Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, Mr. Chair, ready when you are. All right, good evening everybody. The time is 6:30, Wednesday, February 18th, and I call this uh meeting of the Lakewood Planning Commission to order. Welcome everybody. Uh, please call the role. Robert Estrada here. Christian Flores here. Lynn Larson, Sharon Wallace here, Jim Merritt here, Mark Hair here. You have reached quorum.

Perfect. If you all please join with me and uh we'll recite the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Again, welcome everybody in the room. We have a full house tonight. And for those of you watching online, welcome. I trust everybody had an opportunity to review the minutes of our previous meeting. Uh, and I will entertain a motion to approve. So move.

It's been It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? None. All those in favor of approving the minutes from January 21, 2026, signify by saying I. I. All those opposed signify by saying nay. Motion carries. Madam Secretary, are there any agenda updates?

No, Mr. Chair. All right, that being said, we'll move on to public comment. Public comment can be taken uh in person here at the chamber of the council and online or by telephone. Public comment or testimony on public hearing um again is accepted by mail, email, email or in person or virtual attendance. Mail comments to Karen Devo, planning commission clerk, 6000 Main Street Southwest, Lakewood, Washington, 98499, or email k devo at city of lakewood. us. Comments received by noon on the day of the meeting will be provided to the commission electronically. Each person will have three minutes. Attendees are allowed to speak during public comment or public hearing only. Those attending in person will be called on to come to the podium. Those attending via Zoom should use the raise hand function to indicate they wish to speak. Once your name is called, you will be unmuted. First state your name and city of residence and then provide your testimony. M um M de last time I believe we started with uh our in-house commenters. So we will see is there anybody online wishing to comment?

There's anyone online for the public comment period of this meeting. Please raise your hand. You'll be unmuted. It looks like we do not have anyone online wishing to speak. Mr. Chair,

we'll move to the public signin roster for inhouse. And Mr. Johnson, you are up first. Mr. Chair, members, my name is Michael and I here last month the street at our homes reading of the minutes. you were called out for that event. I know quite frankly and respectfully I'm not sure why this topic this mission that it was important for us to respond. My main points are these and most of them are in public right away speaking out dedication. Two the house we occupy was built in the 1950 And yet based on surveys, it appears to have only yard 1960s. The county granted a perpetual variance of 25 ft to our predecessors pending remodel over again the existing model was done which included an expansion of the home's footprint and added a carport and standalone shop area under the car. way for public access to Lake Silicon approximately 60 ft has remained the same since at least 1960 to 12. At some point before cityhood, the county added chain link fencing along both sides of the existing public access, the W's edge, establishing the boundaries of

this access. We purchased the home in 2018. We have not expanded to nothing my wife and I have done regarding landscaping objected or otherwise interfered with the existing open purchased this home in 2018. We knew it was an extra like most purchasers of existing homes. We did not survey problem. We also knew the county was granted 25 foot perpetual barracks. After we purchased the home, we happened upon the 2009 street end study commissioned by the city. A study proved by the council recommended the city sell this particular street to us to accept the city. We're unsuccessful in that street vacation in 2024. We accept the reasoning of public council. As it stands, my wife and I simply seek to maintain the existing public access to the lake and also to seek a resolution city about our home improvement driveway and fencing. This was voted in 2024. to put this topic to rest. Here we are being singled out of 2026 regarding the city's unathome rival. Also unclear why this matter came for this planning commission. Since it did, thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Miss Gates. And I just want to say I mean that happens everywhere and I don't blame people for put some you know beautify their their neighborhood but what Mr. Burns is asking is outside city hall and I just want to give you a little background. Mr. Burns has this uh unnatural obsession with this property and with us. And he's the man that took it on himself to to get a group together for the property that caused the damage for at the end of the streets. Um he kind of ran this smear campaign and he targeted us. He started to put things on social media. He encouraged people to park into our driveway. portray the buyers. They said that we implanted drugs on cars when there was um some um illegal activity at the street end. Um he would come in front of the house and look for things and try to report our vehicles or our house in order to the police. Um and this incited all this up. We had people in front of our house that would go splurs at us, walk up to us, uh try to block us in and parking us. And so, um, we had to then get a lawyer and we had to have a cease to letter, which is what they recommended. And we don't want to legal, you know, um, actions or anything. But there are also some victims or we're uh you know uh

criminals. I just want you to know like we are good churchgoing you know people we want to you know help keep up. We would we've never I've let people come and just push off our dog if they wanted to. I mean we've had none of this. And so, um, I just wanted to set the record a little bit straight and then hopefully you'll question the validity and consider it and I'll consider when you're hearing Mr. Burns talk about the street, but it's not um exactly as he portrayed. We have a variance that covers the property that he's talking about. So, um, and and we were to have to I mean, we were we're fine with the decision that that the council has. We just want to be good citizens.

Thank you, Miss Gates. There are no other community members signed up for public comment. However, uh, if anybody else would like to comment, please make your way to the podium. Yes, sir. Unfortunately not. Um, all right. Seeing none, I will go ahead and declare this public comment period closed. There is no public hearing scheduled for today. I see no unfinished business, Miss Spear. Correct. Then we will move to new business at your pleasure.

Thank you. So, I will uh begin by Give me just a moment. Uh the first topic is the uh proposed changes to excuse me the rental housing licensing requirements that the city currently has uh within uh Lakewood Municipal Code Chapter 5.60. I'm going to walk everyone through this, but Jeff Gum, who is our housing programs manager and in charge of the rental housing safety program for the city, is here as well. So, if you have any questions, uh, he may be the one to actually answer it better than I. We'll just we'll work our way through this, though, and see if you have any questions. So, there are 16 amendments that were included in the memo uh, in tonight's packet that are related again to regulations and maps governing rental housing licensing within the city. Chapter 5.60 6 is supposed to talk about both inspections and registration for different types of properties and then there is also uh exemptions to the registration or licensing and inspection requirements. What the proposed amendments are doing is to clarify that rental housing, excuse me, residential which should be rental housing units, not just multif family complexes or rental housing complexes are subject to those uh the registration and inspection requirement. the uh chapter was always intended to read that way but it the way it was adopted just was not clear and it hasn't been um successfully um enforced since then because of the confusion. So there's been you know at the counter kind of conversations or discussions with property owners but there's also been some state uh law changes since chapter 5.60 was last amended. So that also was taken care of with these amendments. So in bold there, you see that the way

