Planning commission reviews draft housing action plan; commissioners press for implementation detail and manufactured‑home protections

Mountlake Terrace Planning Commission members on July 28 heard a draft framework for the city's housing action plan and pressed staff and the consultant on how the plan will move policy into implementable steps, including actions to protect manufactured‑home residents from displacement.

The consultant leading phase 2 presented a prioritization framework that ties actions to the comprehensive plan housing element, recommends concentrating early work on items that build on recent code updates (notably the middle‑housing code) and on town‑center code changes, and flagged permitting streamlining, education for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and partnership strategies as likely near‑term priorities.

Why it matters: The action plan is intended to translate the city's housing policies into concrete steps, sequencing and resource estimates. Commissioners said they need clearer implementation detail and trade‑off analyses (who pays, what is required of developers, and how incentives affect different housing types) before endorsing priorities.

The consultant described the plan's structure as a menu of actions with implementation considerations for each item: desired outcome, likely lead department or partner, coarse cost and staff capacity estimates, and a time horizon (near/medium/long term). That matrix will be circulated to the commission for detailed feedback.

Several commissioners urged staff to separate items that the city already performs from truly new initiatives. Vice Chair Boettcher said the commission should "acknowledge what we're already doing" and focus staff time on additions that would meaningfully advance housing outcomes.

Permitting and ADUs: Commissioners repeatedly raised permitting time, complexity and fee structure as barriers. Commissioner (first name not provided in transcript) asked whether the city's permitting fees or procedures result in cross‑subsidization between housing types; staff replied that building permit fees are intended to recover city costs and land‑use fees aim to recover roughly 80% of processing costs, not to generate revenue. Commissioners requested per‑unit permit cost comparisons (single‑family vs. multifamily) as part of the analysis.

In response to questions about ADUs, staff said they are already working on updated ADU guidance and a simplified permitting pathway that would be closer to a building permit with limited land‑use review, and that the action plan will recommend outreach and preapproved plan sets to reduce cost and complexity for smaller projects.

Incentives and deeply affordable housing: Commissioners discussed the multifamily tax exemption (MfTE) as an incentive currently offered in Town Center and near the light rail station. Staff said an MfTE expansion is one action that can be quantified in the plan (foregone property tax vs. the number of deeply affordable units produced). Commissioners asked staff to include an order‑of‑magnitude trade‑off analysis showing fiscal impacts and likely unit outcomes for each incentive the plan recommends.

Manufactured‑home communities and anti‑displacement: Multiple commissioners raised the condition of manufactured‑home parks in the city and expressed concern about displacement if park ownership transfers. The commission heard that the city's zoning code section on manufactured homes (cited in the discussion as "code section 15.3") dates to 1994 and may include barriers to repair or replacement. One commissioner characterized the existing mobile homes as aging and said preservation of affordability in those sites may require rethinking allowable uses or enabling modest density increases to preserve long‑term affordability. Staff said the action plan will identify potential protections (resident‑owned conversions, partnerships with housing authorities, regulatory flexibility to allow like‑for‑like replacement, and exploring permanent affordability mechanisms) and would analyze feasibility and trade‑offs.

Building code and mass timber: Commissioners asked about opportunities from changes in building and energy codes and whether the city can remove regulatory barriers so developers could pursue mass‑timber or taller construction types where financially feasible. Staff said the city will coordinate planning, building and engineering review to avoid creating unintentional constraints; the action plan will identify where code or administrative changes could open opportunities.

Regional partnerships and funding: Commissioner Wu emphasized policies that require active regional partnership (labeled in the comprehensive plan as items such as "2.1" and "2.3" in the presentation) and asked for pragmatic examples of what partnership actions would look like. Staff and the consultant said the plan will include outreach to nonprofit and mission‑driven affordable housing providers, potential land or lease strategies, and steps to make nonprofit developers more competitive for grants. Commissioners asked staff to map possible revenue sources and partnership models, not only municipal incentives.

Next steps: The consultant will prepare a matrix of recommended actions with implementation notes, staff‑capacity estimates and approximate costs and return that matrix to the commission for detailed review. Commissioners requested the draft matrix include: (a) a flag showing which actions the city is already performing, (b) equity and displacement risk analysis, (c) permit‑cost per‑unit comparisons, and (d) suggested timeline and likely partners.

Quotes in this piece are drawn from the meeting record. Vice Chair Boettcher said the commission should "acknowledge what we're already doing" and focus on actions that require additional effort; Commissioner Wu asked staff to lay out "pragmatic actions" that could arise from regional partnerships.

Ending: Staff and the consultant said the next deliverable will be a detailed matrix of actions and implementation steps; commissioners asked that document be circulated before a subsequent work session so the commission can provide focused recommendations to the city council.