When the Seattle Green Factor went into effect in January 2007 there was considerable skepticism from many quarters. Developers, used to setbacks and open space percentages, were concerned about the financial impacts of the new ordinance. Neighborhood and open space advocates worried that the ordinance might lead to more lotline-to-lotline development. And the decision makers who actually had to make the ordinance law just hoped that it would work the way that DPD staff said it would.

More than a year on, 60 plus projects have gone through permitting and preliminary numbers are showing amazing results. Today, Dave LeClerque from DPD presented the findings from UW Urban Planning student Liz Stenning, who audited 42 Green Factor projects as they were submitted at MUP for her thesis. Dave did note that while the results are promising, it remains to be seen how what is built differs from what was submitted at MUP. Regardless, some fascinating things have emerged:
 

• The projects that have been permitted have ranged from 5,850sf to 400,000sf. Dave noted that the larger projects thought it was easier to reach the Green Factor targets if you had a smaller parcel. Smaller parcels, of course, thought the same about the large projects. Dave thought the “ease” factor really had more to do with length of adjacent right-of-way.
• In terms of which credits have been used, the visible landscape credit is most used, and the water feature credit is least used. Green roofs were used in about 50% of projects (turning over the conventional thinking that city’s need to subsidize green roof installations), and green walls in about 75% of the projects.
• Green roofs, despite being used in only 50% of the projects, resulted in almost 3 acres of new green roof area in the city.
• Liz Stenning also interviewed various designers/developers who used the green factor. 9 people had a positive response. 4 were neutral. 3 were negative.
• The Green Factor resulted in landscape architects being involved earlier in the project (yes!).
• Other concerns were about the original credits rankings for lawn and for water features. As well as some frustration regarding a disconnect between DPD and SDOT.

Dave also gave a preview of a revised Green Factor spreadsheet that will be implemented this summer and which will also be used in the revision of the Multi-family Housing Code. For multi-family residential, the Green Factor percentage is proposed to double to .6 per parcel.

Pretty great stuff all in all.