chapter 5.60 currently reads, licensing and registration and then also inspection are all included within one regulatory chapter for the city's code. The current language says you can get an exemption for both business licensing and inspections on specific units, but that's not what the city wanted. The city wanted to uh be able to require one and not the other, vice versa. So, right now the code allows if you have a new complex constructed, there can be an exemption from the entire code, meaning you don't have to get inspection or license to operate for 10 years. And that wasn't the intent. It's just the way it was written. And then another example, a property receiving housing subsidies that had a substantially equivalent inspection pro process, excuse me, was also exempted from the code. The intent was to exempt the inspection but not the business license that was required per state law. So the amendments and again there's a total of 16 but basically they explain more clearly which properties are exempt from licensing and registration or uh inspection versus those which are only exempt from the inspection process. It deletes um accessory dwelling units, transitional housing and shelters from the exemption. meaning ADUs, transitional housings, and shelters all do need to be inspected. With the state ADU requirements that the city has now uh adopted, the city anticipates more ADUs will be built overall and that some of those will be rentals and they will need to be maintained per the city's uh rental housing requirements. The third thing that the uh amendments do is reduce the number of years you can exempt a property from inspection from 10 years down to five. So the way this sits is uh tonight you're welcome to ask any questions and again Mr. Gum is here to give more

detail than what I just walked through should you need it. uh next meeting which is March 4th, you would have public hearing and action and then it is scheduled to begin work uh through the city council legislative process on March 16th. So with that, I'll uh step aside if you have any questions that I can't answer. Mr. Gum is available. Mr. Estrada, thank you. I have

and I've had staff come to my house houses and I appreciate the professionalism that they have exempt um and the inspection. I mean very very thorough. So I really do appreciate your staff and what they've done. Um got a question regarding however on page uh 33 paragraph B 2 Roman numeral 3. Okay. Give me a moment to catch up with yours.

Oops, I went too far. No, I didn't. Okay. Roman numeral 3. We're talking about exemptions. I don't think it's quite clear. Let's go. Um I'm sorry, Mr. Estrada. Could you tell me again where you were? 30 page 33. Paragraph 2, excuse me, paragraph B 2 and uh three.

Okay. Thank you. The way I read it, if I provide my own inspection to the city, then I can be exempt for 5 years. But I don't think that's the intent. No, I the the way that that's written or at least the way that that's intended to be written is um to be exempt under number two, you have to meet all of those requirements. So, it's you'd have to have a unit that was receiving funding subsidies, say through HUD or whomever it was. Um, and it was inspected once every three years. Okay?

And you provide that inspection to the city of Lakewood and it is deemed an equivalent inspection to the city or to the city's rental inspection code. So, it's you can't just meet one of those. It's it's a 1, two, three, four. So, you have to meet all of those. So, I misread that. Uh I wonder how many more people will misread that. Uh maybe a clarification. Okay. Thank you. Also, um if I may, please go ahead.

U page 34, paragraph five, I mean, excuse me, paragraph 5.6. 6.070. So to me that and on page 36 5.16.120 the license denial. It's a duplication. And I'm not sure if that's what we wanted.

Trying to figure out where paragraphs in 5.1 5.60 120 120 a duplication of I thought 070. It's a duplication of 070. So this is

the above. I'm sorry. Go to parag go excuse me 70 when he was talked about and go one more page please okay what I'm reading bear with me I um I am sorry I I think I must miss mis must have misread.

No, it's I mean it's that's this is why we're here presenting it to you. I mean if if you have a problem with it, we want to make sure we catch it. So 5.6070 is supposed to be clarifying that there's a provision um in essence that allows the city of Lakewood to enforce transitional costs for violations. Um there's an RCW5918085 that if a property is condemned by a city or closed by the city that the city can impose transitional costs. So that's what that's kind of what this is relating to. If there's a a closure and it rel results from displacement then these are some options that the city can um choose. I don't know if I use the at the end of on page 35. I don't know if I talk about 5918085. No it doesn't. Um and then 5660120 um kind of follows some of that as well when it talks to in B where it talks about transitional costs and so forth. If they don't have a business license and they're closed, then ultimately it's a it's a closure by the city and that's the same sort of a thing that they could be responsible for transitional costs because they maintain their license.

Yeah, I see it. Okay. It's it's a little bit Yeah. convoluted in how you get there but

so okay thanks for explaining that thank you one more question please I'm sorry again page 36 5.160.150 penalties so violations may be for in fraction of $150 a day. When does that really start? I mean, if I have an inspection on my unit and I don't I fail it because the water heater was not strapped or something, for example. Technically, then since I didn't pass, my $150 fine starts the very next day or the same day. But is that our intent or do we allow them a grace period? And if so, it's not stated here.

Yeah, it's I mean that that's a good question and and it's this is a provision that I can say I've used once in nine years. Um it's it's not something that that we seek to do. Um in Lakewood Municipal Code, this this ultimately falls back in Lakewood Municipal Code 2 5.02, which is licensing and and some of that. So, if you don't obtain a license, it's it's consistent with the same code. Um, it it can allow us to penalize somebody $150 a day up to $500 a day if if it continues. Um, that's not something that that is typically used. We tend to follow up with the property owners multiple times. We tend to send them multiple letters of non-compliance to try and get them into compliance. Um, this is just another tool that we could use. code enforcement would in essence issue them a citation that they're out of compliance. That typically then follows up with municipal court. Um if they do obtain their license, usually it's dismissed by municipal court right away. Um which is one of the reasons that I I typically don't try and go down that path because it it we can usually get compliance by either emailing or calling the owner directly with through our rental registration system. They provide us with phone numbers and emails. So we try and deal with you directly. Um, if for some reason somebody chooses not to or just completely ignores us, which is the one time that I've issued a citation or code enforcement issued a citation with, we just the owner just wouldn't respond. Finally, we ended up getting them in municipal court and we had a conversation with them and they they responded and and we were able to get them compliant.

