Proposed residential zoning code changes will be heard Wednesday. Here’s what they mean
Olympia’s Planning Commission will hear public comment Wednesday on a series of zoning code amendments that would allow for more and denser types of housing to be built in residential neighborhoods.
The proposed amendments would broadly do the following:
▪ Allow duplexes on all corner lots in every residential zoning district
▪ Allow duplexes in R 4-8, the low-density single-family residential zone
▪ Allow triplexes and courtyard apartments in R 6-12, the single-family residential zone that already allows duplexes
▪ Ease restrictions on Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), including removing requirements for property owner to live on-site, requirement for one off-street parking space, increasing maximum height of detached ADUs from 16 to 24 feet, and allowing ADUs of up to 800 square feet, regardless of primary house size*
To understand what the code changes mean, it’s important to understand how Olympia’s zoning map currently looks. A vast majority of the city and its urban growth area — 68 percent — consists of two low-density residential zoning districts, R 4-8 (meaning 4-8 units per acre) and R 6-12 (6-12 units per acre). The primary use in these districts is single family homes, according to the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
The biggest difference between the two zones is that duplexes are allowed only in R 6-12, not in R 4-8. Perhaps the most significant change among the amendments would be allowing duplexes in R 4-8 (the yellow area of the above map), which is by far the largest zoning district in Olympia.
Meanwhile, Triplexes and Courtyard Apartments would only be allowed in R 6-12 under the proposed changes, but not R 4-8. “Courtyard Apartment” is not a defined term within the city’s municipal code, but typically refers to a U-shaped building of attached units arranged around a courtyard. (The closest analog is “apartment,” which is defined as three or more units.)
ADUs have been legal in Olympia since 1995, but the city typically permits less than 5 per year. According to data provided by the Planning Commission, there are about 100 permitted ADUs in Olympia.
Olympia’s Zoning History
If you’ve spent time wandering around the city’s Eastside or parts of the Westside, you may have noticed that there are already over 200 “nonconforming” duplexes that exist in R 4-8 neighborhoods, as city research documented when studying Missing Middle in 2017. Many of these were built in years before the city downzoned certain neighborhoods or changed zoning rules.
The size and shape (and name) of Olympia’s duplex-allowing district, R 6-12, has changed many times over the past half-century, in most cases shrinking in size or downzoning.
According to Olympia’s Public Records Specialist Michael Fulmer, the oldest zoning code that clearly delineates what sections of the city allow duplexes dates to 1961 (although zoning ordinances date back before that). At that time, duplexes were not allowed in the zone then known as RS (residential single family), which shares many characteristics with the current R 4-8 zone.
What is clear is that for much of the city’s single-family zones, crucially R 4-8, it’s the first time duplexes would be legal since that 1961 zoning code was implemented.
There are other zones that would be affected, but they are much smaller in area. A full accounting of the proposed code changes to each zone is available on the city’s website.
The proposed changes may look familiar to those who followed Olympia’s Missing Middle process, which was scrapped by a state Growth Management Hearings Board court decision last year. After initially being passed by city council, a group called Olympians for Smart Development and Livable Neighborhoods sued the city, alleging that the city did not fully analyze the impact to parking, as it was required to do under the State Environmental Policy Act.
Since that Growth Management Hearing Board decision invalidating Missing Middle, the Washington State Legislature passed HB 1923, a bill that offers (but does not require) a menu of land use reforms cities can choose from to encourage the construction of more housing. Crucially, it also makes those zoning reforms exempt from judicial appeal, so the process that took down Missing Middle won’t be applicable to this new ordinance.
The new housing code amendments are in some ways a scaled-down version of the Missing Middle. The current proposal does not address Single Room Occupancies (SROs), which the Missing Middle did. It also does not propose, as Missing Middle did, to add triplexes, fourplexes, and courtyard apartments to the R 4-8 zone.
Back in October of 2019, City Council directed the Planning Commission to develop the new housing code amendments.
After the public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 23) the commission will vote on a recommendation for City Council to consider.
To attend the meeting, register ahead of time on the city’s website.
You can also submit written statements to housingoptions@ci.olympia.wa.us.
*Correction: this article previously stated that ADUs of up to 1,000 square feet would be allowed under the current proposal. That was under a previous iteration of planning commission recommendations. The current proposal is for ADUs of up to 800 square feet to be allowed, regardless of primary house size. The Olympian regrets the error.
This story was originally published September 20, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
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