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Participants warn upzoning alone won't meet Cheney's deep-affordability housing need
Summary
At a joint Cheney planning workshop, participants and the consultant raised concerns that proposed upzoning scenarios may not be large or specific enough to produce units affordable to households below 100% area median income, particularly the 0'80% AMI band.
Participants at the joint workshop pressed the project team on whether the proposed scenarios would actually produce the deeply affordable housing the state now requires cities to plan for. The consultant explained changes in state law requiring analysis by income bands; he said Cheney's analysis indicates the city is not positioned to accommodate all units needed below 100% AMI without zoning changes or other actions.
One participant criticized the size of proposed upzoning areas: "Upzoning is not going to create the 593 units for the 0 to 80% band," the participant said, arguing the scenario areas were too small to meet the computed need. Another participant noted a mismatch between job locations and local housing: "They have almost 1000 employees. 785 of them do not live in the city of Cheney because there's no housing for them," highlighting how workforce housing pressures could affect downtown revitalization and walkability goals.
Hughes acknowledged the implementation challenge and said the team plans to return in March or April with two alternatives more narrowly defined to test how different land-use choices would change unit yields and affordability outcomes. He also said the project team will collect additional input via online worksheets posted to the project website.
