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Commission initiates cottage-housing zoning amendment, selects Port Townsend definition
Summary
The Planning Commission voted to initiate a zoning-text amendment on cottage housing and to forward proposed cottage-housing design standards and a definition (adapted from Port Townsend) to City Council for consideration.
The Lexington Planning Commission on Feb. 13 adopted a resolution initiating a zoning-text amendment for cottage housing and unanimously voted to forward the draft cottage-housing design and use standards to City Council for further consideration.
Staff explained the resolution is a formal mechanism to begin a text amendment; it does not bind the planning commission or council to adopt any particular language. Commissioners reviewed three proposed definitions; the group favored the Port Townsend formulation, which describes a “cottage housing development” as clusters of small residences intended for smaller households without specifying a numeric household minimum or maximum.
Commissioners debated wording intended to capture the ordinance’s purpose — encouraging smaller units organized in clusters or pods — without setting a fixed unit count. Commissioners recalled previous discussion about pod sizes (for example, 12 units per pod in some models) and noted that lot size and zoning district would still constrain actual development scale. With no members of the public present the commission proceeded to vote.
A motion to adopt the initiation resolution for the chair’s signature carried unanimously; a separate motion to recommend approval of the cottage-housing text amendment for forwarding to City Council also passed without opposition. The commission directed staff to include the chosen definition and to present the recommended text to council for its review and potential action.