Sure. You give them time to I mean, they they thought they were going to have a good inspection and this came up and so give them time to uh fix it. uh reasonable time and that's your prerogative. Yeah, I I'd agree. Okay. It's a tool in essence. It's it's not necessarily something that we use, but it is a tool that's allocated to us. Sure. Okay. Thank you. No more questions. Commissioner Larson, I I wonder whether the uh phrase that's part of that same highlighted area. Each person catch the microphone a little. Sorry. There we go. Testing one too. I'm accustomed to having to step away from the microphone. So

hear you at all. Uh each person is guilty of a separate violation. I wonder whether that sentence that starts out and says each person is guilty uh might need to be looked at because uh uh in uh in most matters we're presumed innocent until proven guilty and that seems to assume guilt in the uh in the context of the of the paragraph and uh I I just wonder if maybe that should be looked at or questioned. Thank you. Could you refer to which section in the code once more, Commissioner Larson? I think it's in 160, I think. 160.

The the uh sentence in the middle of the paragraph. Oh, there we go. Each person is guilty of separate ver violation for each, etc. Thank you. Yeah. Mean that that assumes guilt rather than uh Yeah. And I think that's consistent with our lake municipal code 5.02 I think is what it's consistent with. But that's something we can look at. You want something like that to throw a whole paragraph out when you came to need a need to enforce it. It's a tool you don't use very unless you have to. But yeah, I just wondered about that.

Yes. Anything else? Okay. Uh, Mr. Gum, I do have one question for you. Um, I don't think it's in here. Maybe I missed it or it may be referenced in a different part of the code, but um, how are rental unit inspections prompted? Obviously, the owner can come to the city and say, "Hey, I have a rental." Is there a periodic update where the city will come out unannounced or is there ever a scenario where an inspector would show up at a rental unit unannounced um and attempt to make entry into the property?

That's a good question. We've been doing this for eight years now, so it's kind of ancient history to me, but not for everybody else. So, the the way that the rental housing program started is we divided um into 20% of the city. We did a a lottery. So, we selected 20% of all rental units over a five-year period and we have continued that cycle. So, you're inspected, you have to have your property registered every year and inspected once every five years. So, you're issued a certificate of compliance that lasts five years. So, the first um business is through had a fiveyear cycle and second, third, fourth, fifth, and then we've continued on that cycle. So, everybody who's gone through and has been inspected is part of that cycle. Um at this point in time, we're in year number nine. So, we're in back in year four, the people that passed. Um, as new property owners come in, they jump into wherever they are. They they purchase a property and then and then they have to start their process as well. Um, and then their their fiveyear cycle starts from that point forward. We do not do surprise inspections. Um, landlord tenant law wouldn't let us go into a a unit without 48 hours notice. And I mean, realistically, the the point of the program is to to make sure that the property owners understand what we're doing, uh, why we're there. I like to have them there on site because some of it's an educational thing. It's, "Hey, here's what we're doing. Here's what we're looking for. I want to make you aware of why we're here and and not necessarily a better property owner, but better aware of why we're here and what we're looking for because I don't want you to fail. I want you to pass. So, here's what we're looking for." And if if we can if we can get property owners out there, we love it. Um, most often we'll have property managers out there. Lots of times property owners, but yeah, it's usually a scheduled inspection. The only time that I would I would ever show up um where the property owner doesn't know is if we've had multiple tenant complaints. Um, so a tenant is allowing us onto the property. And typically we want to look at it just to see I mean if someone's saying, "Hey, my deck's falling off or whatever." We would want to go look at it and verify yes or no.

Um, and then we always follow back up with the property owner and say, "Hey, you know, we were out on your property last Thursday. this is what was told. It's either confirmed or non-confirmed. And then we schedule a follow-up with them to take them out there as well. And just as a point of clarity, too, if I was a if I was a property owner and I had a rental, ADU, whatever, uh, and and for whatever reason, all of a sudden, I'm just I don't want anybody to come on my property anymore, I can allow my rental um inspection to lapse and take that rental off the market and forego that inspection. Right. Yeah. Yeah, once it's no longer a rental, there's that's one of the exemptions. It's no longer a rental. It's no longer available for rent. Thank you so much for that.

Go ahead. If you all remember how this all started, we had pictures of units that were in such bad shape. I mean, ceiling was falling down. I mean, there was corrosion and mold all over. and our landlords were renting these places out to folks and they would complain but nothing was done. So this program from my perspective is a godsend for many many people and I think I think we've come a long way in in improving our housing for our for our constituents.

Yeah. Thank you. And and to follow up on that, one of one of the things that we're proposing in this um chain is an owner certification as well. So, we've done this for eight years now. Um, as Mr. Estrada mentions, I mean, the first three or four years, there was all kinds of violations and all kinds of life safety issues that were addressed. And over the eight years that we've been doing this, I think we've gotten to a point now where we've established by far and and away most of the the rental housing in the city of Lakewood is compliant. And if it's not, it's usually little on the fringe things that are aren't aren't out there. There's not as many life safety things. They still pop up every once in a while, but we're trying to step back now and say, "Hey, you know what? We we've done this long enough. I think owners can certify, hey, you know what? I think my property meets." We we we know most of the property owners in Lakewood over the years. So, um, and then assuming that they they certify and and they move forward, we would then follow up, just do random inspections from that point forward and say, "Hey, you know what? We've got a couple of complaints. We want to come look at a couple of your buildings and and do a random inspection." It'll make it easier for the property owners that for the first eight or nine years in this cycle have kind of I mean it's it's been intrusive. I mean it it it's it's not an easy thing for an owner to deal with. Um we have changed the the complexion of the the rental housing in the city of Lakewood for the better and I I think that is reflective of the property owners in the city as well. So it's it's something to kind of step back and say okay you you guys have done a great job. you're you're where we want you to be and I think maybe we can make it a little easier for you now and as long as your properties keep continuing to be maintained then this should be a lot easier for everyone. So that's what we're thinking moving forward.

Perfect. Any other questions from any other commissioners? Yeah, Juan. Uh have you ever seen a situation where Can you turn on your mic, sir? Thank you. There it is. Have you ever seen a situation where an inspection is performed and also the landlord is informed and the landlord will say, "You know what? This rental property is barely preferable or not preferable. I don't have the money to fix it. I know the stealing is falling apart. I just can't pay for it." Do you ever see that situation?

I'm dealing with one right now. Um, we see that not as much as we used to. Um, but every once in a while we'll see one and and typically I mean I'm I try and work with the owner. I mean if they've got we worry about life safety issues first. So you make sure you've got smoke detectors, make sure you can get out of your house, your egress windows open, those types of things, you've got heat, functioning water. Um, we'll address those things. And if if some of the other things maybe can can take a little bit longer for them to fix over time, then we try and work with them and say, "Hey, you know what? You you address these five things. These these this is what may will make your house safe." And then from there, we can worry about your if your bathtub drips or your floor is starting to get corroded or something and and it's not necessarily life safety, but you're getting down that path. We work with them and say, "Hey, you know what, we'll we'll check back with you. You do what you can in six months and we'll we'll check back do another inspection." So

and the the reason why I ask this question because myself I'm also a landlord and also as at the same time I'm also a contractor

and I I see this situation really often the landlords would call us and they say hey you know what there is this leak is huge we have to remove a lot of drywall and can you give me like a really good quote I truly cannot pay for a huge restoration And it's incredible for me as a contractor that homeowners or landlords don't even remember that they have homeowner insurance and the homeowner insurance will cover the entire restoration and all they have to pay is truly use the deductible and the the renter can have a very nice beautiful house to live in and the landlord don't have to cover the entire cost. And I have been doing this for almost 10 years. And it's a huge surprise that most of the people don't know they can just it's one phone call and the insurance company will help them. So then it's it's a win-win and at the same time that will create jobs in our city because this is money coming from outside. It's come it's coming from the insurance company into the city creating jobs and it's truly a very good way to bring income. I just wanted to mention it because if you ever see that situation, just tell them, "Hey, have you ever considered calling your insurance? They'll help you."

Yeah, that's that's a good point. There there's I would say the majority of rental property owners, I don't know if they don't know about it or if they don't want to access it because they don't want to pay increases in their their rates down.

It will not increase. That's why I mentioned it will not increase uh if there is any kind of fire damage, water damage or whatever that is. And as soon as they have water damage, there is going to be mold after 72 hours. So the rent it can become a a really ugly situation. Uh one I have seen horror stories many times and one of them is hitting u in Lakewood. Two kids, two 5-year-olds were in the hospital and they the the parents didn't know what was going on and the doctor told them call a contractor tell them to check the attic. You probably have a few leaks and some mold. We were the ones called and the attic was full of mold. And then they called the landlord. They call landlord called us and the landlord the landlord didn't even know. It was just um an easy fix. Just actually call the insurance company and they will help you with it.

It's truly no no reason for a renter to be on a health hazard situation with mold for a leak and it's raining all year long here. There is mold everywhere. Yeah, good point. Any other questions from commissioners? No, Mr. Gum, thank you so much. Just want to uh final comment to say I agree with Mr. Estrada. This is a wonderful program. It's made our community safer. Um it's made our our rental space uh better for tenants and for owners. And uh I thank you for it. So, thank you so much.

Thank you. could I proceed, Mr. Chair? Yes, please. Okay. All right.

Uh, our next topic is um background and hopefully will be of benefit to those of you who have not been on um excuse me, the commission more than one year. I think this will be uh new information provided to you. In uh the past there has been annual housing reports and the housing report can range uh with a number of different data points. This year we're we're focusing on a couple of things where we're tracking whether the city is starting to meet its housing targets that are required by state law. uh but also providing you some economic and demographic information for the people that live in Lakewood either as homeowners or renters. And it's just it's background information for you to be aware of and and have uh in your pocket when future meetings come up and um related or or tangentially related topics are before you for consideration. So, first just a note, um I'm going to be using the term AMI or area median income quite a bit. And uh not to get too wonky and mathy, but on the right hand side, I think most of us understand that the word average. What that means in math is you would add all of these numbers up and divide it by the number of numbers, right? To get to an average. Median just means the exact middle in the list. It has nothing to do with what those values are. It's just what is the the number in the middle of the list. So you see here with these same numbers uh 1 3 6 7 8 9 the median is six because that's the middle number. Not to say it has any relation to the other six numbers there. On the average though you take all of those into account again and so you end up with 5.3 with the little equation that you do. So when we start to talk about area median income for

people, that is just saying this is right bang in the middle. Half of the population makes more than this, half of it makes less. But it doesn't say like these guys make a million bucks more or a million bucks less. It just says this is right in the middle of all of those numbers. So it's just something to keep in mind again. Uh, and I would just not spend too much time up here other than to say in Lakewood, we fall under the um, housing and urban development or HUD's Tacoma, Washington metro area. When they start talking about what is area median income, whether it is moderate or market rate, if you will, or low, very low, or extremely low. We're in this particular box of numbers, depending. At the bottom here, you will see that Lakewood compared to the area median income in 2023 was at about 75% of the area median income throughout this whole metro area. So, greater Pierce County, uh, basically they as the number as a whole would be 25% higher than what you see there for Lakewood, which is that 84,000. So Lakewood is at about 3/4 of the area median income countywide. Hopefully that made sense. Just again as reference. Uh one of the things that happens uh in our economy nationwide is that we have for a long time had incomes not keeping pace with housing price increases. And you can see this with this uh set of numbers here. First you'll see the single family home prices. And then the next set of numbers is household income. These two charts, they're too small to try to read, but I'll just walk you through. Generally speaking, the green line on both of them is the Puget Sound area. The orange is statewide, and then the purpley blue is everybody other than Puget Sound. And so, not surprisingly,

the green lines are on top. But between the beginning of 2016 and end of September 2025, you saw about 120% increase in housing prices. In the Puget Sound itself, it was at about 127%. At the same time, if you look at income in that same time frame, statewide, income went up 62%, whereas in Puget Santa went up 60. So, in both of those cases, the income over that 10-year period rose only half as much as housing prices. So, what does that turn into? This if you if this was a graph with even longer time, this would be more obvious. But what you're seeing is the orange graph on top, the orange line. That is housing prices going up from 2016 to 2025. The blue line is income. And what you see is that housing prices are at a much higher um line, meaning we've got this going on, right? I don't think this is surprised anybody. But what that is saying over time is people who may feel stable right now based on their income and their their housing costs that may change over time because housing costs are going up higher than incomes are increasing. So that's just a general statewide as well as in many parts of the country um situation that we all are living in. Kind of looking at the opposite side of that coin again 2016 to 2025. This is an index that talks about is the house price uh single family buyer in this case paying quote affordable or not. What does affordable mean? It means is that individual or that household paying 30% of their monthly income or less on their housing? If the answer is yes, it's less than 30%, it's considered affordable for them. If it's more than 30%, it's considered unaffordable. And again, no surprise here. It's kind of

