In rare move, Pierce County Council overrides executive veto on homeless village zoning
Controversy continues to follow a 285-unit micro-home village for people experiencing chronic homelessness proposed to be built near Spanaway.
On Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 22, the Pierce County Council voted to override a rare veto from Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier, who tried to block a unanimous July decision from the council to repeal several zoning ordinances that authorized the village to be built by Tacoma Rescue Mission.
The council needed a two-thirds majority to vote to override Dammeier’s veto and prevent similar development in low-density residential housing zones. The vote passed 5-2, with Council members Robyn Denson, Jani Hitchen, Marty Campbell, Amy Cruver and Chair Ryan Mello in favor. Council members Dave Morell and Paul Herrera voted against overriding the veto.
The controversy comes in light of the Growth Management Hearings Board hearing two petitions in December which argue the county should not have approved zoning ordinances in March because of density and environmental concerns.
The county council voted to repeal those zoning ordinances in July, with an amendment that those repeals would go into effect Dec. 15, after the Growth Management Hearings Board will make a decision on the issue. A couple weeks later, Dammeier vetoed the council’s decision to repeal, arguing that it sent a mixed message to the community and “takes this affordable housing option away for future projects.”
“The Council’s vote to restrict shared housing is a setback, but we remain committed to building the Pierce County Village and other innovative solutions to get more people off the streets and into a safe, stable home,” Dammeier said in a tweet following the council’s vote to override his veto on Aug. 22.
Even if the ordinances are repealed, Tacoma Rescue Mission would be able to build the village on the Spanaway site — pending approval of the appropriate permits — because its permit applications vested based on the law at the time they were applied for, Bryan Dominique, communications manager with the council, previously told The News Tribune.
Repealing the ordinances could limit future land-use development in the area, which the county executive’s counsel said would have a “dampening effect” on similar development in the future.
Discussion about repealing the ordinances is also harming the Tacoma Rescue Mission’s fundraising efforts for the village and if the ordinances are repealed, it leaves Tacoma Rescue Mission in an awkward position where it would be operating in a zone that doesn’t fit its use, executive director Duke Paulson told The News Tribune in July.
Council split on how shared housing should be zoned
Before the council vote, Morell said this particular issue had been “battered around” for a quite a long time before the decision to repeal their prior zoning decisions in July came “out of the blue.”
“I ended up amending it at the last minute because I was, to be honest with you, frustrated that we were back here dealing with this issue,” he said. “The executive, I think with a good conscience and logic, decided that we over-extended ourselves.”
Morell said there is an affordable housing crisis and although the Community First! Village in Austin, Texas was controversial among its neighbors at the time it was proposed, it now provides a strong model of community that has since been embraced by neighbors.
“We as a council agreed to set aside money, $22 million I think for it, to get it going. And here we are now: Tacoma Rescue Mission has purchased the property and we now want to change the rules and put an appeal on them. Which basically means the land is non-conforming to them,” he said.
“They’re already vested. They’re gonna go through the process. But this council continues to kick the legs out from underneath the chair that they’re sitting in. They have a huge uphill battle just to get the funding for this, and we’re taking tools out of their tool box.”
Morell said the council should let the Growth Management Board decide if the zoning is in compliance with the Growth Management Act so “that way the council, with a clean conscience, can say we did everything we could to make this project a success.”
Denson said via phone the decision to repeal was made for a reason and asked other council members to vote alongside her to override the veto.
Before the vote Cruver said she has never agreed with the Growth Management Act and, “although I have always been guarded regarding the project — more so the concept of building homes for homeless,” she sponsored the resolution that released funds for the project based on Tacoma Rescue Mission’s vision for the village.
“It’s unfortunate that the Tacoma Rescue Mission vision didn’t quite hit the mark for some and that the search for a location was limited by the Growth Management governance model,” she said. “… My district wants a bright future and when they are lifted up, others are lifted too, and I’m confident that regardless of today’s vote, great things will result from the outcome.”
Campbell said there are several tiny home villages in his district and “some of them work really well, some of them have challenges.”
Although he wasn’t able to attend the July 25 meeting when the council unanimously decided to repeal the ordinances, Campbell said he would have voted in favor of doing so then and would do so again Aug. 22.
Mello closed the final remarks session before the vote to thank the council for having a respectful conversation about the issue and note that the council is serious about the affordable housing and homelessness crisis.
“And we’ve taken significant action to continue on our path to address that. We did update our residential use code … to make more housing types available in more zones. We did not change the residential resource zone, however, in that bill late last year, to add more housing types,” he said.
“Why? Because the residential resource zone is a very sensitive zone with critical areas. They are wetlands, they’re steep slopes, they’re headwaters of creeks and lakes. There’s good reason why the bill last year did not come forward with this kind of dense housing type.”
Mello said the council needs to balance the need for more housing, and a diverse range of housing, with the need to protect environmentally sensitive areas like forests, farmlands and natural resources.
“For me, this is about a future focus: to say, ‘Hey, I’m not sure we got it right before, we need to be more thoughtful about where we put more uses and not just put everything everywhere,’ ” he said.
“I’m confident that we’re going to make a lot of headway [in affordable housing development]. But I’m going to continue to support the work that we did at the end of last month to say I don’t think we got this right. And that we’re going to respectfully override this veto.”
This story was originally published August 22, 2023 at 5:22 PM.
