Dan Bertolet

Wildfires like the one that recently destroyed ~800 homes in Spokane create an urgent need for rapidly deployable, low-cost housing. Mobile dwellings could be housing people who've lost their homes right now - if they were legal. This is one reason to pass a state MDU bill but not the only one...

Portland's legalization of mobile dwellings is a total success story. In the neighborhood surveyed, MDUs have overtaken ADUs. MDUs are the lowest-cost, quickest to deploy type of home there is. They should be legal on residential lots in all cities. www.sightline.org/2026/08/19/s...

Bellingham may be the first WA city to legalize mobile dwellings in residential neighborhoods. MDUs are the least expensive, fasted to deploy housing type there is. MDUs should be legal in all cities, which is why @sightline.org is working on statewide legislation in both WA and OR.

Excellent discussion of how a land value tax can help cities get more housing built and boost economic development in their downtowns. WA state could authorize the equivalent of an LVT with the Vibrant Cities Act, which will be a top legislative priority for @sightline.org in the 2027 session.

Vancouver BC's Villages Plan is the first proposal in many decades in any North American city that would substantially push apartment zones into the leafy neigbhorhoods away from noisy, polluted arterials. Public input has been mostly negative, big surprise. www.sightline.org/2026/07/10/i...

Vancouver's proposed Village Plan would allow small apartment buildings on three to four blocks surrounding 17 designated centers. In other words, a big step for apartments not on dangerous, polluted arterial streets. Public hearing is tomorrow 7/14 at 6pm. www.sightline.org/2026/07/10/i...

It's tunnel vision to focus on MHA generating funds for affordable housing. It can! But it comes at the cost of raising rents for everyone else. Because no housing gets built until the worsening shortage pushes up rents high enough to offset the MHA fee. And that hits lower-income renters hardest.

One reason this backsliding never ends is because the deal itself reinforced the idea that taxing housing to pay for housing is fine as long as it’s calibrated. No. Unfunded inclusionary zoning is bad policy that harms renters in all economic conditions and it should be abolished everywhere.

Spokane Councilmember Klitzke is leading the charge for state legislation that would authorize the equivalent of a land value tax: “A property tax that exempts buildings and shifts the burden onto land would give us a new and powerful tool to fill in our gaps while keeping Spokane affordable.”

Excited to be working on a new approach to a land value tax that would be legal in WA state. Tax buildings less and land more and you'll get more new buildings and less vacant land. It's a non-zoning solution for mitigating the housing shortage, and it's value capture done right.

Good news for cash-strapped cities hesitant to upzone: "Building homes near existing jobs, stores, and transit saves public dollars, in both up-front infrastucture and ongoing maintenance, and produces more property taxes per acre than local gov'ts can expect from development at the edge of town."

Virginia and Kentucky just passed state bills to enable land value taxes. Renewed interest in LVT has been popping up all of the country. @sightline.org is working with legislators and advocates to develop a bill for 2027 in Washington. progressandpoverty.substack.com/p/two-states...

Yet another vacancy chain paper, but with a new contribution: evidence that some residents downsize into the new condos. That is, they open up *larger* homes. Building small apartments is a solution for increasing the availablity of family-sized homes. morehousing.substack.com/p/honolulu

SF should just go all the way and eliminate IZ altogether. Even at 5% it will kill marginal homebuilding projects. It will do less damage than if it wasn't lowered, but there is no magic threshold below which undfunded IZ is harmless. It's like watching someone go through the stages of grief.

Pew has a new 3-minute video spotlighting the story of a real person who was able to move into an affordable home because of the vacancy chain created by the construction of an expensive new, market-rate apartment building. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQYM...

Another way to think about this is that if Seattle hadn't built so many new rental apartments, renters would now have housing costs much closer to Seattle's high ownership costs. www.seattletimes.com/business/rea...

San Francisco is moving in the right direction on inclusionary zoning. It will reduce its IZ requirement to 5 percent of units, and to compensate, will double its housing trust fund, which is mostly funded from property taxes. Property tax is a much better way to fund rent-restricted housing!

San Francisco assessed its IZ and found that "none of the financial models could support any inclusionary housing." That's because under current economic conditions pretty much nothing pencils even if 100% market rate. IZ just makes it worse, as it always does. media.api.sf.gov/documents/Tr...

Ahoy housing wonks in Alaska and BC! Sightline is hiring part-time contributors to help advance housing abundance in these two corners of Cascadia. Please spread the word! www.sightline.org/about/careers/

Good on the NYT for calling out how inclusionary zoning backfires and worsens affordability. Great to see wider recognition of this reality. But it's not only when IZ mandates "too many" BMR units. If IZ puts *any* extra cost burden on homebuilding it will backfire. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Great to see @futurewise.bsky.social taking on the task of making sure we get proper implementation of all the building code reform bills that WA has passed since 2023. futurewise.org/get-involved...

Scissor stairs are typically associated with skinny highrise towers, but they're a good option to have for midrise buildings too, like this new 6-story apartment building in Brooklyn designed by @panyc.bsky.social.

Guest contributor @markusja.bsky.social gives the rundown on another first for Washington state on legislation to increase housing options: HB 2228 sets the process in motion for updating the building code to allow scissor stairs. www.sightline.org/2026/05/13/w...

Happy Birthday to the Parking Reform & Modernization Act! 🎂 @jessdbateman.bsky.social www.sightline.org/2026/05/07/w...

Legalize apartment buildings!

The perfect, low-cost, infill solution for retrofitting detached house neighborhoods anywhere and everywhere: Six 900 sf, 2-bedroom flats. Selling for $300k (in Portland). On a standard 5,000 sf house lot. Bottom two units accessible. No on-site parking. www.redfin.com/OR/Portland/...

Good explainer on land value taxes. @sightline.org is continuing work initiated in WA's 2026 session to develop legislation that exempts building value from property tax, which has all the benefits of a split rate land value tax, but doesn't run afoul of the state constitution's uniformity clause.

My entry in the capture the essence of Vancouver’s West End in one photograph challenge

More towers of all shapes and sizes, downtown Vancouver

Towers of all shapes and sizes in downtown Vancouver

New Westminster, another Vancouver suburb with a serious skyline that gets it’s very own Skytrain-only bridge over the Fraser (and so dreamy to roll in on Amtrak)

The formula for good urban streets is so simple and Vancouver proves that it’s still possible to build it even deep in the age of car culture, no need to do more studies or crack some ancient code, just do this: