Clyde Hill News: Big picture on single-family zoning, Comprehensive Plan
Also: update on applicants for city council, planning commission vacancies
This week, how Clyde Hill’s response to new state housing laws (effectively ending single-family zoning) has been stuck behind the city’s drawn out process to update its Comprehensive Plan. We look at:
Clyde Hill’s progress responding to new state housing laws on behalf of its residents,
the effect of the Comprehensive Plan update problems on that response, and
the incoming mayor’s efforts (ahead the start of his term) to get that work on track.
More detail on what the situation means for residents and the work ahead, below, along with an update on council and planning commission vacancies.
Also — administration officials shared progress this week on the final design for the city’s updated website:
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Disclaimer: while I am a councilmember on the Clyde Hill City Council, I write this newsletter in my capacity as an individual resident. Any opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the position of the city. City information and references here are from public sources. I welcome email responses — and if the topic is about city business I will respond from my city email account.
Local response to state housing laws and the Comprehensive Plan
The short version: updates to the city’s land use code that matter to residents have been stuck behind the drawn out process to update the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
(Thank you to the readers who asked me “so what?” in response to last week’s newsletter describing some of the problems with the Comprehensive Plan update: “Two years, $200K, and no clear plan,” link.)
Local concerns
Some Clyde Hill residents have expressed concerns, over the last year, about the local impact of new state laws that effectively end residential “single-family zoning.” As one resident told me, “I don’t want to live next to an apartment building.”
From the Seattle Times article:
The Washington state House of Representatives late Monday passed a bill that would legalize duplexes or fourplexes in almost every neighborhood of every city in Washington, potentially bringing an end to local zoning rules that limit large swaths of cities to only single-family homes. (link)
Stalled response
The problem here, from a resident’s point of view:
The local impact of the new state laws depends entirely on how Clyde Hill responds with changes to its land use code.
Changes to Clyde Hill’s land use code have to comply with the city’s updated Comprehensive Plan.
The Comprehensive Plan update, over the last two years, has been an awkward, lurching, and unclear process.
For example, at the December City Council meeting, the administration offered two pages detailing the delays and schedule slips since June 2023 (link) related to the Comprehensive Plan update.
As another example, at November’s Planning Commission meeting, commissioners expressed confusion about the plan to respond to new state laws with land use code updates while also completing the Comprehensive Plan update.
New mayor
Mayor-elect Steve Friedman has already begun, ahead of the start of his term, addressing the lack of clarity and progress.
From the most recent Administrator’s Weekly Report (link):
Staff met Monday with Mayor-Elect Friedman to discuss the Comp Plan process and go over a revised Project Schedule…. The information from that meeting was shared in the Tuesday Council at their regular meeting. In response to Councilmember comments and concerns, Mayor-Elect Friedman worked together with staff on a memo outlining the process and next steps for all parties.
A successful example
Clyde Hill has successfully changed the city’s land use code in response to state laws. The challenge is how long that process takes given how many state laws there are to respond to.
As an example, let’s consider a recent state law regarding “permanent supportive and transitional housing.”
Washington state requires cities to allow any residentially-zoned property to be used as “permanent supportive and transitional housing.” That term refers to subsidized rental housing that includes professional support (like mental health or substance abuse treatment services) with no limit on length of stay, as well as temporary subsidized rental housing.
Following Medina’s lead, Clyde Hill enacted changes to its land use code “to limit the occupancy, intensity, and spacing of [such] facilities.” (link)
That process took many months and followed the state requirements to enable public feedback and avoid surprising the public. Changes passed from the administration to the city council and then to planning commission before returning back to council. (For more detail, please see “City adopts limits on housing the homeless,” link).
The work ahead
The problem is that there’s a long list of other new state laws related to residential zoning and density that Clyde Hill’s land use code needs to accommodate. For example, Clyde Hill’s current land use code limits residences to one accessory dwelling unit (ADU). New state laws restrict cities from imposing that limit, but leave cities some room to regulate ADUs.
Clyde Hill’s administration recently published their list of state laws related to housing that Clyde Hill needs to work through locally. This represents some of the work ahead:
Separate from this work related to the land use code, the Planning Commission has had other land use code changes in its queue since January 2023. None of that work has been completed. Some of the work items, after a year, have not been started. While the current mayor acknowledged the problem publicly (for example, in April 2023, link), it’s not clear what actions resulted.
Additional land use code changes, like the safety of sightlines at intersections, or updates and clarifications to the city’s unique fence and hedge code, have not yet made it to the Planning Commission from the administration.
With the new mayor’s term about to start, city staff will discuss
a preliminary roadmap proposal for tackling new development regulations as a result of recent state legislative requirements
with the City Council’s Land Use Committee next week, according to the latest Administrator’s Weekly Report. The discussion will also cover recommendations for sightlines at intersections, according to the public update.
Residents apply to fill vacancies
Five residents applied for vacancies on the city council and the planning commission ahead of Friday’s deadline. According the Administrator’s Weekly Report, Mayor-elect Friedman, Mayor Klaas, and a council member “are working together to review and screen qualifications next week.” (link)
The city announced it has two applicants — Tim Rattigan and Lisa Slivka — for the council seat formerly held by Mayor-elect Friedman. Applicants for the two planning commissioner positions are Lyn Adams, Mark Kroese, and Jared Wheeler.
Residents are still welcome to join the Budget Advisory Committee.
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Dean Hachamovitch