Mountlake Terrace presents housing action plan framework to turn comprehensive-plan goals into implementable actions

Christy Osborne, Mountlake Terrace community and economic development director, and consultants from Echo Northwest presented a draft Housing Action Plan (HAP) framework and timeline to the council. The presentation described how the city intends to translate recently adopted comprehensive-plan policies and the recently passed middle-housing code into prioritized, implementable actions.

Osborne and Mackenzie Bisser of Echo Northwest said the HAP will distinguish between policies (long-term goals in the comprehensive plan), actions (strategies to achieve those policies) and implementation (who does the work and when). "This is an opportunity for us to really focus on implementation," Bisser said, describing a framework that ranks actions by feasibility, timing and potential impact and matches actions to city capacity.

The presentation outlined several priority areas identified through community engagement: increasing diverse housing types (including accessory dwelling units and "middle housing"), addressing…