For SDCI, it’s a natural conclusion of a years-long process. If a houseboat was denied this recognition by the city, the owner had two options: Appeal to the hearing examiner or lose the home. I actually think that it wasn’t legal for the city to close the window. If the city determined a houseboat met the state definition of a FOWR and the proper timeline, it issued a placard and an identification number. So the city worked out a system: To remain under Seattle’s new rules, houseboat owners had to prove they were afloat and used as a home before then. State legislation approved in 2014 protected houseboats that were already on the water, and the city had to abide by those protections. While Seattle’s on-water communities have struggled with city regulations for almost as long as they’ve been around, this particular push traces back to 2015 updates to the city’s Shoreline Master Program. Spokesperson Wendy Shark added that the department had seen an uptick in applications the city didn’t feel met the criteria.
Houseboats operate more like RVs, with electrical hookups and pump-out systems.Īccording to the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI), the city closed the window for a couple of reasons: More houseboats existed than they’d anticipated, and as time went on, it got more difficult to verify whether or not they’d met the requirements. These rules don’t apply to floating homes, which are single-family houses wired and plumbed into public utilities that just happen to be floating-like the Sleepless in Seattle home.
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