By: John Mirante / For The Herald
Snohomish County is expected to grow by more than 300,000 people over the next 20 years, which will require an additional 167,000 new homes to meet the need. The housing shortfall is making it harder to imagine an affordable future here for our children and grandchildren. To meet the county’s significant need for more homes, bold action is needed to decrease often invisible barriers for more housing of all types.
I have been in the land development and homebuilding industry for over 30 years, helping to build new homes across Snohomish County, including Everett, Bothell and Lynnwood. Every project is a unique collaboration between a neighborhood, planners, other public officials, trade workers, the homebuilder, the property seller and new owner. It is rewarding work because every new completed project means that someone will have a better chance of finding a home that best fits their lives. However, in the broader work of mitigating the on-going housing crisis, our region is at an important crossroads.
The local comprehensive plan update process underway this year is an opportunity for cities and counties to put policies in place facilitating more housing choices for a diverse and growing population. Among the items cities are working on is a plan to remove barriers to middle housing. Local implementation of new bipartisan state laws such as House Bill 1110 and House Bill 1337 aim to make it easier to build middle housing of all types (townhouses, courtyard apartments, duplexes and triplexes, for example, as well as accessory dwelling units). Cities and counties are working on these necessary changes to help increase options for current residents, newcomers and future generations.
Some jurisdictions have already laid important groundwork to address the housing shortage well before HB 1110’s passage. For example, in 2014, Everett adopted an ordinance to allow for a type of middle housing homeownership called fee simple. This means that a townhome may be purchased where the buyer owns the home and the underlying land, in contrast to a condo where there is shared ownership. This approach reduces costs for a critical type of middle housing and creates another path to ownership for prospective homebuyers. I hope that other jurisdictions adopt this change.
However, rules are not always consistent across a jurisdiction, creating a situation where one type of housing is possible in one neighborhood but not another. For example, due to varying limits on building heights, a townhome project recently completed in one part of Everett would have been able to offer twice the number of new homes if it was built elsewhere in the city. HB 1110 requires cities to allow for a maximum building height of 35 feet for middle housing, and local jurisdictions are already adopting this change. This helps ensure both public safety (access by a fire engine’s ladder in an emergency) and makes middle housing types such as townhomes viable for new owners.
Beyond what is required in the new middle housing law, cities have an important role to play in reviewing existing regulations closely. Sometimes minor policy changes can make a big difference in providing more housing choices. For example, tandem parking is one approach to allow flexibility for finding space for cars while not reducing the number of available homes in a new community. In fact, many middle housing projects are built near transit and job centers. On one recent project, we worked with Community Transit to place a new bus stop right by the entrance to a new townhome community.
Perhaps the most invisible barrier to more accessible housing is how a local jurisdiction handles permitting. Often, the steps in which permits are processed can be lengthy and inefficient, adding unnecessary costs for anyone looking to buy or rent a new home. One important reform that jurisdictions should consider is allowing for concurrent review of construction and engineering plans with a proposed preliminary plat, the plan for dividing a property. This could save up to a year on the permit process.
Local councils and planning offices have a critical role to play in the work to allow for a wider variety of housing types in our communities. I know they are working hard and often with constrained resources. I also know that we all want the same thing: a region where housing is more attainable and that is welcoming for all.
John Mirante is Pacific Ridge Division vice president of Land Development for D.R. Horton, a national homebuilder offering new homes in Everett and Snohomish County. His is a life-long resident of Snohomish County.
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