Liberty Lake planners debate ADUs, cottage housing, density and parking as state housing rules loom

At a Feb. 26 Liberty Lake Planning Commission workshop, city staff and the commission discussed a slate of recommended housing-pol icy updates drawn from the Washington Department of Commerce—s guidance and the city—s housing action plan.

Sharifa (city planner) presented 16 optional policy recommendations and said the meeting would focus on recommendations rather than state-mandated requirements: "The last time we met, we talked about a set of policies. Some of them were required, by state law, and some of them were merely recommendations. So what we're going to focus on today is just the recommendations," she said.

Staff proposed expanding allowable housing forms in selected zones to include tiny homes, cottage housing clusters and co-living developments, and to add objective standards where definitions exist but regulations do not. Commissioners debated where such options should be permitted; several commissioners opposed extending new forms into established single-family R-1 neighborhoods. Commissioner Phil Feuer said, "I would offer from the get go that you cannot, you should not, we should not allow this overlay over the existing R 1 District in Liberty Lake." Staff noted cottage housing is already contemplated in parts of the River District and that Commerce expects tier-3 cities to allow certain middle-housing configurations.

On density, staff recommended increasing the maximum density for attached housing in R-2 from 12 to 16 dwelling units per acre to allow products such as two-story stacked flats. Commissioners noted that the 35 acres west of Ridgeline High School and some River District parcels could be affected.

Accessory dwelling unit (ADU) rules drew sustained discussion. Staff outlined state requirements that, if the city does not adopt compliant local standards by the statutory deadline, Commerce—s default rules will apply: "If our code by that specific deadline is not compliant, Commerce's rules go into effect, and that becomes our zoning ordinance," Lisa (city staff) said. Commissioners generally favored limiting additional ADU allowances on duplexes and middle housing to the state-minimum approach (one ADU with middle housing, two ADUs for single-family lots) and supported removing special ADU-only design requirements.

The commission reviewed several other recommendations: relaxing the one-to-one commercial-to-residential square-foot ratio for vertical mixed-use projects so that a single ground-floor commercial level can support multiple residential floors above; removing minimum-size and multi-section requirements for manufactured homes to enable smaller manufactured or "tiny" homes; converting subjective design-review processes to objective, administrative review for most residential developments to improve predictability; and tailoring parking requirements (including lower parking mandates for permanent supportive and emergency housing).

Commissioners asked staff to develop clearer model language and to return with draft ordinance text for public outreach. Staff noted statutory deadlines for adopting certain housing-element changes and advised the commission that where the city chooses not to customize anti-displacement or housing details, Commerce—s default rules will apply after the compliance deadline.

The commission did not adopt final decisions on optional items during the workshop; staff said they would prepare Liberty Lake-specific draft policies and code language for further commission review and public engagement.