Gig Harbor needs more affordable housing, including apartments. Where will it go?
Gig Harbor is finishing a plan to guide future housing development over the next 20 years, including townhomes, cottage housing and apartments or condominiums.
The city’s community development director, Eric Baker, presented the plan at a Gig Harbor City Council meeting March 24, following months of work. Called the city’s “Comprehensive Plan,” it meets the state’s requirement that fast-growing cities and counties create a road map for managing their population growth over each 20-year period.
The Gig Harbor Comprehensive Plan will guide development and growth in Gig Harbor through 2044, according to Baker’s presentation. The city has doubled in population since 2010, with growth particularly in Gig Harbor North, the presentation said.
Following public comment from dozens of residents who opposed an increased housing density allowance near single-family neighborhoods in Gig Harbor North, the city council voted to amend the draft plan and pull that area from the list of city regions that could accommodate greater urban growth. They’re scheduled for final deliberations and adoption of the plan April 14, according to a presentation from the community development director at the March 24 meeting.
Where could apartments go?
The city’s draft Comprehensive Plan listed five areas of the city as areas that could accommodate more high- and medium-density housing development: Gig Harbor North, Finholm, downtown, Kimball and Westside.
“Not everywhere in Gig Harbor is an appropriate place to see growth,” Baker said during his presentation March 24. “Density needs services to be successful — transit, shopping and sidewalks.”
The draft plan says that these five “Centers of Local Importance” are areas “that can encourage compact, pedestrian-oriented development with a mix of uses that can both support a neighborhood and encourage visitors to come to the neighborhoods to enjoy local amenities.”
The News Tribune spoke with Baker and reviewed the land use section of the draft plan to summarize the following about the five areas:
- Westside: includes the Uptown Gig Harbor shopping center and has existing pedestrian and bicycle routes.
- Gig Harbor North: includes St. Anthony’s Hospital and the YMCA, which are “major local employers and service providers” in the city, along with “big box” retail stores like Costco. The Cushman Trail cuts through the area and provides access to the Westside area. Gig Harbor North has pocket parks that the city believes should be preserved amid future development.
- Downtown: serves as a community hub by drawing visitors to events and provides some local retail and services. The downtown area is pedestrian-accessible and offers seasonal transit options, attracting tourists and providing “a defined center for city culture.”
- Finholm District: includes the Harbor History Museum and Donkey Creek, and offers small-scale shopping options and services.
- Kimball: includes the Gig Harbor Civic Center, Tacoma Community College’s Gig Harbor campus, a Pierce Transit park-and-ride and a hotel, supporting “significant pedestrian activity,” as well as commercial services primarily in strip malls. Located close to state Route 16, the area serves as a transportation hub for both cars and public transit.
In each of these areas, the city’s draft Comprehensive Plan “focuses significant increases in allowed density and housing types,” according to Baker’s presentation March 24. They aren’t the only areas of the city that could see growth, but are the priority areas for improving infrastructure and services, Baker told the city council.
The downtown and Finholm areas will also likely take on less growth than Gig Harbor North, Kimball and Westside because of limited infrastructure, according to Baker. The city’s “very interested in maintaining the historic nature of the downtown” area, he said.
The draft plan includes another element, The Harbor, which addresses these priorities for the downtown waterfront area. The section outlines goals for the city such as promoting a walkable environment, protecting views of the bay and promoting design standards and development regulations that ensure “new development complements traditional building features.”
What types of housing could be added?
It’s not spelled out in the draft plan which types of housing could go into each area, but a chart shows target housing units for different zones by 2044.
The General Business District (B-2) zone, which city maps show composes part of the Gig Harbor North and Westside areas, currently allows six dwelling units per acre, according to city code. The Comprehensive Plan, if approved, would set the target density at 32 units per acre.
One 13-acre parcel of Gig Harbor North, currently zoned as B-2, adjoins single-family neighborhoods, including one called Henderson Bay Estates. Dozens of residents from the neighborhood submitted public comments either in-person or in writing to the city council opposing the target density increase for reasons including concern about straining traffic infrastructure, a lack of pedestrian accessibility and concerns about the potential for increased crime and lowered property values. Some 80 residents sat or stood in the audience during the public hearing.
“I’ve lived there for 10 years, and one of the best things about (Henderson Bay Estates) is just my kids growing up there and being able to play,” resident Nathan Fitzgerald told the council at the meeting. “And with the increase in traffic I think that’s going to send through our neighborhood, it poses a legitimate risk.”
Former Gig Harbor council member Bob Himes also spoke at the meeting, saying that he lives near the area and doesn’t believe the location is walkable to shopping, transit and employment opportunities.
“The proposed 32 dwellings per acre will force dense, probably multi-family housing,” Himes told the city council. “Traffic delays at the nearby 112th Street and Burnham intersection, only 200 feet up from the Burnham roundabout, are major concerns for many of the residents.”
Following public comment at the meeting, Gig Harbor council member Jeni Woock made a motion to change the land use designation for the parcel adjacent to Henderson Bay Estates to Medium Density Residential (R-2), reducing the target density from 32 to 6-12 dwelling units per acre.
Woock and council members Ben Coronado, Reid Ekberg, Roger Henderson, Le Rodenberg and Seth Storset voted in favor of the motion. Council member Em Stone abstained.
All seven council members then voted to remove the area west of state Route 16, including the 13-acre parcel near Henderson Bay Estates, from the Gig Harbor North priority area for more housing and services.
These amendments will be included in the final plan the council will vote on adopting April 14, according to Baker.
The city must add 892 housing units by 2044 to comply with House Bill 1220, which passed in 2021 and required local governments to accommodate state projections of housing needs for various income brackets, The News Tribune reported. That target includes 567 units for low-income earners, from 0-80% of the area median income, according to the draft plan.
The News Tribune reported on the lack of affordable housing in Gig Harbor in 2023. One-third of Gig Harbor households were cost-burdened, or spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs, and the median home value hit over $800,000, after increasing more than 260% from 2000 to 2020.
The city can’t force developers to build affordable housing, but staff can create what Baker called “a regulatory environment ... where multi-family and missing middle housing is more affordable to construct.” Missing middle housing encompasses duplexes, courtyard buildings, cottage courts, townhouses and other types of homes that fit “in between” single-family homes and high-density apartments, according to the Municipal Research and Services Center.
One regulation the city will soon consider is a multi-family tax exemption (MFTE) program, which would grant a tax break to developers who build a certain amount of affordable housing and make it easier for them to finance their projects. The city council held a study session on the MFTE program March 13 and is scheduled to hear staff present about the program at the council’s April 28 meeting, according to Baker.
