Barriers keep affordable housing out of Lake Forest Park and the city’s plan is late for review
Monday, October 7, 2024
By Oliver Moffat
Zoning barriers are preventing new affordable housing in Lake Forest Park according to the draft 2024 Comprehensive Plan delivered to the city council at the September 26 meeting.
The county provides expert reviews of housing plans to help cities comply with the states and county’s new housing rules, but Lake Forest Park’s plan is so late there probably won’t be enough time to fix any problems.
According to data in the draft Comprehensive Plan, less than 25 percent of households currently living in Lake Forest Park could afford to buy a median-priced home in the city today. Yet, amidst a housing affordability crisis and rising homelessness across the region, an average of only three units of affordable housing are built in Lake Forest Park each year while 22 units of moderate and high income housing have been built.
According to data in the draft Comprehensive Plan, less than 25 percent of households currently living in Lake Forest Park could afford to buy a median-priced home in the city today. Yet, amidst a housing affordability crisis and rising homelessness across the region, an average of only three units of affordable housing are built in Lake Forest Park each year while 22 units of moderate and high income housing have been built.
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| A graph from the draft Comprehensive Plan shows the number of new homes needed in Lake Forest Park broken down by income |
To do its share in ending the region’s housing crisis, Lake Forest Park needs to build 760 new units of affordable housing over the next twenty years; most of that affordable to people earning less than 30% of the area median income. And 164 of those units should be Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) for people who would otherwise be homelessness, plus 166 units of emergency housing. The city only needs an additional 110 units of moderate and high income housing by 2044.
The affordable housing targets were assigned by King County’s Affordable Housing Committee (AHC) who sets the targets based on the total amount of housing needed across the county. Cities (such as Lake Forest Park) that have historically provided less affordable housing relative to other cities in King County were assigned a larger proportional share of affordable housing.
Expert staff at the county’s AHC are reviewing draft Comprehensive Plans for compliance with state’s new affordable housing rules. The county gave Bothell 6 recommendations about their draft housing plan in July and gave Kenmore 5 recommendations in September. Shoreline’s plan was still under review as of September 9. But Lake Forest Park has not yet submitted its Comprehensive Plan to the county for review.
A map from an earlier draft of the housing plan shows the half-mile radius of the S3 transit stops covering the Southern Gateway, Sheridan Beach, Sheridan Heights, Brookside Triangle and Town Centre neighborhoods. The city council has pushed back and tried to delay the project over residents’ concerns the bus line will “deforest” Bothell Way.
House Bill 1220 also requires cities to implement policies to undo racially disparate impacts in housing. According to an analysis commissioned by the city, Lake Forest Park is still less diverse than King County and census blocks where racial covenants were prevalent are still largely less diverse than other areas of the city. Like many suburbs across the United States, Lake Forest Park had racial restrictive covenants that remained legal until Congress passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968.
Whether or not the Lake Forest Park Comprehensive Plan’s housing policies will be adequate to meet state laws and address the housing crisis is hard to judge without the review and feedback from the experts at the county’s Affordable Housing Committee.
The affordable housing targets were assigned by King County’s Affordable Housing Committee (AHC) who sets the targets based on the total amount of housing needed across the county. Cities (such as Lake Forest Park) that have historically provided less affordable housing relative to other cities in King County were assigned a larger proportional share of affordable housing.
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| A graph from the draft Comprehensive Plan shows that not enough low-income housing is being built in Lake Forest Park |
Expert staff at the county’s AHC are reviewing draft Comprehensive Plans for compliance with state’s new affordable housing rules. The county gave Bothell 6 recommendations about their draft housing plan in July and gave Kenmore 5 recommendations in September. Shoreline’s plan was still under review as of September 9. But Lake Forest Park has not yet submitted its Comprehensive Plan to the county for review.
The county says it takes about two or three months to review a Comprehensive Plan which means the city might not get the feedback in time to fix any problems. At the September 26 meeting, city council members struggled to find a date on their calendars when they could all meet to hold a public hearing and approve the plan before the end of the year as required under state law.
Adopted in 2021, House Bill 1220, co-sponsored by local Representatives Shelley Kloba, Cindy Ryu and Lauren Davis requires cities across Washington to document barriers stifling affordable housing in their communities. Lake Forest Park filled out a checklist to document affordable housing barriers provided by the Washington State Department of Commerce.
