Committee reviews draft interim ordinance to adopt middle-housing standards to meet state law

City staff told the Land Use Committee on April 16 that they plan to adopt an interim ordinance to bring Port Orchard’s code into compliance with the state middle-housing law and the accessory dwelling unit statute.

Jim Bisk, principal planner, said the city will implement "on a temporary basis, an interim ordinance that would adopt, those middle housing requirements for a tier 3 city" and noted the city needs to adopt revisions by June to comply with Commerce and state law. Bisk said the packet includes required definition language pulled from the statute and that the draft also incorporates provisions from the accessory-dwelling-unit legislation, which he referred to as the ADU bill. He described major changes: adjusted unit-density limits (for example, R2 would allow four units, while R3 would allow six), new building types including triplexes through sixplexes and stacked flats, and consolidation of residential design standards to reduce duplication.

Nick Bond, community development director, and Bisk emphasized that the interim Tier 3 approach is intended to avoid the state's model ordinance taking effect locally. Bond said that if the city does not adopt its own ordinance, "the model ordinance from the state takes effect" and staff would have to compare the city code to the model for each application. Bisk described the implementation timeline: staff will take the draft to planning commission for introduction and discussion in May, schedule a public hearing in June and aim to return to council in June for adoption (noting council may need the second June meeting to act).

Bisk said the draft limits how the city can regulate middle housing: "anything that we apply to detached houses, we can apply to any middle housing type, but we can't go above and beyond for those middle housing types than what we would require for a detached house." He said design standards were made more quantitative where possible, drawing on the McCormick Village Overlay District to reduce subjective review and speed permit decisions.

Council members asked procedural questions about whether the draft is largely taken from the state model or custom language; Bisk said it is a mix: "we have taken a lot from the model code and incorporated it where it made sense... other things our code was so different from the model code that we had to create it from scratch." He and Bond also confirmed the city intends to continue work toward a Tier 2 code in the future but that the interim Tier 3 ordinance reduces immediate permitting confusion.

Committee members did not vote on the ordinance at the meeting; staff said the draft will proceed through Planning Commission and public hearing steps ahead of council action.