SEQUIM — In the coming months, City of Sequim planning staffers will prepare suggested changes to the Sequim Municipal Code to promote development of affordable workforce housing.
“The problem’s been here for a long time: middle-income families have been having a hard time being able to buy a home,” Sequim senior planner Tim Woolett said last Monday.
The effort follows multiple steps by city leaders, including an approved City of Sequim Affordable Housing Action Plan from 2018, and multiple meetings of the Affordable Housing Ad Hoc Committee in 2019 to form recommendations based on the action plan.
The committee came up with multiple recommendations, both short-term and long-term.
Woolett said there are short-term options the city can do now, such as expanding usage for accessory dwelling units, and expanding uses for the multi-family zone to include duplexes and triplexes.
Barry Berezowsky, Sequim director of community development, said the city’s Public Works Department is looking into the city’s utility rate structure. How that could impact code changes, he said, “remains to be seen.”
“We need to find other ways for the market to address workforce housing issues here,” he said.
Berezowsky said he plans to return to the city council in 30-60 days with recommendations to promote workforce housing.
When asked about possibly changing building impact fees, Berezowsky said the “council has a lot of latitude (but) keep in mind, when you take the responsibility of paying something away, then it’s placed somewhere else.”
Berezowsky said city staff have met with developers about possible workforce housing options, and City Manager Charlie Bush said the housing committee held multiple meetings with developers, too, leading up to their recommendations.
Deputy Mayor Tom Ferrell recommended the city meet with someone with “good development marketing experience.
“There’s a different conversation that could occur,” he said.
Council member Troy Tenneson commended city staff for their efforts.
“This is exactly the kind of work I like to see,” he said.
For more information, call 360-683-4908 or visit www.sequimwa.gov.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
