City Council to Consider Options for GMA/HB 1220 Compliance

At the October 1 regular meeting, the City Council will review options for the City of Mercer Island to comply with new housing requirements enacted by the State Legislature through House Bill 1220. This bill established new requirements for cities and counties to address housing needs, such as increasing the number of housing units allowed per lot.

The process to implement the changes brought by HB1220 spans several years. In 2023, the State Department of Commerce issued guidance for cities and counties on complying with HB 1220, followed by the King County Council’s adoption of Ordinance No. 19660 which amended the County’s policies to establish the number of affordable dwelling units needed to meet these new requirements.

Once the State Department of Commerce’s guidance was issued, the City of Mercer Island prepared a Land Capacity Analysis Supplement which evaluated whether the City had sufficient land capacity to accommodate its assigned housing need from the updated King County policies. This analysis was presented to the City Council on January 2, 2024 and identified a capacity deficit of 143 dwelling units in multifamily and mixed-use zones. The City Council directed staff to evaluate options for accommodating this increased capacity requirement located in the Town Center (TC) and Commercial Office (CO) zoning districts.

During this process, the City was also conducting its Comprehensive Plan Periodic Review as required by law – this review includes changes to housing policy. To avoid a situation where the City would finalize its Comprehensive Plan update before the changes brought forth by HB 1220 were fully established, in September 2024 the City Council paused review of certain parts of the Comprehensive Plan until more information was known. The Council provided staff with guidance and staff were then able to prepare options for compliance.

The proposed options would both accommodate the multifamily and mixed-use housing capacity increase necessitated by HB 1220 only in the Town Center (TC) zoning district. Details on the two options are provided in AB 6548 - the October 1 agenda packet is available online.

Council will provide direction at the October 1 meeting on which of the two options to move forward with. Staff will then draft a proposed ordinance to implement the changes approved by the Council – a public hearing will then be held with a first reading tentatively scheduled for November 19, 2024.

You can learn more about the Comprehensive Plan Periodic Review process here on Let’s Talk.