the opposite of the graphs we just looked at. Whereas, uh, up until about 2021 midyear, there were some affordable, uh, housing out there for the median single family buyer. It was always kind of unaffordable for the first time. Again, that doesn't surprise anyone, I don't think. But then since then, it's been unaffordable for both of those buyers because again, you think of that alligator mouth. This is the opposite side of of that result is we have less people able to afford um either buying in this case a single family home in the state of Washington. Rental it's somewhat the same story. You see here again on the top uh in this case Puget Sound is red, green is the rest of the state and the blue is the state as a whole. But you see apartment rental uh amounts are going up and income down here between affordable and unaffordable. Eh, the the renters that are at that median income are are bumping along okay as affordable. But those that are at uh low income, so if they are at 80% of that area median income, if they make 80% of that $84,000 we saw a couple slides ago, they're unable to find affordable rental units. So just again uh over the last decade that's that's just been the case statewide as well as in the Puet Sound and in Lakewood. So to get specifically into Lakewood information, uh some of this you may have seen before. This came from the 2020 census, but some things have been updated since. Uh our population now is about 64,500. A little less than a quarter of the city has bachelor's degrees. We're up to about 275 I want to say in terms of housing units now. Uh the income you see here is 70,500. That has ticked up a

little bit. Employment rate this includes kids as well as adults which is why it's at 54.5%. You see race and ethnicity u about what is this out of 63615 were Hispanic or Latino of any race. And then we'll have other um race groups talked about in just a moment. You've also probably heard me or others at the city say uh Lakewood is majority bipok, meaning it has a minority white population. And that has happened in the last 10 years or so. It's also a barbell community, meaning you have very wealthy, very poor, and not very much of a quote middle class. So, this is a city that instead of the usual bell curve where everybody's in the middle and then you got less on the outside, it's the opposite of that. Looking at the types of housing that we have in the city of Lakewood. The dark blue is talking about single family. Lighter blue is duplexes. The red is multif family uh triplex or quads. And multif family is orange, five or more units in a building. six, sorry, green is uh mobile homes or manufactured homes. So, comparing Lakewood to Tacoma, Puup, FIF, and UP, Lakewood has by far the most mobile homes. We have uh I think close to 2,000 mobile home units within the city. And then you see here as well, we have uh a relatively higher number of uh multif family housing. And then our single family is at 50% whereas University Place Puallup and Tacoma are all up closer to 60. So it's a different housing mix than many of the other uh cities in the area. In terms of race and ethnicity, this gets back to that idea of Lakewood becoming a BIPAC majority city. As of the 2020 census, just between 2015 and

2020, the uh percentage of white alone reporting was dropping dropped from 54% to 48. And then you'll see there was a 3% increase in black or African-American alone. The others uh the two or more races is that the other one that increased the most in terms of the types of housing uh dwellers, owner or renter we have in the city. and then what their income is. Dark red is the lowest income. The blue, the darker blue is the more income. Not surprising, generally owners are going to be the ones with a higher moderate income overall. But what you see here in terms of low and extremely low income, we have about 20% I'm sorry. Yes, 20% of owners that are making either 80% or less of the area median income. on renters you see almost half of them are either 50% or below uh area median income. So we do have some that are at the extremely low income about quarter of the renter population in this in the city by race and income category. This is renter alone. You'll see again there's a breakout by by race here. And also you'll see some of those same trends in terms of uh income based on race. What you might have seen historically in America that holds true here. Black or African-American is at the highest percentage of extremely low income or very low. Uh and then you'll see that white alone is at the highest of uh moderate income which is that 80 to 100% of that mar median income. This is a busy slide, but the I wanted to include it because if you note just the general outline of the city of Lakewood, right? The pink are areas of the city where at least 50% of the

population is low or moderate income. So spots that you probably are aware of already, Stilicum, I'm sorry, uh, Woodbrook and Tilicum, Springbrook, Lake View, and then some of the other areas to the east side of the city. Generally speaking, the west side of the city is the more affluent areas. So, if we go back to that idea of who can afford uh a home to buy or rent here in Lakewood specifically, only about 52% of our first home buyers would be able to quote afford buying, meaning they would have enough coming in for the house price to have only 30% or less of their income going to housing. If you're a renter, it's a little bit better. you you it looks like if you are a low-income renter, you still have a 95% chance of being able to find a rental unit at this point that you could quote afford, meaning 30% or less of your payment is going to that. Oops. Just a note on uh homeless population in the city of Lakewood. This is tracking back to 2017 the number of unique clients meaning they um individuals some may have been repeat customers if you will during a year but these are all individual people who at some point in each year uh needed help in u being placed in an emergency shelter. So in 2017 it was at 404 for the whole year. The high so far that we have data for is through 2023 it was up to 618. This number for 2025 is again only through September 30th. Uh so we'll have this final number here in the near future. Uh but we'll see if it went down further from 24 or stayed steady or went up. So, with all of that as background in terms of where people are living, how much

they're making, what they can afford, um we're now going to start to look at Lakewood's zoning and how it's doing with growing the way uh it's quote supposed to under the Growth Management Act in 2022. So, this is a couple years ago now. What this map is showing you is the areas where residential development either exists or could be built. The yellow is single family. The medium brown is mixed residential. So that could be single or multif family kind of in the same area. The dark brown is multifamily where it's um there really isn't much single family uh building. It's it's more of the higher density. And then the pink is neighborhood commercial which could be both um residential and commercial kind of lower uh intensity. And then the commercial the red you'll see this is right in the downtown sub area and this is along where our station district sub area is. These areas both now allow mixeduse meaning commercial and uh residential in the same structures. So what we found in terms of 2022 is that we had capacity to have an additional 10,242 units built within the city without having to change any zoning or any um boundaries of the zones. Where was that uh capacity though? It was on quote underutilized multif family units uh zones parcels as well as in our sub areas. So it's not green fields. It's not empty lots. Most of the capacity for densifying in the city in order to grow like the growth management act says we're supposed to is on lots that already have something on it but could hold more. whether it is tearing down a single family structure and making it a multif family or whether

