Kenmore Council’s affordable housing mandate would encourage more middle housing
In a shift away from the Planning Commission’s recommendation, the Kenmore council prefers an Inclusionary Zoning mandate to incentivize smaller, more affordable Middle Housing types.
In a shift away from the Planning Commission’s recommendation, the Kenmore City Council told staff to draft a housing policy that would encourage smaller, more affordable homes while requiring larger (typically more expensive) new homes to include affordable units or pay a fee.
At the May 12 meeting, the Kenmore council unanimously directed staff to draft policy for an Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) mandate requiring developers to offer 10% of units larger than 1,750 square feet as affordable or pay a fee-in-lieu.
Mayor Nigel Herbig supported the shift, saying it "...both penalizes what we already have too much of, which is large single-family houses, and incentivizes what we're looking for, which is smaller, more affordable units."
A new 1,600-square-foot townhouse sells for about $827,000, while new single-family homes in Kenmore are typically around 3,000 square feet and sell for over $1 million.
The "project-size threshold” recommendation from the Planning Commission would have exempted single-family homes, duplexes, and triplexes from the mandate — raising the cost of multifamily projects with more than four units, potentially encouraging developers to build larger, more expensive homes.
In contrast, the “unit-size threshold” policy council preferred would exempt smaller, typically more affordable multifamily homes from the mandate, while larger, more expensive homes would pay a fee or offer an affordable unit.
Like cities across the state, Kenmore must update its code to allow “Middle Housing” in neighborhoods that previously allowed only single-family homes. Under state law, cities must allow at least two homes per lot and up to four units if one is affordable. Near a transit stop, the allowed density increases to four units with up to six units allowed if one is affordable.
An owner-occupied home must be affordable for people earning 80% of Area Median Income (AMI), and rental units must be affordable to people earning 50% of AMI. Kenmore’s proposed Inclusionary Zoning policy would apply to the R-4 and R-6 zones.
A public hearing on the draft of the rules is planned for June 9, with a final Council vote anticipated on June 23.