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Old 10-14-2014, 02:54 PM
 
63 posts, read 186,899 times
Reputation: 29

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Hello!

We live in West Seattle, up on the hill in Morgan Junction. As is common in Seattle, a single story house behind us (kiddy corner - 1 house north) is in the process of being demolished and a 2 story is going to be built to maximize their view. Unfortunately, it cuts off the best part of our remaining view - we will no longer be able to look out at Bainbridge Island from our 1st floor... My wife is under the impression that there might be some sort of ? financial recourse possibly due to us from the owners... (I told her NOT a way to make friends in our new city...) She has a friend who used to work for the City of San Francisco, in their zoning/building dept. - apparently she said these types of issues would come up all the time in SF and sometimes result in some type of financial recourse... I have never heard of such a thing... I just sort of see it as luck of the draw and inevitable - I mean, the previous owners of our house put in the second floor that I am sitting in right now - amazing view from up here!! Anyway, just thought I would ask if anybody in Seattle has ever heard about this issue coming up...
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Old 10-14-2014, 04:05 PM
 
5,075 posts, read 11,007,724 times
Reputation: 4664
Unless your property has a view covenant in the deed, you have no recourse except to build up and block the next neighbor's view yourself.

And consider yourself lucky it's only 2 stories. In my neighborhood zoning allows up to 40' for a SFR. One of the new houses going in near the water has an elevator...
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Old 10-14-2014, 04:40 PM
 
290 posts, read 286,535 times
Reputation: 471
Found out about this the hard way a little over a decade ago when someone across the street built right up to the max height and took away not just our view but that of several others as well.

And don't even bother contacting the city's Dept of Planning and Development about this. While there has been action at the city council to protect public views (witness Vulcan's failed attempt to get the zoning changed to allow increased heights for a couple of their proposed projects near Lake Union) there is no similar protection for private views.

If you feel that your view has been compromised to the point where it seriously affects your property value, you MAY be able to successfully appeal to the Board of Equalization for a reduction in assessed value. But if your assessment is already significantly below market value, you might want to just sleeping dogs lie.
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Old 10-14-2014, 05:31 PM
 
63 posts, read 186,899 times
Reputation: 29
Thanks for the replies - sort of what I expected...
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Old 10-14-2014, 09:01 PM
 
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,105 posts, read 80,174,082 times
Reputation: 56931
The city is not going to stop construction that adds value and therefore tax revenue regardless of what it does to a neighbor's view.
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Old 10-17-2014, 01:23 AM
 
2,064 posts, read 4,417,632 times
Reputation: 1468
just don't try to cut down a tree like john olerud...

Tree battle in Clyde Hill ends; Olerud to pay for view | Local News | The Seattle Times
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