Tacoma city officials want to hear from you about plans to revamp residential zoning
Tacoma residents will get a chance to weigh in on the city’s ideas for revamping its single-family zoning codes at a public hearing scheduled for no earlier than 5:15 p.m., at the Tuesday (July 13) council meeting.
The city’s Home in Tacoma project aims to revise the city’s land-use codes to allow for more types of housing options and to encourage more types of residential housing in the city amid rising home prices and rents.
The project proposes low-scale and mid-scale land use to replace the current single-family and multifamily low-density designations.
Low-scale includes single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes, cottage housing and townhouses in some circumstances. Mid-scale includes low-scale structures, plus small multifamily units three stories in height as the baseline.
The hearing will focus on the project’s housing policy actions, including amendments to the One Tacoma Comprehensive Plan and the Land Use Regulatory Code, along with a housing action plan as recommended by the Planning Commission back in May.
The hearing will take place at the meeting after City Council finishes with the evening’s regular agenda items.
Details for attending via Zoom are at the city’s Home in Tacoma online site, along with archived meetings explaining the low-scale and mid-scale options.
Written comments for Tuesday’s meeting can be sent to cityclerk@cityoftacoma.org until 4 p.m. July 13.
Recommendations for the project, a part of the city’s Affordable Housing Action Strategy, were approved by the Planning Commission on May 19 in a 6-3 vote and moved to the City Council for consideration.
The project, being tackled in two phases, had been scheduled to wrap up with final zoning approvals in December. After much council debate, the project is now set to complete the first phase in the fall, focused on setting the city’s vision for growth, housing types, scale and general location based on the commission’s recommendations.
Final zoning and standards will not change until after Phase 2’s public engagement, policy and environmental review, now most likely to wrap up some time next year.
According to the city’s Home in Tacoma website, the schedule for future events regarding the project is as follows:
▪ July 20: Discussion at City Council Committee of the Whole.
▪ July to September: City Council committee review (Infrastructure, Planning and Sustainability Committee, Committee of the Whole).
▪ Fall 2021: City Council action (Phase 1)
This story was originally published July 12, 2021 at 12:59 PM.
