Tumwater planners review housing element draft as city faces need for about 9,200 new homes

Tumwater — City planning staff told the Planning Commission on June 10 that a draft 2025 housing element aims to guide how the city will accommodate a state‑assigned share of Thurston County’s housing need and respond to local affordability and displacement risks.

Anna, city planning staff, said jurisdictions in Thurston County worked with the Thurston Regional Planning Council on a regional allocation that assigns Tumwater a need for 9,192 net new housing units between 2022 and 2045, including the city’s urban growth area. She said the element includes goals, policies and a technical appendix (part 2) and that staff plan to keep implementation actions in an appendix so they can be updated more often than the 10‑year plan.

Why it matters: staff and the consultants who worked on the county allocation told commissioners that the largest shortfalls will be in the lowest income bands — households at 0–30% and 30–50% of area median income (AMI) — and that the city must both identify capacity for those units and propose programs to preserve and create them. The element also includes a racially disparate‑impact and displacement analysis intended to identify policies that may unintentionally push people out of the city.

Key findings and numbers presented - Regional allocation: 9,192 net new housing units for Tumwater (2022–2045), per the regional process with Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC). Staff said that allocation reflects countywide planning under the Growth Management Act and House Bill 1220 (state law that revised regional housing planning). - Area median income examples: staff cited Thurston County AMI figures as of April 1, 2025 — roughly $93,000 for a two‑person household and $116,000 for a four‑person household. Staff…