it's adding an ADU or it's adding uh multiple buildings uh where one may already exist. 75% of those 10,000 units would be on lots that exist and there's something already on them. So it's not like couple of big developers come in and build a a number of houses and we meet the growth. It's individual property owners over time either selling their property or deciding on their own how am I going to reinvest in my property and do something else on it to add more housing units. Why do we need to be densifying? Why do we have these growth targets that are now assigned to the city to be satisfied by 2044? Under the state's recent analysis, this was done in 2023. Statewide, there is a need for about 1.1 million new homes over the next 20 years based on the growth that's projected. So whether that's people having babies or whether it's people moving into this to the state, that many more homes and that could be an apartment, that could be a duplex, that could be a single family, whatever home might be defined. in the Puget Sound region that is um looking at a backlog, if you will, of about 46,000 houses in order to make things affordable. By 2050, the number is 810,000 by 2050 in the Puet Sound region. So, King, Pierce, Kitap, and Snomish counties, which is where the growth happens the most in the state of Washington currently. Spokane is the next area that grows. Um those are the numbers that overall the state and the region are are looking at. Just another way of looking at this. So again you'll see the darkest blue that's King County having the highest share of projected growth. Pierce is third after Snowomish. And then you see Spokane comes in uh and actually Clark County

right down adjacent to Portland is growing faster than uh Spokane. So now we look at okay if that's the number of units that the state says okay everybody we got to get ready for as local governments here are the numbers that Lakewood is trying to satisfy you saw this number before in the census 2000 or 26,999 units at the time in order to meet this target that started at a Pierce County level and then was divvied up among the cities. Lakewood is assigned by 2044 to have an additional 9,378 units built. So if you remember the capacity said 10,242 units was already there without having to change anything. And that is more than that allocation is right. It's saying at the time by 2021 2022 the city was in the position of saying we've done what we can. It's up to people who own the property to decide to redevelop. The other piece to it is that the city said uh intentionally the downtown and the station district together are going to take a larger share within those parts of the city than the rest of the city. And that the idea there was to say we've got existing long-standing single family neighborhoods that are going to be left alone. the areas where we want jobs and housing to come in because they're close to transit or they're close to I-5 or u for whatever reason it's it's kind of the center of town right here in the downtown. That's where we're going to put a higher share of our housing growth. And so you see the specific targets for station district and downtown. Have we been growing that fast? Have we been doing our job to meet the growth that we're supposed to have? Between 2014 and 2025, the average number of

permits for residential, which could be I'm sorry, this is the single family. This first number here was about uh 50 per year to come up with 520 over that uh a little over 10-year period. multif family, which could be anything from a duplex to an apartment building, five or more units. Uh a total of 1,5 units were built between the beginning of 14 and mid 2025. So that's about 97 units a year. So that's the actual growth rates that have been happening in Lakewood since uh first uh quarter 2014. Looking at that number in a different way, if we're supposed to grow by so many in order to end up with that 9,370 more 78 more housing units by 2044, you'll see this is the actuals kind of the pace of growth, right? And then you see it ticks up. And this is all projected and and not the actual way it would look once it happens, but this is an uptick in the amount of housing units that would need to be built every year within the city in order to meet that target. So, just so you are aware, we've done the the math. We've done the adoption of the targets. We've done changes to our zoning to try to meet that number. But looking at actual activity, at this point, it would take a pretty significant change to the number of units built per year in order to actually meet that number by 2044. We have had some significant development in our station district and our downtown since they were adopted. We're right next door to the Alliance project which is going up right now. And then there's quite a bit happening in the station district near Kendrick Street. Those are two great examples of what's been happening since those two sub areas were adopted. So since we had changes in state law though that says we need so many units by 2044 and then there's been other state law changes that said and oh by

the way you now have to allow ADUs on property. you have to allow multiple ADUs on a property or you have to say in the single family uh area now not only single family but up to duplexes and triplexes and other things can be built in those areas. What that has done is to uh bring our capacity an additional 8,48 units above what that 10,000 number was before. So if you think about what we are supposed to quote supposed to grow by is this 9,378 units in the uh city of Lakewood by 2044. We have the capacity of almost twice that based on what the city has done with its planning work. The question now becomes will this actually happen? Will developers come in? Will property owners sell or or redevelop themselves? Now, you know, it's where the rubber heat meets the rubber meets the road in order to see if this is actually going to happen. So, in summary, uh we are a barbell community and there are a lot of people that are um actually living in the areas that might be redeveloped and that's another issue for the city. Do we preserve the uh affordable housing for instance that Mr. was just talking about with the rental housing safety program because that is where people at lower incomes can afford to live or are we going to be looking at uh tension over time for redevelopment of those parcels for higher density things which may not be affordable to those who currently live there. There's the uh bipok resident majority in the city as well. And then the uh housing capacity is mostly on underutilized parals. There are issues also in the city and some of you will remember this from our big 2024 process where we have neighborhood streets. You may live along one of them

that are so narrow. the idea of having to have people park on the street because new housing goes in on a lot and you're not allowed as the city to say provide housing, I'm sorry, provide parking for that housing unit. Let them park on the street. There are areas in the city where the city is concerned. It's just there's just not room for that. And so that is an issue that we're trying to track and figure out how to react to. And as I was just mentioning, we've had um the slower growth rate since uh cityhood. Essentially, in order to to actually meet that target that's been assigned to the city, there would need to be some significant increase in the pace of development. So, all of that was very wonky, I'm aware, but these are things that come into uh some of the issues that you'll be dealing with over the year, and I just wanted to provide that information to you. I will um send this updated version out to you actually so you have it to refer to whenever you want. I did make a few tweaks since it was put into the package. But other than that, Mr. Chair, happy to answer any questions.

Anybody have any questions?

So, uh Mrs. spear. So this means I'm this is a question that is the city going to be um easier to work with uh for contractors and builders.

Uh what we have tried to do over the last couple of years with our permitting process first of all is to have it go online. So it is something where you can track any permit that you're submitting for and see exactly where it's at in the process. um we have tried to streamline what is required for particular types of permits as well and shorten the amount of time that it takes. Having said that, there are simply other rules that we have to follow and we have to enforce that are either adopted by the state or by the city itself. And so there's always going to be that review time, but there have been significant efforts to try to improve and shorten the time for people that are trying to pull permits.

