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Everett planning commission adopts new manufactured‑home community zoning to preserve residents' sites
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Summary
The Everett Planning Commission voted unanimously on March 17 to adopt Resolution 26-01, creating a Neighborhood Residential Manufactured Home Community zone to protect manufactured‑home parks from rezoning and to add notice-on-title, definitions, and development rules to city code.
The Everett Planning Commission on March 17 voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 26-01, establishing a Neighborhood Residential Manufactured Home Community (NRMHC) zoning district intended to preserve manufactured‑home parks and the owner-occupied homes within them.
Allison, the presenter, outlined the package as a set of targeted code changes: adding the NRMHC district to chapter 19.03, incorporating state-aligned definitions in 19.04, specifying uses and development regulations in 19.05, providing for one‑for‑one replacement while prohibiting the establishment of new parks in 19.13, and adding rezone procedures and a notice-on-title requirement in chapter 15.02. She told the commission the proposal limits the new zoning to existing property lines and that three parks with low owner-occupancy were left in their existing zones.
The proposal drew public testimony from residents of multiple parks. Connie Russell of South Everett urged the commission to guard against private‑equity purchases that lead to rezoning and displacement, citing a recent Florida example and saying, “This isn't development. It's displacement.” Ken Pearson, representing Fairway Estates, described the local scale of what the zoning would protect: “approximately 1,000 manufactured homes with approximately 1,500 voters,” and asked the commission to secure senior residents’ equity and housing stability. Kathy Brown, also from Fairway Estates, said residents feared a sale to a developer such as the Carlyle Group and supported the new zoning.
Staff and commissioners discussed how annexation and county overlays would be handled and what would be required for a property owner to exit the NRMHC zone. York Stevens Wojta, planning director, said staff added criteria intended to ensure an owner must demonstrate circumstances beyond their control and follow REV 3B rezone procedures before a site could be rezoned out of NRMHC. The code package also adds a recorded notice on title that signals the property's NRMHC designation; staff said they had recently added that requirement in response to previous commission feedback.
Commissioner Welch moved to approve Resolution 26-01. After a roll-call vote, the motion passed with all commissioners present voting yes. Chair Shelby closed the meeting after the vote. The commission’s approval now records the commission recommendation and the code amendments as adopted by the planning body at this meeting.
