SHORELINE — In an age where people can choose to “supersize” everything from food to houses, Darlene Feikema has opted to go against the norm.

She downsized.

Four years ago, Feikema purchased a cottage house – one of eight located at the Greenwood Avenue Cottages development – which she shares with her 17-year-old son. Cottage homes are small, detached single-family dwelling units clustered around a commons building. Feikema’s two-bedroom, one-bath house occupies only 998 square feet.

Although many may call the house “small,” Feikema says it is just the right size. Instead of only using a few rooms in a large house, she prefers living “very big” in less space.

“A big, overstuffed sofa isn’t going to work here,” Feikema, 49, said. “It is amazingly hard to find something that isn’t overstuffed in today’s ‘McMansion’ world; to build mega-houses you have to have mega-furniture.”

An upstairs loft serves as the TV room and the main level boasts one bedroom, one bath, a kitchen, and living room with a gas fireplace and many built-in shelves perfect for books and other collectables. Feikema’s son occupies the downstairs and another room is used for storage.

Nice, but not now

Although the Greenwood Avenue Cottages are hailed as one of the nicest cottage housing developments in the city, Shoreline City Council members recently opted to repeal the cottage-housing code after much public outcry from residents, who said the developments are typically a higher density and lower quality of housing that does not adhere to the character of neighborhoods.

Had the council opted to instead adopt stricter design standards, only the Greenwood Cottages would meet the recommended standards, according to city staff documents. There are seven other cottage housing developments in the city.

“I feel like they (council members) are responding to the emotional reaction people had with the lesser-quality units,” Feikema said, “rather than try to address the problems of the code that allows those units to exist.”

When built, Feikema said the developer of the Greenwood Avenue Cottages followed a concept that specifies building homes a third smaller than typical homes, but using the same amount of money to fund details such as decorative tiles on the roof and placards on the front of each home, painted with a name selected by the owner. Feikema’s house is called “Rosebriar.”

Life in a cottage

Feikema was curious to learn more about cottage housing after a divorce and deciding that her 3,200 square-foot home on the east side of Shoreline was much too large.

“I didn’t want a house that big,” Feikema said. “I rattle around in one or two rooms anyway.”

At the time, Feikema was a member of the city’s planning academy. When she learned that a cottage housing development was planned in the city, she contacted the developer, visited the site and reserved a cottage home. Feikema was the first resident to move into the development.

Cottage housing is a good cross between a traditional house and a condo, Feikema said, with the best aspects of each. As with a house, she has a small fenced-in yard and her dwelling is not attached to other housing. And like a condo, there is an owners’ association that covers the upkeep of common areas.

Although she hadn’t anticipated the friendships she would form with neighbors, Feikema said many residents have become “surrogate family.” Most gather together every Saturday night in the commons area for a weekly potluck. When she travels for work, Feikema does not worry about her son staying home alone, which she said she would not permit if they still lived in their former house.

Price point

As the price per square foot is higher than a house, Feikema does not consider cottage housing to be affordable housing. Because she bought early-on, Feikema, who works as director of administrative services and student affairs at the University of Washington, bought at a lower price than many – $270,000. Since then, Greenwood Avenue cottage homes, which range from 800-to-998-square-feet, have sold for more than $300,000.

After touring other cottage developments in the city, Feikema said it is obvious that some developers care about quality housing, while others just want to “make a quick buck.”

Jim Soules, co-owner of The Cottage Company, which developed the Greenwood Avenue Cottages, said the development was the first one undertaken in Shoreline, although before it was completed two others were under construction.

“Unfortunately, several projects got built that didn’t have very high design standards in comparison with Greenwood (Avenue Cottages),” said Soules, who was disappointed with the Council’s ruling.

When planning academy members were originally working to develop a code for cottage housing, Soules said he encouraged them to make the code “much more prescriptive,” while the planning commission favored letting developers be more creative.

A second opinion

Resident Bronston Kenney, who has adamantly opposed cottage housing ever since a development was proposed and later abandoned in the vicinity of Eighth Avenue NE., favored the Council’s decision to repeal the code. The issue was not the idea of building smaller homes, but that cottage housing does not fit in with the character of single-family neighborhoods, he said.

“The surrounding homes will take a hit on property values and for most people their home is their largest retirement savings account,” Kenney said.

As part of an 18-month process during which the city assessed cottage housing, Kenney attended a chartered bus tour of cottage housing in the city. Along with other citizens and city staff, he toured the Greenwood Avenue Cottages and other developments.

“The Greenwood Cottages is a very nice development but that was the first one and only one that is really acceptable,” Kenney said. “All the others, they are eyesores.”

When a housing strategy is developed for the city, mayor Bob Ransom doubts if cottage housing will again be considered. The Council voted against cottage housing in R4 and R6 zones, he said, which is exactly where developers want to build.

“It is unlikely it will be reconsidered because of that,” Ransom said. “We don’t want it back in the residential areas.”

The majority of residents are pleased with the Council’s decision, Ransom said, after outcry from the public who did not favor cottage housing in residential areas. With the exception of the Greenwood Avenue Cottage, most of the others were “unacceptable to people,” he said.

“People who spoke in favor of it (cottage housing) were mainly from the Greenwood Cottages,” Ransom said.

Cottage housing developments throughout the city tend to be expensive, Ransom said, with price tags of about $300,000 or more — even for lesser-quality developments. Although Ransom originally thought cottage housing would cost $40,000 to $60,000 less than traditional houses, he later found out this was not the case.

“Why someone would want to pay $300,000 for an 800-square-foot cottage instead of a split-level house with a two-car garage doesn’t make sense” Ransom said. “It isn’t worth that kind of money.”