And I asked this question from different points of views. Sure.

One as a planning commissioner on on during the during the day. I'm also a contractor and and I have seen that situation being a problem for myself multiple times having somebody I truly don't know who's responsible for the permits but like just taking days or even weeks to get something approved if that process will be able to be that process could be faster. And that's one and the other one I don't know how many people is working on that section or that department but having somebody with construction background I think it will be absolutely fantastic if whoever is in charge of the permit department has a con a construction background and has the mindset of helping instead of um hammering contractors

down so they don't leave the city because with the numbers that we have seen apparently everybody wants to live in Lakewood Like Lakewood cannot keep up with the population moving into Lakewood, which is great. It's going to have a lot more traffic. Yes. And we are going to have a lot of noise in construction apparently. Yes. But if this is the plan coming from a federal government and state government seems like the bottleneck from my point of view is is on that department. And if the city is going to be moving into that direction, just speeding up that process and helping builders, investors, and contractors to to speed up the process, that will be huge. And at the same time, it will bring a lot of income because again, as a contractor, I know I I know there is a lot of contractors and DIYs and homeowners that are doing construction and they say, you know what, if I file the permit, it's going to take me one year to do this. I'm just going to do it without the permit. So they a lot of people do things with no permits so they can do work in one two weeks instead of 10 months.

It will be beneficial for the city truly to do something there and that was not a question I guess it was just a comment right. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else

Commissioner Larson? We we've been looking at these studies for 40 years. Everybody estimates all these things and we do it year in year out. And yet I don't see any governmental action from having paid for all these studies for all these years that is pointed at designing a way to make housing more affordable. with fewer regulations and easier permitting processes. And I wondered if it's possible for Lakewood to change that and perhaps take a step forward to uh engage in department by department uh question as to is there anything that can be done to lower the cost of housing. It seems to me as though we can take this all this counting and make some good use out of it that it's about time we do so.

Anybody else? the property.

Somebody will, right? Um, so certainly for our some of our newer commissioners and for everybody who's been here for a little longer, uh, I would encourage you to print this portion of tonight's brief out, kind of stick it in your back pocket proverbally. Um, it kind of will overlay every conversation we have for the rest of the year. It will be valuable for you to reference. Also, as you move throughout the community and community members are engaging you, you're going to want to know this demographic data. Um, again, it will it will color every conversation that we have for the rest of the year. So, just encourage you to it's here in front of you now. Print it, have it available, and reference it as we move forward. With that, Miss Spear, uh, next steps.

Uh, yes. And I see that Council Member Tabo is here. I don't know if you have any anything you want to say. Yes. Hello. Hello, Planning Commission. Uh, it's nice to see you again. Um, I can give you some updates from kind of the month of February. What's been going on this month? Um, first, uh, starting at the beginning of the month, council approved the appointment of your newest planning commissioner, uh, Miss Katie Crook. So, um, I hope that you get to meet her soon at your next meeting. Um, she, I believe, is in a um, she has a realtor realy background, I believe. So, um, yeah, she will soon be part of your commission. Uh, in February, we also held the public hearing at the beginning of the month. We also held the public hearing for allowed locations, uh, for alcohol and breweries. And then last night, we took action on that item finally. And uh we did approve um we did approve that the that allowance with with some amendments. Um and so we uh amended it so that we are now also allowing distilleries and breweries or excuse me distilleries and tasting rooms in the MF31 zone. So the station district station district zones. So that is the um minor I guess de minor difference from what this planning the from what the planning commission recommended. Um

and just kind of being a little casual here. Um that was an interesting discussion last night uh even for myself because having come from the planning commission where we talked about that item off and you know on over a course of meetings from Octoberish to uh through you know carrying over into the year. Um, I I I I was the only uh member that ended up voting against the the uh passage last night, but only because where I was coming from was I was wanting to stand behind the uh I was wanting to stand behind the recommendation as it came from the planning commission because I felt like uh you know this body held the p public hearing. this body held heard the testimony. This body uh also um had quite a bit of discussion on it in getting the recommendation to MF3 in the first place. And so um I think also quite frankly in my uh greenness as I'm acclimating to this role, I also um you know I I just wanted to make sure that's where I was coming from in my vote. And so, uh, I it's not because I don't support, uh, alcohol in these, you know, expanding alcohol uses in our CBD. That's not it at all. In fact, it was, uh, you know, in hindsight, um, hindsight is 2020. So, uh, but where I was coming from, I guess, as the, um, minority in the room on that action was just wanting to stand behind where where your work, uh, and your

recommendation carried forward to the council. So, I just wanted to uh, give you that update on that. Um and then we have also been talking about the um the title 12 the update of the engineering and development regulations of title 12 and 13 and the municipal code. Uh I think you have had quite a bit of discussion on this in various forms. At our study session, uh we got into some deeper dis deeper discussion. Um there are there are some nuances in the red lines and there are also some nuances in the existing code in the way that we treat um street vacations and particularly street vacations of uh abudding street ends and the waterfront. And so there was some discussion on that as well. The public hearing is open. So uh there is there is room to for testimony and then I believe next um our first March meeting that action will come to that item will come to us for full full discussion, consideration and final action. Um we have also been discussing um the grant that covers the scope of work in the formation of the natural environment climate change program and and committee. We've also discussed the formation of that committee. Um I think there was still some So first I should say first we did pass the we did approve um

signing the authorizing the city manager to sign that grant so that we can get that work started. There was quite a thick scope of work in that in that grant that covers a a lot of work that um I think is very beneficial in terms of how we uh develop and and enhance our policies regarding um things like urban heat islands and the shoreline master plan and I think most notably the urban forestry program because that is I think at the top of uh what not only the planning commission has been hearing for quite a bit of time but also the council. Uh as far as um as far as you know what what and how uh options do we have available to replant or focus planting in certain areas of the city that meet kind of like a a tree bank type of program. but also um how do we come up with a full urban forestry program so that we're meeting our tree canopy go tree canopy goals. So um so um I won't go get too much into it but but none just suffice to say that uh last night we were presented some options for how that committee is formed and that would consist of either the option of creating a whole brand new advisory committee. Uh this would be a brand new potentially a brand new committee to staff complementing the rest of our uh boards and committees. Uh or or the second option is actually to um host the committee through the planning commission um by virtue of like creating

