EVERETT — Everett city staff shared information at a Sept. 24 council meeting on a plan the city is drafting to address affordable housing challenges across the city.
The five-year plan, known as the 2026-2030 Housing Strategy, would create a list of actions the city could take to improve housing conditions in Everett. Those could range from efforts like expanding public-private partnerships or streamlining the permit process to more ambitious ideas like studying a local housing levy or the development of a social housing program.
Actions the city could take through 2030 include developing a plan to grow the amount of shelter space in the city, expanding coordination with faith groups, preparing a new housing finance strategy, updating its multifamily tax exemption program and developing a platform to analyze displacement risk, among others.
Other ways Everett hopes to improve the housing market include efforts city representatives are taking to revise condominium liability laws in Washington. State laws that intended to protect condo owners from faulty construction led to a number of lawsuits against construction companies, raising insurance premiums for homebuilders. That rise in insurance costs meant construction of new condos — an affordable form of housing for first-time buyers — slowed in recent years.
State legislators have tinkered with the law multiple times over the years looking for a solution. But Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin said there is more work to be done to improve the conditions for condo construction.
“It’s still not quite to the threshold where people are wanting to build condominiums here, at least not large scale,” Franklin said at the Sept. 24 meeting. “That needs to happen because Everett is more ‘built out’ than other areas around us. When our density has to go up in height, that means condos if we want owner-occupied residences.”
Some of the ideas listed as initiatives in the housing strategy have already been discussed as part of the city’s work on its comprehensive plan periodic update the City Council approved in June. That plan amended land use zoning across much of Everett to allow for more housing construction as part of an effort to increase housing supply and drive down costs.
One effort the city already plans to implement is a subarea plan for the Casino Road neighborhood in south Everett, similar to the city’s “Metro Everett” plan approved in 2019. The work on that subarea plan — a land use planning document focused specifically on a small geographic area — is expected to begin in 2026.
Everett has previously adopted four other subarea plans for various parts of the city.
Other actions listed in the draft plan — including a report on the status of inclusionary zoning in south Everett and creating a zoning overlay for manufactured homes — had also been discussed as part of the comprehensive plan process.
Through the five-year plan, the city is also expected to study potential ideas that could address affordable housing needs. Those could include a local or countywide housing levy to raise revenue for affordable housing construction, or implementing social housing, a form of publicly-owned housing. Voters in Seattle recently approved funding for a social housing program in February.
Everett hopes to finalize the 2026-2030 Housing Strategy by January. Frank Hong, the special projects manager for housing at the city of Everett, said the final strategy would include the complete list of initiatives the city could undertake, along with an implementation schedule and funding impacts each action would require.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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