Olympia City planner Casey Schaufler unveiled a new housing element for the city's comprehensive plan update, which tackles affordability issues and historical racial disparities in housing.
At Monday's Olympia Planning Commission meeting, Schaufler outlined strategies to implement House Bill 1220, requiring cities to plan and accommodate housing for all economic segments.
HB 1220, which was passed in 2021, also requires the cities to:
"Olympia has taken many steps already to implement the bill's intent and will be required in the housing chapter," Schaufler reported. He mentioned the 'missing middle' initiatives and recently passed ordinances. He also noted the city's efforts on emergency housing, led by the Homeless Response Team.
Schaufler provided the Department of Commerce's checklist for the new housing element, which outlines the requirements of House Bill 1220.
Schaufler added that Olympia and other jurisdictions - Lacey, Tumwater, Tenino, Yelm, and Thurston County – collaborated on a housing land capacity analysis with the Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC). The partner jurisdictions are currently working on this analysis as required by HB 1220. The goal is to determine if sufficient capacity exists to accommodate the projected housing needs across the region.
Preliminary findings suggest Olympia has a surplus capacity based on buildable lands and zoning regulations. However, Schaufler cautioned that this surplus in housing capacity relies on potential redevelopment in the downtown core and west side and development in urban growth areas. He said this situation presents challenges, saying that the capacity depends on many factors like property owner decisions and market conditions.
"I just want to highlight that we're working through the actual methodology for the allocation and the number of units that we can work through," Schaufler said, adding, "I think that there will be some definite goals and policies that we'll have to evaluate once we set on the methodology and determine the actual unit allocation that the city will have at the end of this particular analysis."
A key component of the plan involves a displacement and racially disparate impact analysis.
According to Schaufler, Olympia has partnered with Lacey, Tumwater, and Yelm and hired an independent consultant to prepare an analysis and recommendations for each jurisdiction to address the items. He said the draft analysis would be available in late summer to early to mid-fall.
The Department of Commerce requires displacement and racially disparate impact analysis in the implementation of House Bill 1220. It requires that all jurisdictions:
Schaufler shared Olympia's history of housing discrimination to emphasize the importance of the displacement and racially disparate impact analysis.
The city planner presented an actual plat map from the city dating to the 1950s that contained racial covenants. The map stated: "No race or nationality other than the Caucasian race shall use or occupy any building on any lot, except that this covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race or nationality employed by an owner or tenant."
Schaufler also referenced a speech by former Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro, who described how racial barriers and redlining practices were prevalent in Olympia. Munro noted that the "red line" in Olympia matched the city limits, effectively segregating the city.
While the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, Schaufler pointed out that this did not immediately provide equal access to housing for people of color in Thurston County.
"These things exist in Olympia. They are historically on our plat maps, and it has created impacts over time," Schaufler said. "We are being tasked with addressing the historic impacts that these types of maps have had in our community."
The housing element will incorporate strategies from Olympia's existing Housing Action Plan, including increasing the supply of affordable housing and expanding the overall supply by making it easier to build all housing projects.
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Southsoundguy
This is unmitigated communism. Abolish zoning and "democratic" control of real property.
Friday, July 19 Report this
JW
Endless analysis, studies, and stakeholder meetings. Perpetual bureaucratic busywork that spends all their time beating around the bush of what actually will help the situation which is less onerous and ridiculous government regulation. Just get your dumb city, and zoning and building departments out of the freaking way.
Friday, July 19 Report this
OlyKid88
It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the City of Olympia Government and Council can spend millions of dollars and countless hours on housing policy that results in an environment that even non-profit developers that are given "free land" can't survive in.
Maybe worse, these non-profits can't even work within the City of Olympia government to have their concerns heard. They have to resort to the 3 minute Public Comment section of a City Council meeting in a last ditch effort to get their message out to the public in a plea for help.
The lack of any diversity and a lack of business acumen on the Olympia City Council for decades has resulted in a broken system that hurts the very groups they claim to be working so hard for. The unfair housing situation they endlessly speak about is a direct result of years of their own policies being implemented.
Impact Fees - $50k in fees for an average new home build
Onsite/Offsite Development Requirements = $118k per unit for recent Habitat for Humanity project. A large portion to cover neglected road maintenance or sidewalk improvements we already pay specific property taxes for.
Slow and tedious permitting process
Zoning restrictions - Resulted in a lack of housing diversity
Higher Property Tax Revenues every year
Rental Registry - Will result in a reduced number of affordable rentals along with higher rent increases on remaining rentals due to less rental inventory, higher overhead costs, higher property taxes and maximum allowable rent increases.
There is nothing going on in Olympia public policy that one would expect to increase affordable development, lower rents or reduce overall housing costs.
Sunday, July 21 Report this
Yeti1981
Still doing very little to address the pipeline. Housing is needed for all income levels. Focusing on racial disparities and equity alone is only going to compound the problem. You have to also promote upward mobility by removing unnecessary and redundant regulations and ensuring folks can move into their forever home and free up more starter homes.
Monday, July 22 Report this
GeorgeRobertson
Removal of regulations invariably results in increased activity and profits maximizing building for those most able to pay the highest prices. The problem today is that any realistic prices for housing are unaffordable for most people. The results of that are concentration of ownership and rising rents. Inflation. None of that helps address housing affordability. Subsidization can preserve those profits and sustain that development activity at enormous and perpetual public cost. What is required to reduce housing cost, are solutions stop the inflation in land and property values and non-profit property management which makes housing available at its cost,
Perpetual land trusts and co-op rental housing offer the greatest potential to reduce the rate of inflation in the costs of housing. This approach can remove a significant fraction of the housing stock from the inflation effects of relentless real estate investment market speculation. That over time can reduce the rental pricing of perpetual land trusts and co-op rental housing to significantly less than half that of market rate housing exposed to the inflation effects of housing speculation. This can be accomplished with or without any public investment the only difference is how much and how soon the beneficial results are achieved. There are many resources like https://rocusa.org/ and others that can tell you more.
Wednesday, July 24 Report this