Pasco staff outlines state 'middle housing' requirements, warns city will forfeit state grants if out of compliance

Director Watson Mountain led a workshop explaining how the 2023 state "middle housing" law will affect Pasco, describing required unit types, timeline and design constraints and answering commissioners’ questions about parking, setbacks, safety and enforcement capacity.

Staff described middle housing as the range of housing between single‑family homes and larger apartment buildings — including duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, cottage clusters and stacked flats — and showed local examples. Watson Mountain said the law changes the metric from units per acre to units per lot and requires Pasco (a Tier 1 city) to allow at least four units per lot; the rule becomes effective for local code this year.

Watson Mountain said the state’s 2023 law "effectively banned single family zoning" by requiring cities to allow middle housing in single‑family zones and that cities have limited ability to impose different standards on middle housing than on single family housing. He added that up to six units could be allowed per lot if two of them are made affordable in perpetuity.

Commissioners pressed staff on practical limitations: emergency vehicle access and fire standards, minimum lot size and parking standards, privacy and setback protections for existing neighborhoods, and whether riverfront or floodplain areas might qualify for limited exemptions. Staff said developments must meet building and fire codes (noting access width and hydrant spacing as constraints), that alternative compliance exemptions are narrow and unlikely to apply in Pasco, and that staff will check shoreline/floodplain rules with legal counsel.

Staff also warned of enforcement and capacity tradeoffs: Watson Mountain said the city already has a substantial code workload (more than 400 code cases a month handled by two full‑time officers) and that implementation may require attention to staffing and inspection resources.

On the consequences of noncompliance, staff repeatedly told commissioners the city risks losing state grants tied to compliance, and possibly federal grants that flow through state programs. The director said staff will prepare comprehensive plan and municipal code updates for commission review later this year and will brief City Council on the topic at its upcoming meeting.

Chair commented that if local officials oppose the state approach, electoral change in Olympia is the remedy; Commissioner Jones and others asked staff to quantify grant exposure and enforcement needs for the commission’s April meeting.

Staff said design guidance could be used to raise product quality without violating the all‑or‑nothing state standard, recommending design standards that apply equally to single‑family and middle housing if the commission seeks elevated design outcomes.