“RETHINK HOUSING” PUBLIC INPUT MEETINGS JULY 29, AUG. 12
EVERETT — What kinds of future housing should sprout, and where, are key pieces to the city’s Housing Action Plan.
It calls for increasing housing variety, hous-ing stock and housing equity.
One of the more signifi cant recommenda-tions is to let duplexes and townhomes be built in areas primarily reserved for single-family houses across most of north and cen-tral Everett. This change is to encourage what’s known as “infi ll” development; the plan says it would need to be carefully approached with-out creating an adverse affect to neighboring properties.
Two public meetings to give input about the draft plan are 6 p.m. Thursday, July 29 and 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 12.
The draft version was published in June and can be read at www.everettwa.gov/rethinkhousing . The website also has other tools and maps to demonstrate the proposals. City planners are preparing a final version of the housing plan. It’s scheduled to be voted on by the City Council sometime this fall, which if approved would start a process of altering city code to follow through on the plan’s recommendations.
Broadly, the draft recommendations call for greater housing density, such as in single-family neighborhoods, and to promote affordable housing.
It also calls to create new policies to preserve existing affordable housing, such as when subsidized housing goes on the market that affordable housing groups be given the first right of refusal to buy the building.
It calls for making it easier for the city to permit accessory dwelling units (ADUs), which often are small, separate residences on a property. It also calls to loosen the rules where the homeowner must either occupy the main home or the ADU.
The draft plan recommends to protect mobile home tenants by giving them assistance when the park will be redeveloped.
The plan also recommends to encourage duplexes and small townhome developments in transit-oriented corridors.
In Everett today, city data says that “44% of the city’s housing stock is multifamily and 56% of units are single-family homes” while “56% of households are renters while 44% are homeowners.” The city’s growth projections for 2035 emphasize the city will need housing to accommodate both homeowners and renters. It will need about 22,000 more dwellings, be it apartments or homes, to help accommodate adding 50,000 more people (making the total population 165,000) over the next 15 years.
