The Mountlake Terrace City Council voted to adopt a Housing Action Plan after a staff presentation and public hearing on Dec. 3.

Community Development Director Christie Osborne and city consultants summarized updates since November, including a new action (5.13) to maintain ongoing engagement with the development community, insertion of tenant-protection language (mitigating junk fees) into action 3.3, and regional coordination language in action 5.2 to pursue funding opportunities in South Snohomish County. Osborne said the plan organizes actions into completed, in-progress, near-term (1–2 years), midterm (3–5 years) and long-term implementation windows and ties each action to staffing capacity estimates and next steps.

The plan is intended as a roadmap to implement the housing element of the comprehensive plan, Osborne said, and includes potential policy tools such as density bonuses and MFTE (Multi-Family Tax Exemption) options: a 12-year MFTE in R-2 and 8- and 12-year MFTE options in R-3 were identified for future consideration. The presentation also described code changes to support middle housing, simplified ADU permitting, and revisions to impact fee assessments.

Council members praised the plan as a needed step on affordability and displacement. Council member Murray thanked staff and community participants for producing a document with near-, medium- and long-term goals. Council member Woodard and others said developers have been waiting for a clear policy direction and said adoption could support town-center development momentum. Osborne said the planning commission will prepare a proposed work plan for 2026 that will calendar many of the near-term actions for commission review and eventual council consideration.

On displacement measures, Osborne said the city is required under the Growth Management Act to consider displacement remedies and that specific protections are not yet adopted; staff will develop options with the planning commission and bring them back to council for possible code or program changes.

The council opened a public hearing; no members of the public signed up to speak. Mayor Pro Tem Wall moved to adopt the plan; the motion passed on a voice vote. The council directed staff to proceed with calendaring and implementation steps through the planning-commission work program and return with specific ordinances, MFTE analyses and funding proposals as appropriate.

The plan's next procedural step is implementation work through the planning commission and subsequent council review of specific code amendments or incentive programs.