For a developer, the devalued house on a million-dollar property may instantly become landfill once they demolish it, but demolition isn't always the answer.
In Madison Park, with historically significant homes, the tension between appreciating these homes and realizing the value of the property without the home has already started to make an impact on the neighborhood.
"In Madison Park, the value of the dirt is very high and far exceeds generally the value of the home that sits on top of it, but people don't want to see towering homes built in their community," said Madison Park resident and Historic Madison Park director Lisa Taylor-Molitch.
"It's a challenging, little scenario of people who want to maintain the integrity of the neighborhood and people who are real new and say, 'That little cottage holds no memories for me," she said.
Reconciling the old and new habits can be challenging, but for this neighborhood, incoming residents and current property owners have more options than they may think.
On Sept. 9, Madison Park neighbors bid their farewells to the last little cottage left on 43rd Avenue East. But something was different about this farewell.
They didn't say goodbye and watch a wrecking ball slam into the house. Instead, they waved at the house as it was put on a barge to be sailed away on Lake Washington.
GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
House moving - not necessarily a new phenomenon, but perhaps not a widely used one - saved the cottage from becoming construction debris.
"House moves have happened as long as there have been houses built, but it is often something that is forgotten that it can be done, so there are rediscoveries of the project," said Jeff McCord, who helped saved this house as the Seattle representative for Nickel Bros. House Moving.
On the empty lot, which is zoned for condominiums like the rest of the street, property owners plan to build a three-unit condominium, according to Taylor-Molitch.
The house was relocated to the San Juan Islands so another family can add to its own memories.
Aside from saving memories, McCord said moving the house also saved between 60 and 80 trees.
"It was nice because it was a very conscientious owner who didn't want to see the house torn down, and ultimately, it was positive for the environment," McCord said. "It's an alternative to bulldozing, and the recipient of the house was really delighted to give a new life to the house."
PRESERVING OLDER HOMES
Nickel Bros. House Moving offers a service for house adoption, which enables homeowners to put their house for sale as a home that can be moved to another property.
Though this house move was not the first to take place in Madison Park, McCord said the knowledge of opportunities other than demolition still isn't widely known.
And for a city like Seattle, which continues to grow in density, neighborhoods like Madison Park will become even more targeted for higher-density buildings, he said.
Nickel Bros. provides a bridge between factors like pressure from developers and the tax system, and the desire to preserve these older homes.
Because of the likelihood of further development in Madison Park as property values continue to rise and the older homes devalue, residents like Taylor-Molitch said there can be compromises between the old and the new.
Taylor-Molitch said the comments she hears mostly advise, "Don't overbuild on the lot. Keep the footprint the same. Don't go too high because you're going to destroy the integrity of the neighborhood. People coming into the neighborhood need to be aware of making sure they're keeping with the integrity of that particular neighborhood."
Even if a home may not stay in the neighborhood, the possibility of moving a house at least prevents its destruction.
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