Town Center Development Capacity - City Council Public Hearing

The Mercer Island City Council will hold a public hearing at its Hybrid Meeting on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, at approximately 5pm, to receive comments on proposed Ordinance No. 24C-18, Interim Regulations related to the 2024 Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update and HB 1220 for affordable housing capacity and requirements in Title 19 Mercer Island City Code (MICC).

At the October 1, 2024 City Council meeting, the Council directed staff to prepare an ordinance to address a shortfall in multi-family and mixed-use housing capacity, as required by HB 1220 and the City's identified affordable housing needs. Staff are currently drafting Ordinance No. 24C-18 based on this Council direction. The proposed ordinance will be published on the City Council Agendas webpage on or before November 13, 2024.

Ordinance No. 24C-18 would amend the Town Center development regulations in Chapter 19.11 MICC as follows:

1. Increase maximum building heights:
   1. TC-5 and TC-4 Plus subareas: increase the maximum building height from five to seven stories
   2. TC-4 subarea: increase the maximum building height from four to five stories
2. Increase housing affordability requirements:
   1. increase the required percentage of affordable housing in new development from 10 percent to 15 percent
   2. deepen the affordability requirement for affordable housing units in new development from 60 percent to 50 percent of the area median income (AMI) for rental housing and from 90 percent to 80 percent of the AMI for ownership housing.

The City Council will hold a public hearing on this matter and conduct first reading of proposed Ordinance 24C-18 on November 19, 2024. The Council is scheduled to hold second reading of the ordinance on December 3, 2024. If the ordinance is adopted on December 3, it would take effect on December 31, 2024.

The public hearing will be held in person and using Zoom. The public will have the opportunity to comment during the public hearings by either attending in person, calling in, or logging onto the meeting as a Zoom attendee. Written comments may be submitted to the City of Mercer Island by email to council@mercerisland.gov until such time that the public hearing is adjourned.

Detailed instructions on how to comment live during the public hearing will be available online on or before November 13, 2024, at: https://www.mercerisland.gov/citycouncil.