It’s not downtown but there’s an alley house just behind our. It’s a smaller place (probably a rental) at the back of a lot on the next street over. Seems very quaint.

Plus, think about places in town like Opera Alley and even Metro Coffee. I’m game for fun little nooks around town.

My step-son shares a building space with several others, that’s in an alley (actually one of the Courts downtown) that’s underneath some businesses on the street above. Not sure if it’s legal (no back exit), and we try hard not to be worried parents (no sprinklers)but I got to tell you, if I was a 20-something year old I’d kill to live there.

Well, we just began our alley life.

Our neighborhood agreed to pave the alley.

With a gentle slope and fresh asphalt, it’s a kid magnet.

Skateboards, scooters, tricycles and bicycles all speed down the hill with children gleefully screeching.

There is talk of closing it off later this spring for a BBQ, as well as dreams of alley sales rather than garage sales.

We’ll see how it goes.

But we like the improvement.

This is a great idea in downtown and mixed use areas. Downtown Seattle has areas which every conceivable nook and cranny is routed out and someone has some sort of shop there. These are usually host to starter and local businesses so they add alot of spice to a downtown.

Actually, the City does allow access only to the alley. Though they require that the alley become an alley on steroids. This is not uncommon on many of the newer townhouse developments.

Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are a commonly use primarily alleys for access. The regulations on ADUs vary significantly by jurisdiction though. Tacoma has some unusual requirements on ownership and concomitant agreements that other jurisdictions do not have. (Though one jurisdiction has an unusual requirement regarding family members – taking the term “mother-in-law” unit a bit too literally.)

I would love to see the City reduce some of these barriers and allow for the natural growth of more units in established neighborhoods. This could really combat the lack of affordable housing in some areas.

Builders are scouring the North End for any undeveloped (or underdeveloped) lots that can be divided, subdivided and built up. Watch your back!

There are certainly different areas which needs to be treated differently. The city has established 14 mixed use areas for increased density and now tripled the size of the area considered downtown where high desnity housing will be located.

Thus, we now have a large capacity for infilling and directed growth centers.

With all of these areas available, I think there is still a role for single family neighborhoods in Tacoma without the yards all filled in with small units.

ADUs are allowed in Tacoma but with some restrictions.

The alley access issue has been a hot topic around the Tacoma Mall Mixed Use districts.

If the area around UPS was allowed to expand the number of ADUs that could be built, it would turn the area into little more than non owner occupied student rentals with all the empty space filled with small units. Thus, they are concerned about the issue as well.

I’d like to see some photo examples around Tacoma. Highly interesting!

Alley living has been quite common in many larger cities for years—maybe the article covered that—I didn’t read it. In Baltimore’s rowhouses, the (smaller) alley houses were like the ‘starter houses’ of today, with the poorer and immigrant populations living in them initially, and eventually moving into the (larger) rowhouse with street frontage.