SEATTLE — On Monday Seattle's City Council will address those controversial micro-housing projects that have been popping up all over the city for years. KIRO 7 looked at how that could affect people who live in and around them.
One house used to stand where about 50 people now live in a skinny building on 11th Avenue in Capitol Hill. Rand Morris is one of them.
"When I'm living in a city I don't like to feel like I'm taking up a huge amount of space,” he tells KIRO 7.
"I think any time you bring people into an already compacted place it's going to make it more difficult,” says nearby homeowner Sidera Sherwood, who says parking was a problem on Capitol Hill even before micro-housing came to town.
Morris says he doesn't feel crammed into 250 square feet, but some neighborhoods feel the micro-apartments have been crammed into their communities.
The Seattle City Council will listen to all of that before possibly making a major change. It's holding a public forum on new micro-housing rules and addresses this kind of situation specifically. Part of the city's proposal would prevent micro-houses from being built in areas zoned for single-family residences. There are eight others from establishing a minimum size for shared kitchens to increasing required solid waste storage space, and making more car and bike parking mandatory.
The city says the recommendations come after two years of monitoring these projects. People like Morris say maybe the big problem isn't small apartments -- it's just apartments and growing pains.
"I think really any time you have something like this coming into a residential neighborhood especially you're going to see a lot of backlash,” Morris concludes.
The council will vote on the proposal next month.