to the next comfy crevice, which may just be a huge open space, but still feels like home. This place is a show house, you know, like the ones that you see in the backgrounds of ads; the type of place that you just know nobody actually lives there. Except people actually live here.

I finally get to meet the mind behind Dwell for a brief few minutes, who happens to be very upfront and personable. Anthony Maschmedt, cool and charismatic, bounces from one conversation to the next, giddily showing off the tech components built into the reclaimed wood and open floor layout. It is an interesting blend of vibrancy and stark minimalism. The wood stairs come from an old barn somewhere in Oregon. They've been refinished, of course, and placed to be noticed. These aren't simply a means of getting to and from the second and third floors; they're a usable art installation. The tech, by the way, is on par with something you'd expect from a house of this caliber. Lights, sounds, and who knows what else all are controlled via electronic device or smartphone.

Anthony is the type of person you want to sit and converse with, and he's very visibly happy about both the state of his most recent home and reactionary treatment it's getting from the crowd. I want to talk to him some more, but he's a wanted man right now and he's got his hands full of compliments and delicious vegan cookies. The open house was also catered—with a chef demonstrating cooking on the induction stovetop.

It's time for me to say my silent goodbye and get going back to my ordinary life in an ordinary part of town to relax in an ordinary home.

EVERYWHERE

An unassuming side street in Ballard is where blisteringly hot technology, nature, and new age aesthetics come together to play nicely—no supervision needed. I'm walking back to my car and I can feel its late evening heat on my back as I reflect on exactly what just happened. It all seemed so fast. The tour, the conversations, and now the reflections. I'm taking in the neighborhood. What do people do for fun around here? You could spend a day on the side of the Dwell house watching the energy meter run backwards, but you'd be better off in either the open-floor kitchen/living area, back deck, second floor free space overlooking the kitchen/living area, or any one of the comfortable, quiet bedrooms just living the languid life while your home does all the heavy lifting—softly, no grunts or strains to be heard.

The Dwell Emerald Star home on 61st Street isn't just another house. It's the start of something big. You'll see.