Planning commission forwards affordable-housing zoning updates to council, adds requirement for further study

The Bothell Planning Commission on Nov. 5 recommended that the City Council adopt proposed affordable housing zoning-code amendments but amended its recommendation to request additional follow-up work and analysis before the city considers mandatory requirements.

Senior Planner Ray Sosa described the package as a city-initiated update (originally called inclusionary zoning) intended to encourage and incentivize affordable housing and to help Bothell meet state planning goals stemming from the state bill cited in staff remarks. Staff said the draft amendments would apply to Downtown, Canyon Park, the residential activity center and medium- and higher-density residential zones (RM3 and RM4). The proposal consolidates affordable-housing provisions previously located in multiple subarea chapters into a single affordable-housing chapter.

During deliberations commissioners raised two recurring themes: (1) whether provisions should remain voluntary or move to mandatory requirements, and (2) the project-size trigger for requirements (currently 5 units in some zones versus a suggested 10-unit threshold). Staff clarified that the current draft presents voluntary incentives and that some mandatory language in the code was relocated rather than substantively changed; staff and commissioners agreed to study mandatory approaches and offsets in more detail in a Phase 2 work program planned for 2026.

Commissioner Gustafson said she was likely to vote to deny the code as written unless further study occurs; other commissioners said they supported forwarding the draft with a clear record that staff will return with additional analysis. The commission voted to amend its recommendation to the council, adding language that the recommendation is made "based on the understanding that further work will be done to refine these requirements, including consideration of the mandatory elements of this portion of the code." The amended recommendation passed on a roll call (Jones, Westerbeck, Leverett, Robson, Gustafson and Chair Kiernan voted aye; Commissioner Sills absent and excused).

Staff described next steps: transmit the record to the City Council and include the affordable-housing follow-up work (proformas, incentives, transfer-development-rights options and MFG code updates) in the 2026 work plan. Staff also noted a written comment from Jerome Burns of Bridge Housing in support of the amendments; there were no live public commenters.

The Planning Commission’s amended recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council for consideration at upcoming hearings.