The changing face of town houses

As the number of town houses in Seattle-area neighborhoods has
mushroomed in recent years, one particular design feature has
caught the eye of many a homebuyer and neighbor; the
"auto-court" parking area around which some town houses are
clustered.

With a central, cavelike driveway, often shaded by the town
houses' upper floors extending overhead, auto courts typically
consist of two rows of Smart Car-sized garages.

Rishad Quazi lives in a town-house complex with auto-court
parking in the Broadview neighborhood of Seattle.

He is happy with his home, particularly the relatively large
back yard, which he estimated at about 20-by-30 feet, the
newness of the home when he moved in, and the fact that his is
an end unit, with only one wall adjoining another home.

Quazi parks his car in his garage, though he said that it was
tricky at first to maneuver his vehicle — at the time a Hyundai
hatchback — into the small space.

"I scratched it on both sides before I figured out my correct
angle of approach and my proper visual markers to get the car
in correctly," he said.

Some of his neighbors choose to park on the street, he said,
due to the tight configuration of their auto court.

The high cost of land, the push toward density, and earlier
building code requiring off-street parking have all contributed
to the proliferation of auto-court town-house development.

Town houses are meant to squeeze more dwellings into tight
places. Taking up less space means that town houses are more
attractively priced compared with free-standing homes.

For example, an upscale three-bedroom, three-bath,
1,730-square-foot town house built in 2006 in Fremont was
recently listed for $479,000.

It's on a block where the land alone under a single-family
house was assessed for a higher amount, according to county
property-tax records.

Though popular for their affordability and relatively new
construction, town-house design sometimes has appeared more
awkward than functional.

A recent building code update in Seattle intends to change
this, by favoring features such as front porches and common
outdoor space instead of auto courts.

The Seattle City Council last year updated its
multifamily-building code with new rules and incentives that
steer development away from the auto-court style of town house
and toward row houses, cottages, and apartments.

In place of car-oriented auto courts, the code update
encourages visible pedestrian entry doors and more windows
facing the street. These features aim to connect homes and
their residents with neighbors and communities.

In addition, a system of "floor-area ratio" incentives allows
the building of slightly larger units on the same size lot if
developers choose dwelling types other than auto-court town
houses.

The code update also allows common outdoor space in town-house
complexes, rather than requiring individual, enclosed yards.
And in certain areas with frequent transit service, multifamily
complexes do not have to include parking for each unit.

To arrive at its final update, the council took feedback from
the public. Councilmember Sally Clark hosted a neighborhood
forum in 2008 titled "Townhomes — Can the Patient be Saved?"
and drew on input from neighborhood groups and developers.

Among citizens speaking up was Bill Zosel, a resident of
central Seattle's Squire Park neighborhood. He felt too many
formulaic, auto-court style town houses were popping up in his
community. He brought to Clark at another meeting a photo of an
auto-court development with a red circle around it and diagonal
line striking through it; the graphic symbol for "No."

Interviewed recently, Zosel said he objected to what he called
the auto-court town houses' "diminished relationship to the
street."

Most of the existing single-family homes in his neighborhood,
he said, have "useful front doors and ground-level living space
facing the street." By contrast, the only visible entrance to
many auto-court complexes is the driveway.

Some areas outside Seattle have stricter rules regarding town
house developments. Snohomish County updated its multifamily
code in 2009 with new design standards that aim to foster
attractive streetscapes and architectural design that blends
into existing neighborhoods.

The code update was written "with Seattle's auto-court issue in
mind," said Clay White, director of Snohomish County Planning
and Development Services.

Under the new standards, "auto-court style town houses cannot
be developed" he said.

Auto courts have been much less of an issue in Bellevue. The
city has not experienced the same proliferation of auto-court
town-house projects as Seattle has, according to Carol Helland,
Bellevue's land-use director, who said: "We've had relatively
robust design expectations in place for some time."

Such design concerns, however, aren't necessarily a priority
for many people who buy town houses. Price, location and newer
construction are what count.

Meredith Spacie and her husband, Tom, bought their auto-court
town house in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood in 2008, though
they did not set out looking for a town house in particular.

"Our most important element was neighborhood and location and
not having to do any work on the house before it was
satisfactorily livable," Spacie said. "There were really no
single-family homes in our price range that fit those
characteristics."

Based on what she recalled seeing at the time, Spacie estimated
they paid at least $100,000 less for their town house compared
with a similarly-sized single-family house in move-in
condition.

Most of the neighbors in their complex of eight town houses do
park their cars in their auto-court garages, but the Spacies do
not.

"Our garage is no tougher to get into than anyone else's,"
Spacie said. "We basically just have too much stuff and are
using it for storage."