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Anacortes to add state-defined co‑living housing to zones where multifamily is permitted
Summary
Staff recommended code text to implement 2024 state law requiring cities to allow co‑living in zones that permit multifamily; the proposal would make co‑living an outright use in R-4/R-4A and several commercial/mixed-use zones, and apply most multifamily design standards while clarifying a special parking rule.
Anacortes staff presented draft code language to implement state law that requires cities to allow co-living housing where multifamily housing of six or more units is permitted. Planning Manager Libby Grage told the commission that the state law “basically requires cities to allow cohousing living wherever multifamily with 6 or more units are allowed by right currently.”
Grage described co-living as “a residential development with sleeping units that are independently rented and lockable and provide living and sleeping space. Residents share kitchen facilities with other sleeping units in the building,” and said the city’s draft would treat the use as multifamily for design standards but place a separate, co-living-specific parking category in the parking chapter. The draft also references the state building code for sleeping-unit and room-dimension standards.
Under staff's proposal, co-living would be permitted outright (a “P” use) in the city’s R-4 and R-4A residential zones where multifamily is already permitted, and in central-business, commercial-marine and marine-mixed-use zones where multifamily is allowed. Grage noted a site-specific exception: one area of the manufacturing/shipping (MS) zone (roughly the Olsen property area) currently allows multifamily and would therefore allow co-living unless a separate rezoning changes that designation.
Commissioners asked technical and implementation questions. Commissioner Currier asked whether the table would change if the Olsen Building zoning were amended; Grage said yes. Commissioner Dretske and others raised parking questions; Grage confirmed the draft will add a specific parking category for co-living in AMC chapter 19.64 and said she would return with clarified parking language. Commissioner Mills asked whether co‑living’s treatment differs from studio apartments; staff said co-living will be addressed as multifamily for most design standards but will have a dedicated parking rule to reflect shared kitchens and sleeping-unit configurations.
Staff said other details—such as precise parking ratios and how to apply multifamily design standards to co‑living developments—will be finalized in the upcoming redline and packet materials that will be published before the next meeting. No formal action was taken; staff will return with the redlined code and a parking provision for co‑living.
