City planning staff briefed the Planning Commission Sept. 10 on an omnibus ordinance that consolidates permanent code changes intended to replace multiple interim ordinances enacted in response to recent Washington State legislation. The omnibus package covers seven topic areas; staff highlighted three for detailed discussion: (1) House Bill 1220 (affordable and emergency housing, often referred to in staff materials as STEP housing: shelters, transitional, emergency and permanent supportive housing), (2) House Bill 1998 (co‑living / rooming houses), and (3) changes tied to House Bill 1293 that required clearer objective design standards and led the council to dissolve the design commission.

Staff (Principal Planner Adam Zach and Deputy CPD Director Allison Van Gorp) explained how state law changes require local code alignment: transitional and permanent supportive housing must be allowed where dwelling units are allowed; shelters and emergency housing must be allowed where hotels are allowed under state guidance. Because the state also limits locally imposed operational, spacing, or occupancy requirements unless supported by a demonstrated health or safety finding, staff proposed removing many operational conditions from the municipal code and moving to standards that apply equally to housing development generally.

Commission discussion focused on whether the city should constrain emergency shelters and emergency housing to the smaller set of zones where hotels are allowed (town center and some multifamily zones). Staff said the city’s prior interim ordinance (Ordinance 21C23, adopted 2021) had allowed certain shelter and transitional housing uses broadly and that a county-assigned emergency housing need and the city’s comprehensive plan capacity analysis had shown the interim regulations provided adequate capacity. Commissioners asked staff to analyze whether limiting emergency shelters to hotel-allowed zones would still meet the county-required capacity. Principal Planner Adam Zach said staff needs to "do the math" and run tables and would return with analysis; there was consensus among the commissioners present to direct staff to perform that capacity study so the commission and public can evaluate that amendment before the public hearing. "We just need to do the math on that and make sure that the math kind of squares, so that we're compliant with those other pieces of GMA and housing planning generally," Zach said.

Staff also described HB 1998 changes: coliving housing is being treated as a form of rooming house in the draft; sleeping units count as 0.25 of a dwelling unit for density calculations and the city cannot require more than 0.25 parking spaces per sleeping unit; coliving developments cannot be forced to provide ground-floor commercial uses where town-center regulations otherwise require them. On design review, staff explained that the council dissolved the design commission and reassigned hearing responsibilities to the hearing examiner; the omnibus draft removes references to the design commission and consolidates procedures in MICC Chapter 19.15.

Process and next steps: staff asked commissioners to submit proposed amendments or substantive comments by Sept. 17 so they can be included in public-hearing materials. A public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 24 (with a planned continuation to Oct. 8 and Oct. 22 reserved for final action if needed). Several commissioners and staff noted additional research will be necessary on spacing rules, parking standards and the legal limits on imposing operational conditions.

No formal vote was taken on the omnibus package at the Sept. 10 study session; commissioners gave staff direction to prepare an analysis of capacity if emergency shelters are limited to hotel zones and to circulate Commerce guidance and other supporting materials before the next meeting.