Middle Housing Affordability
Opportunities for Affordable Middle Housing
“Middle housing” refers to a range of housing types that are compatible with single-family housing but offer more density, such as cottages, duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, and stacked flats.
ARCH has released a new report with guidance about how to promote greater housing diversity and affordability through “middle housing”. The report was undertaken in collaboration with ARCH’s member jurisdictions, which are working to implement new state requirements for single-family areas and plan for a wide range of housing needs. These efforts provide a critical opportunity to increase housing affordability and expand access to homeownership to low- and moderate-income across East King County.
What is HB 1110?
In recent years, policymakers in Washington State have increasingly recognized the connections between zoning and land use regulations, housing affordability and access, and racially disparate and exclusionary impacts of such regulations. In April of 2023, the Washington State legislature adopted HB 1110, a bill intended to increase “middle housing” in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family detached housing. To promote these housing types, HB 1110 established various rules for local jurisdictions, most significantly requiring minimum residential densities from 2 to 6 units per lot. Importantly, the bill allows local jurisdictions to implement their own affordable housing requirements to capture some of the value from zoning changes.
For more information, visit the Department of Commerce website.
Source: Department of Commerce
Middle Housing Community Engagement
ARCH and several of its member jurisdictions recently partnered with Eastside for All and many more community-based organizations (CBOs) to assist with engaging underrepresented populations on the topic of adding middle housing in neighborhoods that currently allow only single-family or similar residential housing types. The project identified a diverse set of populations whose voices and perspectives have not historically been part of public planning processes in East King County, including renters, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other people of color) communities, immigrant and non-English-speaking communities, and others.
The report may be viewed here. More information about the project can be found here.
