Olympia City Council passes comprehensive zoning reform ordinance
Olympia City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed a package of code amendments that allow denser housing types in the city’s single-family zoned neighborhoods, effectively eliminating single-family zoning throughout much of the city.
The ordinance, known as the Housing Options Code Amendments, applies to zoning districts R 4-8 (Residential 4-8 units per acre) and R 6-12 (Residential 6-12 units per acre).
Those two zones collectively make up 68 percent of Olympia and its Urban Growth Area, and are generally considered to be low-density, even though hundreds of “nonconforming” units — built before the current codes were put into place — already exist there.
As The Olympian reported in November, the ordinance legalizes duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes in R 4-8, as well as triplexes, fourplexes, sixplexes, and courtyard apartments in R 6-12, commonly known as the “duplex zone” (because it already allows duplexes). The height of all of those building types is capped at two stories. It also removes or loosens parking, size, and height, and owner-occupancy restrictions on Accessory Dwelling Units.
The ordinance takes effect five days after publication.
Tuesday’s vote concluded a years-long and often contentious process in which the city’s previous attempt to loosen its zoning code, known as the “Missing Middle,” was invalidated by a state Growth Management Hearings Board decision, after an Olympia-based group filed a legal challenge that argued the city had not fulfilled its obligations under the State Environmental Policy Act.
The Missing Middle process began in 2017, was passed in 2018, and then reversed in 2019. Although the city is still appealing the Growth Management Hearings Board’s decision, city council directed the Planning Commission to develop a new set of proposals focused on increasing housing availability.
Under HB 1923, a state law passed in 2019, specific zoning code reforms that encourage the construction of additional housing are not subject to SEPA appeal, the process that brought down Missing Middle.
Council member and Mayor Pro Tem Jessica Bateman framed the changes as the first step in a larger, “holistic” process to address the need in coming years for thousands of new housing units to accommodate population growth.
“This policy for me is a drop in the bucket,” said Bateman. “It won’t solve the problem alone in and of itself but we’re also doing a lot of other things to address affordable housing.”
Along with Bateman, others praised it as a necessary move towards becoming a more sustainable city and redressing historical inequities around access to housing.
“When we downzoned in this community some decades ago, that prevented not just developers that people speak about as a villain, but it prevents the Housing Authority from building housing in neighborhoods, it prevents Homes First, it prevents resident owned co-ops,” said council member Renata Rollins. “So I think this is a ‘yes and,’ and I’m happy to support it.”
Council member Dani Madrone said the change begins to address the legacy of racist housing policy in Olympia.
“It’s about segregation. In Olympia there are still homes that have deeds with race restrictive covenants. That is part of our history. After that became illegal, redlining was the thing, that’s why Lacey has more diversity in their community then Olympia does. And when that became illegal, single-family zoning was the next line of segregation,” Madrone said. “So this addresses some of that historical harm that has been caused through exclusive zoning, but it doesn’t repair it. And that’s where we get into the talks around what more do we need to do with affordability.”
The evening also saw public comment from more than a dozen people who largely shared the same concerns about affordability and sustainability, but came to wildly divergent conclusions about what the effect of the zoning changes would bring. The dissonance seemed to hinge on whether the new opportunities to build housing would be used by small, local owners or out-of-town corporate investors bent on turning Olympia into the next Seattle.
Council member Clark Gilman summed it up like this:
“Opponents, especially homeowners, fear displacement by changes to their neighborhood that are going to leave them either without a sense of belonging and community or just drive them out. And then renters and people shopping for homes have expressed fear that without these changes they’d be displaced because they could no longer afford this place, they’d be priced out of living in Olympia at all.”
Gilman emphasized that this is the beginning of more work the city needs to do around housing justice.
“These zoning changes don’t address those broader concerns. A small multifamily infill project may or may not benefit affordability, racial equity, or local ownership. That’s up to us as we continue to work on housing.”
*Editor’s Note: The Olympian uses the term “single-family zone” because it is the most recognizable verbiage to describe a low-density zoning district. Although R 4-8 is often referred to as a ‘single-family’ zone, like nearly every zoning district in Olympia, it technically also allows a handful of other housing types — including townhouses, manufactured homes, cottage housing, and co-housing — that exist in very small numbers.
This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 9:54 AM.
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