Idea to relieve area’s congestion may have new life

Sometimes good ideas that go nowhere in the Legislature don’t die, they re-emerge in a different place.

That’s seems to be what’s happening to an idea that I wrote about in February that I predicted made too much sense to do anything but go down in flames under the Capitol dome.

Sadly, I was right. The bill went nowhere in Olympia.

But I see that Bob Drewel, the former president of Everett Community College and also a former Snohomish County executive, has picked it up in his role as executive director of the Puget Sound Regional Council.

The idea is this: If we build enough housing close to the jobs in the region, we’d pull cars off the freeway and make our morning commutes an irritation rather than a living hell.

When I first wrote about this idea it was being backed by Nathan Gorton, the executive officer with the Snohomish-Camano Board of Realtors. “I am convinced it is the single greatest thing we can do to defeat (freeway) congestion,” he said.

During a talk last week, Gorton said he believed the issue died in the Legislature for several reasons. He noted that during a budget year, with money to spend, lawmakers focus on that. He also noted that few new ideas go anywhere the first time.

“The Legislature always needs to hear a bill once before (members) are ready to discuss it,” he said.

The other bugaboo in the bill was that it would force communities to tie housing to the number of jobs they created. That’s a political hot potato because it would force some communities to have higher density housing than their residents or public officials would like.

What Gorton calls the “density debate” is going on in most communities these days as a result of the state Growth Management Act, which is pushing denser housing in existing communities to reduce sprawl.

Gorton suggests, and the numbers prove it, that communities such as Everett are taking their share of dense housing. Others aren’t and would likely only be dragged into it kicking and screaming.

He further notes that the housing idea only works if everyone embraces it.

“It’s got to be something where the entire region grabs on to the idea,” Gorton said.

That’s where the regional council comes in.

Spanning Snohomish, King, Piece and Kitsap counties, it’s the perfect organization to take up the idea and to make it work.

The council recently announced that it’s forming a Regional Strategy Working Group “to improve access to housing close to jobs for workers of all wage levels from throughout the four-county region.”

Normally I would make fun of bureaucratic efforts such as a “working group” as weak and dysfunctional, but Drewel has a lifetime record of accomplishment and I’m quite willing to give him a shot at this without poking fun.

Bottom line: We’ve got to do something about our freeways and about affordable housing. The drill now is that most jobs are still in King County and people work there and buy houses in the surrounding counties because they are cheaper. The result is that commutes are getting longer and outlying houses are getting more expensive.

Some stats: In the year 2000, the median household income in Snohomish County was $56,000, meaning half the households were below that figure and half were above. The median sales price for a single family home was $196,400. The housing affordability index that year for all buyers was 110.3, meaning that typical families had more than enough to buy that median-priced house. For first-time buyers, it was 68.7, meaning that percentage of them could afford a typical house. The average monthly rental price was $730.

Fast forward to 2006: Median income was $63,300, the median home price was $345,400, the affordability index for all buyers was 85.4, meaning only that percentage could buy a typical house, and for first time buyers was 51.7, meaning barely half could afford one. Average rents were $770, although that’s been skyrocketing recently with all the conversions of apartments to condominiums.

Those are big changes in just six years.

Some 30 people from business, housing and government are on the new work group. I’m wishing them well. Our commuting lives depend on it. Our ability to buy a home depends on it.

Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com.