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Mercer Island to overhaul housing plan after state board orders fixes; staff outline upzones, inclusionary rule and large funding gap
Summary
Following a Growth Management Hearings Board order, Mercer Island staff told residents the city must amend its comprehensive plan by July 31, 2026, to address land-capacity, adequate provisions, station-area planning and anti-displacement; a consultant found a 519-unit shortfall below 50% AMI and staff said closing the gap will require upzoning plus hundreds of millions in funding.
The City of Mercer Island must revise its 2024 comprehensive plan to comply with a Growth Management Hearings Board (GMHB) order, city staff said during a public webinar. The city has until July 31, 2026, to make changes that address four issues the board identified: land-capacity analysis by affordability band, adequate provisions to increase affordable-housing supply, a station subarea plan for the new light-rail station, and anti-displacement measures.
Jeff Thomas, the city’s Community Planning and Development director, said the GMHB issued a final decision in an order dated 08/01/2025 after a June hearing. Thomas told viewers the board found Mercer Island’s 2024 update did not demonstrate sufficient capacity or ready-to-implement measures to meet the state’s housing assignments under House Bill 1220 and related guidance from the Washington State Department of Commerce.
The finding centers on assigned housing targets King County provided to Mercer Island. ‘‘We have a total housing target at 1,239 units,’’ Thomas said, and the county’s distribution skews heavily toward lower-area‑median‑income (AMI) bands. Thomas and the city’s consultant have modeled existing zoning capacity and concluded the market will not produce the very-low-income units the city…
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