Home in Tacoma’s next phase expected to take more than a year answering big questions
As Tacoma City Council adopted the first phase of the city’s Home in Tacoma rezoning and housing program, several people noted the work was just beginning.
“The considerations of Phase 2 are going to be as important if not more important than what we’re doing this evening,” Mayor Victoria Woodards said amid council’s passage of Phase 1 on Dec. 7. “We will get into how Home in Tacoma actually fits and looks within our community.”
“People can imagine worse, but they have a hard time imagining better,” said council member John Hines, also at the Dec. 7 session. “And I think one of the things we really need to do in the next phase is help our community imagine what a better Tacoma looks like ... and I think we can get there in Phase 2.”
While Phase 1 established the policy and vision for the city, zoning, standards and other implementation steps will be handled in Phase 2, with an expectation of taking the next year and into mid-2023.
The Home in Tacoma ordinance covering Phase 1 is designed to encourage more types of housing development by replacing single-family and low-density multifamily zoning with low-scale and mid-scale housing designations.
While single-family homes would still be included in both low-scale and mid-scale designations, other types of development also would be allowed.
Phase 1 near-term code changes included streamlined permitting for accessory dwelling units. Also, it sets into motion incentives for affordable housing that include an optional bonus for religious institutions and nonprofits. It also calls for expanded flexibility for non-conforming uses.
Coming up alongside the Home in Tacoma package, council also made changes to the city’s multifamily property tax exemption for developers, with those receiving final approval at the Dec. 14 council meeting and to take effect in 90 days.
While all those changes in 2021 might have seemed like a whirlwind, 2022 will bring extensive scoping of the Home in Tacoma project, according to Elliott Barnett, senior planner for the City of Tacoma, in an interview with The News Tribune on Thursday.
“We’re going to start by asking the question about how to structure the project,” Barnett said. “We’re going to take 2022 for the engagement, analysis, ongoing community input and then beginning to formulate our recommendations. And then probably nine months to a year into the process, we’ll start with preliminary recommendations and start moving towards a more formal package for a public hearing.”
He said to “think of all of 2022 as analysis and engagement and beginning the prep and putting together preliminary ideas. And then we’ll have a Planning Commission public hearing before they finally forward recommendations on to the council. And then council will take their time with it. And you know, and that will certainly include a second public hearing, and then probably lots of discussions and committee process as well.”
Affordability and anti-displacement remain priorities in the next phase.
“Even if a person believes any housing is good, we are working toward creating a range of price points and housing choices in each of our neighborhoods. And the standards have a huge effect there, and also the incentives that we can set,” Barnett said.
Design standards will be another big focus of community input, and addressing how big is too big.
“That’s one of the big questions that people have talked about through Phase 1,” Barnett said, “and we will need to answer that question through Phase 2. How tall should structures be and just how big on the lot should they be? We need to study the different scale and design features of different neighborhoods, and not not necessarily just put in place a one size fits all package of standards.
“Standards could cause costs to go up or down depending on how strict they are.”
Striking a balance between limiting the size of structures and the cost of structures, he noted, “is something that we’re going to need to work through as a community.”
Barnett acknowledged that the city recognized people’s fears of change, and Phase 2 is meant to address them.
“I really believe that there’s this common ground ... if we can sit down together and have a collaborative discussion, to find how we can ... benefit the most people but also make sure that nobody is really negatively impacted,” Barnett said. “We don’t want to see anybody’s property or quality of life or the value of their property take a hit through this process. And I don’t think we need to.
“I think that we can manage this change so that it can be a positive for everyone, or for the most people possible.”
The city is preparing a schedule and engagement strategy for Phase 2. Home in Tacoma updates will be posted at cityoftacoma.org/homeintacoma.
