City staff told the Land Use Committee they are beginning code changes to ensure Port Orchard does not prohibit co-living housing, as required under state law. Staff said the changes will touch definitions, use tables and certain fee rules so co-living is allowed where multifamily housing of six units or more is permitted.

Jim Pecan, principal planner, explained "co-living housing" includes individually rented lockable sleeping units with a shared kitchen. Pecan said House Bill 1998 requires cities to permit co-living wherever six or more multifamily units are allowed and that the state building code limits local changes to room sizes or required unit mixes. Pecan said the bill also places limits on how cities can charge sewer and utility connection fees: the bill caps a sleeping unit at 0.5 of a dwelling unit for charging purposes, and the city will have to reconcile that limitation with Title 13 and utility ERU tables.

Pecan listed likely code edits: revise the definitions (Title 20.12), add a specific use line for co-living in the use tables, remove conditional-use requirements that currently apply to congregate-living uses and align parking and permitting rules with multifamily review types. He said staff will start drafting ordinance language and will coordinate with public works and finance on fee tables.

The committee did not take formal action but asked staff to proceed with drafting the code amendments to meet the statutory timeline. Staff indicated the primary implementation issues are code edits across several sections and adjustments to fee tables to comply with the sleeping-unit equivalent limits in the bill.