Council reviews housing-and-design code concepts aimed at increasing housing options on Main Street and mixed-use districts

Haley Campbell, senior planner for the city, presented results of the Housing and Design Initiative code-and-plan concepts report and sought council guidance on four priority concepts: allowing more housing in certain commercial areas, making mixed-use development more feasible, recalibrating development standards and simplifying the code. "Our housing strategy found that too few homes are being built and that we need 470 new homes every year to meet targets set by the state," Campbell said, citing the project’s housing gap analysis.

Campbell and consultant Jamin Kimmel of Cascadia Partners described several policy options now under consideration. Concept 2.1 would allow housing on Main Street on sites under 1 acre while requiring commercial uses on sites larger than 1 acre; alternative versions would allow housing in designated mixed-use stretches or at key mixed-use intersections. Concept 2.2 would permit mixed-use buildings (residential over commercial or commercial in front with housing behind) in the neighborhood commercial (NC) district but would not allow standalone residential there.

Consultant Jamin Kimmel outlined three code changes intended to make mixed-use projects financially feasible: reduce the amount of ground-floor space required to remain commercial; explicitly permit horizontal mixed-use formats (separate commercial and residential structures on the same site); and allow "commercial-ready" ground floors that are designed to be convertible to commercial uses in the future. "The advantage to this approach is it offers the most flexibility so that that ground floor could still be used, or residential if that's where the market is strongest," Kimmel said, while acknowledging it would not guarantee commercial uses.

Staff recommended establishing a minimum density standard of about 15 to 20 dwelling units per gross acre in commercial and mixed-use districts, reconsidering the scale of step-down rules when development abuts lower-density residential (staff suggested starting the step down at 25 feet rather than at 50 feet), and increasing allowable lot coverage in some mixed-use districts to roughly 50–75 percent so higher-density residential projects can be feasible. For the NC district, staff proposed raising the allowable height from about 20 feet to roughly 45–50 feet to enable vertical mixed-use buildings.

Concept 4.4 would consolidate the Booth Kelly Mixed Use District and the Mixed Use Light/Medium Industrial/Community Commercial (LMI‑CC) district into a new Mixed Use Employment district. Campbell said the existing Booth Kelly district allows residential up to 35% of the district and that the LMI‑CC currently prohibits residential; the proposed consolidation would allow residential in areas where LMI‑CC now prohibits it, but staff recommended revising the employment district before rezoning to avoid unintentionally prohibiting uses that currently exist. Campbell noted the council adopted a resolution in 2022 related to leasing the Booth Kelly facility; that lease requirement runs until July 1, 2027, and staff said they would confirm any obligations before making zoning changes.

Councilors raised recurring concerns. Several supported the broad goal of allowing more housing: Councilor Blackwell favored the most flexible option to expand housing opportunities. Others emphasized infrastructure and environmental considerations: Councilor Wilding flagged water, electric and fiber capacity; Councilor Stone and others urged caution where industrial uses are adjacent to housing and asked staff to assess environmental and noise impacts. Councilor Michael and others said visual examples would help evaluate proposed step-down and height changes; Councilor Stout and others asked that the planning team consult property owners and the business community on Main Street and neighborhood commercial impacts.

Campbell and the consultant agreed to return with additional visuals and analysis, more targeted outreach to the business community, and input from the city’s Main Street/industrial stakeholders before drafting formal code amendments. No votes or legislative actions were taken at the work session; the project timeline calls for further outreach through October–November, a planning‑commission review of an initial draft in December and a draft adoption process in 2026.