North Bend’s City Council debated on density, affordable and cottage housing, and what citizens really want from city zoning at it’s Feb. 2 meeting. The end results of the discussion were an interim, or emergency, change to the city’s newest development zone and plans to further consider residential development in an employment park zone, and design standards for cottage housing.
Councilwoman Jeanne Pettersen proposed the interim code change, which raised the minimum required lot size, width, and setbacks, and reduced the maximum allowed impervious surface in the constrained low-density residential zone.
The zone, established in December, is located between West North Bend Way and Northwest 14th Street, most of it within the city’s future growth area. Density is limited to two units per acre, because the area is flood-prone.
City Planning and Economic Development Director Gina Estep discussed the staff recommendation at the meeting. Specifics on the maximum and minimum zone allowances were adopted Jan. 5, she said, and “unfortunately for us … from Jan. 5 to today, it’s become clear that the provisions that were adopted that night don’t really reflect the council’s intent behind that zone.”
Councilman Martin Volken cast the only vote opposing the change, citing residents’ concerns about sprawl. Brenden Elwood commented that he’d worked on the new zone as a planning commissioner and “the spirit of the constrained low-density residential zone was to protect sensitive areas.”
Mayor Ken Hearing asked whether the changes called for in the emergency regulation would allow adequate space for developing roads and other infrastructure requirements. Estep said the answer was complicated, because of other minimum requirements, such as for open space, but a typical measure called for about 22 percent of a site to be reserved for those infrastructure needs. The emergency change would leave about 17 percent of the site.
However, most of the council was in favor of the change, saying it better reflected their original goals for that zone.
As an interim, or emergency change, the new requirements were effective immediately following the council’s approval. The changes will now be sent to the city’s planning commission for review and recommendation on a permanent code change recommendation.
The city zoning map can be downloaded from the city of North Bend’s website, http://northbendwa.gov/documentcenter/home/view/891.
Two other development issues, a request to expand a residential development overlay of the city’s employment park zone, and revisions to the standards for cottage housing, were tabled for future discussion.
Robert Hibbs, who submitted the request for the expanded residential development overlay, described to the council his plans for the three lots, almost six acres, he proposed to add to the overlay. He’d owned the land for more than 38 years and hoped to obtain federal Housing and Urban Development funds to build 120 affordable housing units on the site.
To accomplish that, he said he’d need to build three-story buildings, with 12 units per building instead of the currently allowed 10.
Council members were interested in the possibilities of affordable housing, but were reluctant to agree to the changes without an opportunity to review the proposed development again before it went to permitting, so the issue was tabled.
The language in the cottage housing standards document will also be reviewed at a future meeting. Specifically, the code requires that 30 percent of a site’s homes can have second stories no larger than 50 percent of the main floor.
Pettersen was concerned about the requirement for the other 70 percent of the homes, saying “The way we worded this, we could end up with houses that looked like mushrooms.”
There seemed to be no specification preventing 70 percent of a site’s homes from building second stories larger than the first. The council agreed to revisit the code at a future meeting.
