Planning commission presses for housing data as it reopens HDHO and reviews MFR inventory

The Planning Commission spent substantial time discussing the county’s multi‑family residential inventory and the high‑density housing overlay (HDHO) as it considers code amendments to increase housing capacity.

Andrew (county planning staff) reviewed the mapping layers for eligible and applied HDHO parcels and said staff is assembling a county‑level dashboard to complement city datasets. Commissioners and staff emphasized that affordable and high‑density housing remain a county priority. “High‑density housing is still our number one need,” one staff summary noted during the meeting.

Commissioners requested that the housing task force or HASU present updated pipeline metrics to the commission, including the number of HDHO units approved, under construction and occupied. Commissioners referenced prior summary numbers discussed earlier (approximately 300 approved HDHO units with roughly 53 built and occupied as of the last available report) and asked staff to verify updated counts.

Members also discussed staging HDHO capacity (for example, phasing new units closer to town first), and asked staff to check whether incentive programs and technical restrictions (including any limits on white‑tech / modular solutions) would affect HDHO implementation.

Next steps: Planning staff will coordinate a presentation by the housing task force / HASU that includes the pipeline dashboard and updated counts of approved and completed HDHO units, and will explore phased approaches to HDHO implementation.