Site near Komachin Middle School could get affordable housing. Here’s how it would work
The city of Lacey is exploring a site near Komachin Middle School on Mullen Road for a future affordable housing development.
Much needs to happen to make the project a reality, but the larger vision looks like this: The city, working with the Housing Authority of Thurston County, would build 60 permanent, cottage-style units at the 5-acre plot that currently is owned by the LOTT Clean Water Alliance, the organization that provides sewer treatment services to the area.
LOTT has declared the property surplus and it has been appraised at $700,000, said Vanessa Dolbee, Lacey’s community and economic development director.
“We have until June 30 of 2025 to make a decision as to whether we want to move forward with the purchase and sales agreement with LOTT to purchase this property,” she said.
Dolbee spoke about the project at a recent joint meeting of Lacey City Council and the North Thurston Public Schools Board held at Komachin. The proposed development would be built opposite the school, but slightly east of it on Mullen Road.
The land is zoned open space/institutional, so the city, if it moves forward on the project, will have to either rezone the parcel or change its development standards, Dolbee said.
“The current zoning does not allow residential development in this cottage format, so we need to make some amendments there and then formalize a partnership with the housing provider,” she said.
Craig Chance, executive director of the Housing Authority, addressed the joint meeting, emphasizing how serious the need is for affordable housing.
He recalled a woman in her 70s who had contacted him and said her rent increased $300, which was more than her Social Security benefit. Her next step, she said, was to move into her car.
“Having received numerous calls like that, you start thinking, what’s the solution? Because there’s not a good solution right off the bat,” Chance said.
“And this is the group of people who, nationally, are the fastest growing slice of people without any shelter, people who are seniors over 62, most of them homeless for the first time in their life, at a very vulnerable age, and describing them in non-bureaucratic terms, they’re people whose income is generally limited to only a Social Security check — and a modest Social Security check at that — and you just can’t make ends meet,” he said.
Chance said he is under “extreme time pressure” and is hoping to get something in writing before the end of the year that he can show his grant-funding sources proving something is happening with the Lacey site.
Dolbee said one option would be to create a memorandum of understanding with the city that lays out a purchase and sales agreement, an agreement to sell the land to the Housing Authority, and details about the zoning changes, all of which could be formalized in 2025.
North Thurston School Board President Gretchen Maliska asked about the kind of services residents of the new development would receive.
Chance said the Housing Authority has an entire division devoted to housing-related services; however, in this instance, the residents likely would not require intensive services.
“What we’re primarily talking about is people who don’t necessarily have a cognitive behavioral health problem, but they have a fiscal problem,” he said. “They simply can’t afford market-rate rent in our community. That’s a pretty good description of our primary clientele.”
The LOTT Clean Water Alliance is set to have a public hearing regarding the sale of the property at 6 p.m. Dec. 11. Residents can attend the meeting in person at 500 Adams St. NE or via Zoom. Remote meeting details can be found on the Clean Water Alliance website.
This story was originally published November 22, 2024 at 12:02 PM.
