Staff tells commission Commerce raised questions; housing gap annualized to ~$8.9M

Planning staff summarized the Department of Commerce comment letter and three addenda to the housing technical analysis, including changes to setbacks, ADU standards, and a gap analysis that quantified funding needs to meet projected housing demand.

Staff cited a per‑unit cost estimate from the Department of Ecology of "$359,266" and described the study's larger multi‑decade cost estimates. "Based on the numbers I've seen from the NGOs in the area, that's pretty accurate," staff said of the per‑unit figure. Staff said they annualized multi‑decade totals to arrive at "about $10,500,000" per year and, after accounting for existing funding sources, estimated an annual shortfall "about $8,900,000" to meet the county's projected needs.

Staff also described edits to eliminate potentially discriminatory occupancy limits, clarified satellite‑bedroom standards to prevent inadvertent creation of ADUs, and walked through environmental constraint mapping used to concentrate development on buildable land in urban growth areas. The packet notes a racially disparate‑impact analysis that staff said did not identify a race‑based pattern of disparate impact but found economic barriers were the principal factor in housing access.

Commissioners asked staff to reconcile differing median household income figures appearing in packet tables; staff said multiple data sources were used and promised to follow up with citations and corrections. Staff also said they are working with the roads department on transportation cost/revenue projections requested by Commerce and will return with additional materials.

Next steps: staff will provide data sources for income figures, respond to Commerce follow‑up items on transportation and technical memos, and return with zoning code changes later in the process. No formal vote was taken.