Duval schedules Jan. 28 hearing on state-mandated co-living and residential parking code updates
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Summary
City staff will present code amendments at a Jan. 28 public hearing to implement 2024 state laws defining "co-living" housing and limiting residential parking standards; staff says the changes mostly align co-living with existing multifamily zones and set parking-count and stall-size rules.
Duval staff will bring co-living housing and residential parking code amendments to a public hearing before the Planning Commission on Jan. 28, 2026, the commission was told at its Jan. 14 meeting.
Associate Planner Maddie Lawrence, who presented the proposal, said the changes are required by recent state legislation and largely adjust how the city's zoning and parking rules treat a new housing type known as co-living. "Co-living housing is a residential development with sleeping units that are independently rented and lockable and that provide living and sleeping space," Lawrence said, adding that it can be thought of as "similar to a dormitory at a university." She told commissioners the city must allow co-living in zones that already permit multifamily housing.
The presentation summarized three practical effects of the state requirements. First, the ordinance defines sleeping units and instructs the city to count each sleeping unit as one-quarter of a dwelling unit for purposes of density. Second, for parking calculations the code may require no more than 0.25 off-street parking spaces per sleeping unit as a baseline (developers may provide more). Third, residential stall dimensions must not be set larger than 8 by 20 feet except where ADA compliance requires larger spaces; existing allowances for unenclosed or tandem spaces and certain gravel stalls remain part of the proposed update.
Lawrence said staff already submitted the draft to the Department of Commerce for the required 60-day review and completed a SEPA checklist; no substantive comments were returned in the initial circulation and staff is waiting for the statutory comment windows to expire. She told commissioners the amendments will appear in multiple chapters of the Duval Municipal Code (Title 14 zoning chapters and the parking standards chapter).
Why it matters: the change creates a customizable, smaller-unit housing type that the state explicitly required cities to allow in multifamily zones; it can increase potential unit counts on parcels that already permit apartments, and it reduces minimum parking burdens for those developments. Lawrence cautioned commissioners that allowing the use does not itself guarantee market interest: "It's purely something that is allowed in our code," she said.
Next steps: staff will publish hearing notices at least 10 days before the Jan. 28 meeting and bring complete code language and staff analysis in the packet.
