Proving that Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels doesn’t have his head completely up his ass, he has proposed extending southeast Seattle’s backyard cottage ordinance to the whole city.
Our property is perfectly suited to having a backyard cottage — we could demolish the south shed, widen the foundation slab by eight feet, build a 20’x20′ house to one of many many plans on the internet, and privacy-fence off the southeast corner of the property. Voilà ! Backyard cottage with parking space and (small) lawn!
I’d happily use it as a guest cottage, a mother-in-law (in the unlikely and hopefully far-off event that any of our parents need to live with us), a semi-independent living unit for our daughter when she’s sixteen or so, or (most useful in my mind) a rental unit that could offset our mortgage payment by 33% or so.