College Place staff say city needs roughly 1,500 housing units by 2046; multifamily shortfall drives proposed UGA changes

College Place staff told commissioners on a regular-agenda item that the city needs about 1,504 new housing units inside city limits by 2046 and that the principal shortfall is in multifamily housing.

The land-capacity analysis, prepared with consultant JV Engineers and presented during the meeting, used Office of Financial Management (OFM) population projections adopted by the county and Commerce’s Housing Allocation Planning (HAP) tool to convert population projections into housing-unit needs. Staff reported that the countywide population projection used for the analysis is 23,112 and that College Place’s population was shown in the packet as about 8,700 in 2010 and 9,900 in 2020, with an increase of roughly 3,439 people projected by 2046 (to about 13,041 in the materials).

Why it matters: the HAP tool output drives how much land and what zoning changes the city must request in UGA reallocation applications. Staff said the city must demonstrate supply or planned supply for the full range of housing affordability levels the HAP tool requires.

Key findings from staff’s presentation

- Housing need: The HAP-tool-derived need for College Place was reported as 1,504 housing units by 2046. That need is split by affordability/type in the HAP assumptions: 208 units at the 120%+ AMI single-family level and roughly 1,300 multifamily units at lower density/affordability tiers; the packet said no additional manufactured-home park capacity is required.

- Existing capacity vs. need: Staff reported future single-family capacity of 773 units (an excess versus the 208-unit single-family target), producing an apparent…