On that checklist, the city says its minimum lot size, large setback requirements, building height limits, and hardscape restrictions make it difficult to build affordable housing. Large parcels near wetlands and on steep slopes have been zoned by the city as off limits to high density housing.
The city currently requires 1.5 parking spaces per unit for multi-unit homes which - in combination with lot size, setback, hardscape, and height restrictions - makes building affordable housing infeasible according to the city’s report. The parking mandates will also make building PSH and Emergency Housing especially difficult. And because the city doesn’t allow offices in residential neighborhoods, there will be no place for staff providing support services in Permanent Supportive Housing to work.
Under new state laws, cities are no longer allowed to require parking spaces for middle housing and ADUs within a half-mile walking distance of major transit stops.
Adopted in 2021, House Bill 1220, co-sponsored by local Representatives Shelley Kloba, Cindy Ryu and Lauren Davis requires cities across Washington to document barriers stifling affordable housing in their communities. Lake Forest Park filled out a checklist to document affordable housing barriers provided by the Washington State Department of Commerce.
On that checklist, the city says its minimum lot size, large setback requirements, building height limits, and hardscape restrictions make it difficult to build affordable housing. Large parcels near wetlands and on steep slopes have been zoned by the city as off limits to high density housing.
The city currently requires 1.5 parking spaces per unit for multi-unit homes which - in combination with lot size, setback, hardscape, and height restrictions - makes building affordable housing infeasible according to the city’s report. The parking mandates will also make building PSH and Emergency Housing especially difficult. And because the city doesn’t allow offices in residential neighborhoods, there will be no place for staff providing support services in Permanent Supportive Housing to work.
Under new state laws, cities are no longer allowed to require parking spaces for middle housing and ADUs within a half-mile walking distance of major transit stops.
Sound Transit is building three major transit stops in Lake Forest Park along Bothell Way (SR 522) for the future Stride S3 rapid transit service that will provide fast, all-electric bus service from Bothell to Shoreline beginning in 2027.
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| A map from a draft of the housing plan shows neighborhoods within walking distance of future transit stations |
A map from an earlier draft of the housing plan shows the half-mile radius of the S3 transit stops covering the Southern Gateway, Sheridan Beach, Sheridan Heights, Brookside Triangle and Town Centre neighborhoods. The city council has pushed back and tried to delay the project over residents’ concerns the bus line will “deforest” Bothell Way.
House Bill 1220 also requires cities to implement policies to undo racially disparate impacts in housing. According to an analysis commissioned by the city, Lake Forest Park is still less diverse than King County and census blocks where racial covenants were prevalent are still largely less diverse than other areas of the city. Like many suburbs across the United States, Lake Forest Park had racial restrictive covenants that remained legal until Congress passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968.
Whether or not the Lake Forest Park Comprehensive Plan’s housing policies will be adequate to meet state laws and address the housing crisis is hard to judge without the review and feedback from the experts at the county’s Affordable Housing Committee.
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4 comments:
Maybe LFP will finally rezone the Town Center with appropriate density so it produces some housing? If not that, what's left? The strip club? LFP already squandered the Elks property on town homes. Or, maybe Brookside School when it closes down? But, then they'd lose that speed camera revenue.
Or, how about converting some of the park land they keep buying - which they can't afford to maintain in the long-run - into housing?
Tree canopy requirements probably also restrict growth.
This is a well-researched article - thanks for posting it
Lake Forest Park is a tree city, and a carbon sink for the rest of the greater Seattle area. "Deforesting" may not be a big issue for you, but it is for all of us who have been patiently working against the nonsensical plan that ST has for driving a widening bus lane through the community. It's unclear to me how this widening lane would benefit low income housing in LFP; it provides no additional stops (we have several good transportation stops that work well/ are accessible; and we also have a community transit van). Please do your research and do not pit environmental concerns against low income housing concerns. Both are needed to serve our community.
Cities, Counties, and States need to start taxing companies that want to expand when the capacity has already exceeded maximum. There are plenty of cities in the United States that would love to see companies move there and would not causing a housing crisis. In fact quite the opposite. the extra income from higher earning households would allow those cities to reinvest in the infrastructure. It's a shame we are squandering our resources like this.
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