Housing strategy urges 'missing middle,' 2,500 downtown units and placemaking to reverse decline

Becky King, Managing Director of Community and Neighborhood Development, briefed the plan commission on the newly adopted housing strategy and urged commissioners to treat zoning and site‑plan cases as implementation tools.

King said the strategy finds two related problems: an affordability gap (costs to produce and maintain housing exceed income growth) and a market gap (willingness to pay below neighboring communities). She described the result as a negative feedback loop—aging housing stock and declining commercial corridors reduce willingness to invest, which in turn lowers sales tax and property revenue. "It must be implemented," King said of the housing strategy, stressing that zoning decisions play a foundational role.

The strategy calls for a range of housing options—medium and high density infill near corridors, 'missing middle' housing types, mixed‑income approaches and walkable node form with buildings fronting the street and parking behind. King highlighted downtown as an existing success that needs about 2,500 more housing units to be resilient and described four economic focus areas where the staff will prioritize investments and program tools. She asked commissioners to look for form‑and‑use consistency with those targets when evaluating cases and warned that low‑value auto‑oriented or single‑use developments can lock in decades of underperformance.