By revising its city codes, plans and fees, the City of Edmonds could facilitate the construction of affordable housing and help address the region’s housing crisis. That was the upshot of a presentation by Mark Smith, executive director of the Housing Consortium of Everett and Snohomish County, to the Edmonds City Council during its Tuesday, June 19 meeting.
Encouraging the council “to advocate for its most vulnerable citizens,” Smith noted that “a stable, affordable home is the foundation for a better life because it provides all kinds of opportunities that temporary, unstable housing does not.”
The consortium is a collaborative partnership between local governments and businesses and nonprofit housing developers and service providers. Its mission is to find policy solutions to affordable housing challenges in Snohomish County.
Smith provided the council with a summary of the Housing Snohomish County Project Report, published in April 2018, which both explained the issues surrounding housing affordability and identified solutions.
The consortium first created an inventory of affordable housing countywide — about 20,000 total, which includes 15,000 units and 5,000 vouchers for affordable housing. Then it examined the area’s affordable housing needs.
The report included was seven policy recommendations and three funding recommendations for increasing the affordable housing stock, including ways to make it easier and cheaper to build, Smith said.
What is causing the housing affordability crisis? Smith explained that during the years 2013-16, rents increased 28.4 percent while wage growth decreased 2.9 percent. According to the federal government, housing is affordable if it comprises 30 percent or less of household income. Yet, 41,597 people in Snohomish County are paying more than half their income for housing, Smith said.
The Affordable Housing Inventory included “income-restricted” housing for those earning 0-30 percent of area median income (AMI) and 31-50 percent. — Smith noted that 30 percent of AMI is about $30,000 total household income a year for a family of four, while 50 percent of AMI is about $60,000 for that same household.
City of Edmonds has 138 units of income-restricted housing, but has 2,062. low-income households, Smith said. Edmonds specifically needs senior housing. “Your population is graying rapidly. They can’t afford to live here,” he said.
To address the issue, Smith then introduced what he described as three areas that are the “low-hanging fruit” of policy recommendations included in the report.
The first is to apply site- and population-appropriate parking standards, which means not requiring more parking than is needed so that housing can remain affordable. Compared to many of its neighbors, Edmonds “has done a great job” in this area, with some of the lowest multi-family parking requirements in Snohomish County. A one-bedroom apartment in Edmonds, for example, requires 1.5 stalls, while the standard in Snohohomish County is two stalls. “Typically we don’t need that many parking stalls and each surface parking stall is $15,000 to $20,000,” Smith added.
Those building affordable housing “have to compete with the private market” for construction services and materials, so flexibility in parking requirements can be a big help in reducing costs, he said.
Smith noted that in Edmonds’ newly approved Highway 99 plan, the city’s development director has the authority to adjust parking requirements for uses that don’t have the same vehicle needs as the general population. An example of this would be a housing development aimed at those with traumatic brain injury. “They don’t drive,” he said.
The city may want to consider extending that authority for flexibility in parking requirements to multifamily housing throughout the city, Smith added.
A second way cities like Edmonds can help increase the affordable housing stock is to consider using public land for affordable homes, Smith said. The Washington State Legislature passed a law during its 2018 session “that makes it very clear that a municipality can convey land on any terms that they find acceptable. This could include, for example, donating land for affordable housing, entering into a 50-year ground lease for $1 a year or sell it a discounted price. “You’re not giving it away for nothing. You’re giving it away for the public good,” Smith said.
Finally, the city could consider reducing or waiting construction-related fees, such as impact fees or sewer connection fees, which can run several thousand dollars.
“The reason we’re asking you to do this is, housing is expensive to build,” Smith said. Applying just those three proposals– appropriate parking standards, impact and utility fee reductions and acquisition of public land — to a $19.3 million, 50-unit multifamily construction project, can reduce the project cost by $2.3 million. “That could be the difference between that project happening or not happening,” he added.
Other ideas that may come into play in the future could include placing a housing levy before voters, but that isn’t planned currently, Smith said.
“I will tell you if you want to increase the stock of affordable, income-restricted housing, it’s going to take some more money,” he said.
The City of Edmonds is currently in the process of developing a housing strategy aimed at addressing the city’s affordable housing needs. You can read more about that here.
— By Teresa Wippel
Good word by Mark Smith. I especially agree that impact fees are a major impediment to affordable housing. While cities like Lynnwood and others have recently passed significant park impact fees and everyone applauds with glowing support, the cost of these types of fees have a stunning and negative impact on affordable housing. While the developer first pays that fee, the costs get passed onto the user. Everyone in the development and real estate industry realizes that. These fees have a major contributory factor in helping price the most vulnerable out of home ownership. Impact fees also have a negative effect on the price of rental housing. I applaud Mark for keeping the housing needs of some of the most vulnerable in front of elected leaders. At the end of the day, elected officials have the big dial. Slight tweaks in the zoning codes, relaxing overly restrictive building setbacks and waiving some building and impact fees can help immensely.
Reducing or eliminating an impact fee causes the rest of the taxpayers to make up that cost. It is just a hidden subsidy flowing from the current taxpayers to the developer and new resident.
Exactly right! And it will make Edmonds more unaffordable for additional current residents.
Low interest loans and foreign buyers are why housing is getting expensive. WA can’t dictate the loan interest rates, or even prevent bubble-making mal-investment caused by socialized loan underwriting. Why not do more of what Vancouver, Toronto, and others have started, maybe:
1) Reduce the property tax of Washingtonians (making housing more affordable)
2) Pay for that reduction via a Foreign Buyer Tax and a Vacancy Tax?
Be sure to sunset this scheme, as nothing is as permanent as a temporary plan. We are feeling the pain of a bubble, and any tangible relief now will less the pain when it pops.
Just noticed…where have the thumbs gone?
To the virtual trash heap of deleted internet functionality, a few days back before Ron Wambolt asked yesterday:
https://myedmondsnews.com/2018/06/from-the-edmonds-mayor-stark-contrast/#comment-152523
Thanks Jim…missed it, but now I am truly wise…and informed…lol! being silly…thanks!