a breakoff like a subtask force of this planning commission. um and the makeup of the members that go into that task force could be um directed by council as to how and who um fits the merits for recruiting for those roles. I think there's still some discussion to be had um among council to kind of weigh those options a little more carefully. So um so that's where we're at so far. And then uh and so that kind of recap. Oh, and then finally, I think most notably too, we also reviewed and passed uh the our city volunteer program. So the city has had an adopt a street program and now we have adapt we have added this adopt a site program. So, this is this is something that actually folks have been asking for. The um excuse me, the community really has been asking for. Um and I think it kind of came to a crux um a couple years ago, maybe last year with the culmination, you know, with discussion of the street ends, but essentially this is a a I think a beneficial program that allows volunteer groups and organizations and entities to at their own will um volunteer and provide uh service to the community by virtue of maintaining a street or a park or a site of their interest uh that they want to get that that they feel that strongly that they want to get behind in in in um keeping keeping Lakewood clean and and and safe. So, so we did we passed that uh that ordinance as well. So, that caps off at least agenda activities and council activities that have happened through

the year or excuse me through the month. Um and then today a small delegate actually it wasn't really a small it was a formal delegation of um the mayor council members uh Pearson Lindholm myself met with our state legislative reps and in the house and senate in Olympia on uh uh presenting our legislative the city's legislative agenda and kind of our asks and um you know it was It was really a a format of 15 to 20 minute kind of 15 to 20 minutes. That's that's what you get in in these offices in Olympia. But um but I think we had very good meetings with our reps. Our reps expressed support uh generally for our for our legislative agenda. So, um, and our legislative agenda includes asking for like $200,000 for the HB barn silo project. So, to find out and to find out and hear from our reps at Olympia that they are supportive of that is uh is very good thing for us going forward. Um, and tomorrow is the Chief Leeshi Honor Walk tomorrow at uh Fort Silicon Park. It's from 12 to noon. For folks that don't know about this, this is uh this is this is a very nice this has traditionally been hosted by the Nquali tribe. Um and they have invited the city of Lakewood to participate with them. They for folks that may not know uh Chief Leshi was a um prominent chief in the Pierce County and uh what's known as Pierce County today but in the Nquali

let shootute speaking area of of uh our South Puget Sound area here. Um he was actually hung um in in the oak tree area uh around uh Kuster Park or Kuster Elementary School um on some apartments nearby. So that grove of oak trees is the historic site um of of uh of of Chief Lee's um death. But the but the Nasquali tribe has begun this activ has begun uh an honor walk in his honor um to uh pay respects to him and they've invited the community um and his hanging was on February 19th. So that's that's February uh tomorrow is February 19th. Yes, thank you. Yesterday was February 17th and um so that so that is why the honor walk is happening tomorrow and um it'd be nice for anyone that wants to go. It'll be a brisk walk around Fort Silicon Park. Um so if you can please you're welcome. Please come check that out. With that I can take questions but that caps off my summary for you.

Commissioner Strada. I was going to recommend to listeners that they attend counseling meetings very informative and much of the information that we have done is finalized there and sometimes we have changes it's good to see the changes in what did we miss perspective there more on strategic I I like to look at it and we're more tactical level. So anyway, they have a bigger picture, but I appreciate the your comments this evening because we don't have to go to the meeting anymore because you're providing a pretty good uh recap of what happened last night. I do appreciate that.

But no, this is so Thank you.

Thank you. What else? Uh well, Miss Ta, I do have one question and I will profusely apologize on the front side of this for not having reviewed last night's discussion in full yet, but with regard to the street end volunteer effort and that's that's coming alive. Um, in the event that there is an altercation or some type of incident happens during one of these events, is the city liable for the activities of of these volunteers that that might be out there? If if an infraction happens, some I don't know, like a harassment of a homeowner or an altercation on a property line or or anything like that. Was there discussion around that or clarity provided? Um there was not discuss well not to that extent. Um but but there is so first the there are parameters in the program to prevent that and and avoid those situations and and having and those parameters involve um these that groups need to uh register with the city first of all. Um, they also they're generally when you register, it's not just register to do a one-time cleanup. It's that you're there to be um uh you're there to adopt the site or the or the street for a year. Although um any party either the city or the entity themsel can um terminate that at any time. So there is some flex you know there is some flexibility but ideally you know we we this ideally it's ideal for a group and an entity to

um show some you know to demonstrate commitment to the site that you adopt because um you know that creates for success over the long o over a short term hopefully leading to a long-term health health of the site but I I think also more pointedly to your question is that the volunteer uh the volunteers also have to sign a um whole um they have to sign off on holding harmless and there's some indemnity um built into the program so that they um I guess release or I don't want to say release liability but they agree to hold this hold the city harmless. Perfect.

Thank you. U Commissioner was adopted last night was just an extension to an existing program. We already have this volunteer program on board comment here also last night was uh how young can you be? I think the uh uh they dropped the the age down to 14 if I'm correct requisites remember that part but anyway it's an extensive speaking as an addition to program

that's right so so the city always had an adopt a street program and now this volunteer program is intended to be broader and more encompassing so that um motivated groups or entities can can adopt a site um or a park or a portion of a park or whatnot. So it doesn't just have to be the street. And also that was that was thank you for bringing that up too because that was my question is that you know making sure that this program is able to uh you know that we can use folks motivated folks like the Cub Scouts or the Girl Scouts or whomever um that want to participate in this and that program allows them to to to be an entity that to do that.

Thank you so much. Does any planning commissioner have anything for the betterment of the group? Go to the order. Oh, Miss Spear, next meeting will be on March 4th. Uh, so hopefully we will have Miss Katie Crook here for you to be able to meet and start to work with. Uh, otherwise you'll get the materials about a week ahead of time. Um, if you have any questions about using your iPads or anything like that, please contact Karen Deo. might be able to help or she'll refer you to the right staff person at the city. Other than that, that's it. Thanks. All right. Perfect. We look forward to meeting Miss Crook when hopefully she's here at our next meeting. The time is 7:54.