Port Orchard Land Use Committee flags state code deadlines, asks staff to prepare rezone-criteria memo

At the May 20 Land Use Committee meeting, Port Orchard staff told councilmembers about three state bills that will require amendments to the city’s municipal code. Committee members prioritized a bill that creates a 90-day adoption requirement for density bonuses requested by religious organizations, and identified a permit-processing bill with a June 30, 2027 deadline that requires a single person to be responsible for residential projects and act as the SEPA responsible official.

"I support getting this underway now because I think having to scramble to do it in 90 days is it takes a lot of attention all at once," Councilmember Scott Diener said, urging prompt work to prepare the code if requests arrive.

Staff also mentioned House Bill 2266 in the context of permanent supportive housing and discussed it as a lower-priority item; during discussion the bill’s timing was referred to as due in '28, a reference made in the meeting record that was not unambiguously stated as 2028.

Councilmembers debated whether to make zoning changes harder by moving the city’s zoning map into the comprehensive plan (which would require yearly comp-plan amendment cycles) or to keep the current umbrella rezone process that allows faster, quasi-judicial rezonings. Committee members asked for more education on the criteria used to evaluate rezonings and proposed a future work study.

Jim Fisk, Principal Planner, described a practical problem with nonconforming single-family homes in commercial districts: lenders may be reluctant to finance such properties and rebuilding after a loss can be limited by code. "You can only rebuild it if it's less than 50% of the valuation at the time of destruction," Fisk said, noting that rezone requests have sometimes been used to resolve those situations.

The committee directed staff to prepare a memo comparing Port Orchard’s rezone criteria with other cities and to place discussion items on a future docket (a June meeting for initial material and potential inclusion in the 2027 work plan). The committee also agreed by consensus to combine the June and July Land Use Committee meetings into a single meeting on July 8; clerks were asked to update notices.