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Council hears staff briefing on zoning-code updates: middle housing, critical areas, co-living and design standards
Summary
Planning staff presented a broad package of zoning code amendments intended to implement recent state laws and the city's 2025 comprehensive plan, covering middle housing, design-review changes, critical areas buffers, co-living rules and map rezoning. No council action was requested; staff sought council feedback.
Planning Manager Katie Baker gave the City Council an extended presentation on proposed zoning and code amendments on Sept. 23, describing work to implement changes required by recent state legislation and the city's adopted comprehensive plan.
Baker told the council the updates aim "streamlining, clarifying, and modernizing" zoning rules that in some cases have been in place for decades. She said many amendments respond to state laws designed to increase housing options, including the requirement to allow middle housing in all single-family zones (House Bill 1110). "This is an allowance," Baker said, adding the city is drafting permanent regulations after adopting an interim middle-housing ordinance in June.
Other state-directed changes Baker outlined include stricter standards that design regulations be clear and objective and not reduce density…
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