Bothell staff outline menu of possible affordable-housing incentives; commissioners urge outreach and attention to implementation costs

Ray Sosa, senior long-range planner with the City of Bothell, and Jacqueline Sampson, long-range planner, presented May 7 on draft affordable-housing incentive concepts the city is considering to implement a March City Council directive and meet multi-decade housing targets.

The proposals are designed to produce dedicated affordable units by making development options more attractive to private builders; staff emphasized the concepts are preliminary and that "no actions are required tonight." The menu under consideration includes density flexibility, additional height, reduced parking, impact-fee relief or deferral, permit expediting and expansion or marketing of the city’s MFTE (multi-family tax exemption) program, Sosa told the commission.

Sosa and Sampson placed the work in context: regional housing targets from the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) call for large numbers of homes over the next 24 years, much of it affordable (staff showed that a sizable share of required units fall at or under 80% AMI, with a near‑term need concentrated at lower AMI bands). Sosa also cited household-cost-burden figures from 2020: roughly 27% of Bothell households were cost‑burdened, about 5,000 households, with renter households more likely to be cost‑burdened (41% of renters versus 19% of homeowners, per the materials).

Commissioners broadly supported pursuing incentives while urging staff to sharpen implementation details and outreach. Commissioner Westerbeck urged staff to address non-land‑use costs that can make small projects infeasible — notably required frontage improvements, sewer or utility relocations and traffic impact fees — and to streamline permitting so small developers face less friction. "There's all these sort of hidden fees or bits of friction or roadblocks being small developers," Westerbeck said.

Commissioner Sarah Gustafson asked for concrete case studies of incentives that have produced deed‑restricted units in peer cities; staff noted the city has limited local precedent (one project in the SR 522 corridor used favorable zoning and an external grant) and said they plan targeted outreach to developers and affordable‑housing providers. Commissioner Levert urged staff to use demographic data to frame who benefits from new units and to plan outreach that addresses homeowner concerns and the "not in my backyard" dynamic.

Discussion covered MFTE (multi-family tax exemption) uptake — staff said Bothell’s MFTE overlay and other zoning options have been available in limited downtown areas and Canyon Park and that only a single project had used the current overlays so far. Commissioners urged easier-to-use materials and a proactive approach to reduce administrative friction for smaller developers who lack large in-house teams.

Staff emphasized state legislative changes that affect local options. Sosa summarized recent bills and local actions that shaped the work: the city adopted middle‑housing code changes in response to state law and City Council adopted Ordinance 2407 and Resolution 1473 (as described in staff materials) directing further study of incentives. He described the legal framework allowing the city to structure incentives and inclusionary mechanisms consistent with state law (RCW and related rules) and said staff will return with refined proposals to City Council after additional outreach.

No formal decisions were made May 7. Staff said next steps include refining the incentive menu, conducting developer outreach, preparing materials that show how incentives change project pro formas, and bringing Council feedback back into the code‑amendment process.