A year after Spokane relaxed its rules to allow more duplexes, the city is looking to go further

Facing a housing crisis, Spokane launched a one-year pilot program last summer to encourage the construction of more homes on any given lot, even in areas that once only allowed single-family homes.

This year, with city officials hopeful that those changes have helped spur an uptick in growth, that relaxation of land-use restrictions is expected to be expanded and made permanent.

Last year’s pilot project, “Building Opportunity and Choices for All,” allowed fourplexes and townhomes in all residential areas in the city. The replacement moving forward would allow up to sixplexes in all residential areas, among other changes.

On July 31, the Spokane City Council voted 4-0 to codify this expansion into the city’s comprehensive plan, a guiding document for future growth and land use. An update to city code reflecting those changes is slated for November, Planning Services Director Spencer Gardner wrote in an email.

“We’re going to see a lot of improvements in our neighborhoods, a lot more opportunities for home ownership,” said Councilman Michael Cathcart, who sponsored the comprehensive plan update alongside Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson.

“This allows us to legalize townhomes, so I expect to see lower cost, smaller size, smaller-scale improvements to our neighborhood,” he added. “There are mounds and mounds of trash and gap properties, and those are going to go away.”

In addition to building on last year’s pilot project, the ordinance approved last month aimed at boosting multifamily housing such as duplexes and townhouses was influenced by a new state law.

Earlier this year, the state Legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill that requires cities of a certain size, such as Yakima, Seattle, Renton and Spokane, to relax its density restrictions. The state law, some of which won’t take effect in Spokane until 2026, went further than Spokane’s pilot program approved last year, allowing up to sixplexes to be built in any residential area near rapid transit bus stops like the new City Line, or if two of the six units are affordable housing.

“The state has mandated that we adopt these regulations, and it’s not just us, but other communities as well,” City Council President Lori Kinnear said. “And so, having that piece, knowing that was going to be the law, our planning department went to work and created something that was going to be right for Spokane. And I think this is.”

But the changes to the city’s comprehensive plan last week and to city code expected later this year go yet a step further, allowing up to six units per lot in residential areas, period, Gardner wrote.

“It’s a very simple proposal,” Cathcart said. “It’s very pro-property rights, and it creates opportunities for smaller, less costly housing opportunities.”

Cathcart explained that he hopes to increase neighborhood retail alongside the new housing.

“Like more Wisconsinburger,” he said, highlighting the restaurant that opened in 2014 in a residential area around the South Perry neighborhood.

The changes to the city’s language around land use will emphasize that some nonresidential businesses or facilities, such as schools, churches, grocery stores and small retail businesses, will be allowed in all residential areas, though only if they “integrate into the nature and context of the neighborhood.”

“I asked for design guidelines so that when these buildings were put into neighborhoods they wouldn’t stick out as, ‘Oh my goodness where did that come from,’ ” Kinnear said. “I think it’s important that when you put a triplex or duplex or sixplex in, that it’s compatible with the neighborhood. It doesn’t have to match, but it has to be compatible.”

In 2020, Spokane released a report on the city’s housing needs as part of a yearslong effort to tackle housing affordability. Consultant EcoNorthwest suggested that an overabundance of single-family homes and a low supply of multifamily housing such as fourplexes meant that low- to middle-income households struggled to afford to purchase or even rent a home.

The vacancy rate for apartment units in Spokane County has significantly increased since 2021, when Mayor Nadine Woodward declared a housing emergency in the city. In early 2021, the Washington Center for Real Estate Research reported only 0.5% of all apartments in the county were vacant. Early this year, that vacancy rate was 4.9%, though this remains lower than the statewide average of 5.5%.

Rental prices have continued to increase, though. The average rent in Spokane County in early 2021 was nearly $1,100; two years later, the average rent has increased to over $1,300. Statewide rents increased during the same period from $1,522 to $1,826.

The Building Opportunity pilot program was just one part of a broader attempt to address the problem of housing affordability in the city. The City Council last year expanded a tax exemption for multifamily housing developments, and just recently eliminated parking minimums for new apartments and homes built near city bus routes, a major cost for some development.

City planning staff say these various changes already have begun to have a collective impact on new development.

The pace of new building permits issued for single-family houses slowed this year, from an average of 191 within the first six months of 2021 and 2022 to 91 by the end of June this year. However, permits for new duplexes and other multifamily residences have spiked, more than making up for that dip.

An average of five permits for new duplex units were issued in the first half of 2021 and 2022, compared to 36 this year. An average of nearly 327 multifamily residential units were permitted by the end of June in 2021 and 2022, compared to 509 this year.

“We’ve had good response from people taking out building permits, so in that regard, the pilot has been successful,” Kinnear said. “However, I think it remains to be seen.”

But while allowing higher density in all residential areas is meant to encourage the development of more housing, city staff noted that there are obstacles for the new rules to have a dramatic impact on density.

“Demolition of existing homes represents additional costs and permitting that makes redevelopment less financially feasible,” staff wrote in a June 12 report. “Accordingly, as a great deal of the city is currently built out and, as demolition is less likely to be a part of any redevelopment, it’s unlikely that any part of the city would experience a precipitous rise in density.”

As of June 30, permits have been issued or are under review for only 70 units that would have been illegal before the change in law, according to city staff.

Some neighborhood leaders, including in Latah Valley and Indian Trail, continue to express concerns with the new ordinance, mainly surrounding road congestion and overcrowding.

Kinnear pointed to traffic and infrastructure problems in Latah Valley.

“So, to add more density to that area, more housing, doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. “It’s the same thing with Indian Trail and Five Mile. The road system there is really kind of a mess. So, how are people going to get from point A to point B, if there are 500 more residents up there and everyone has a car? It’s going to be a mess.”

Claudette Granger, the South Indian Trail and Balboa Neighborhood Council chair, said her neighborhood hasn’t seen much of a density impact from the new rules, because it is largely built out.

But increased development in the nearby North Indian Trail neighborhood has had an impact on traffic to the south, she said.

“There hasn’t been good enough planning for transit-oriented development,” Granger said. “The prior plan referenced encouraging more development where there’s access to transit, and it’s true that there are transit stops in our neighborhood within that half-mile window, but it doesn’t run as often as it could.”

While some have expressed concern that allowing more housing units on a given lot could strain infrastructure, city staff wrote that many parts of the city are well below the maximum density already called for in the comprehensive plan, and some areas developed in the last 20 years are below even the minimum density. Staff added that language in the comprehensive plan and in city code reduced the density of new development, and that changes adopted this year would nudge density up toward where it was originally planned.

“There was also some language that I think created confusion about where those types of housing would be allowed and what neighborhoods would be potentially open to allowing these housing types,” Gardner said. “So our comprehensive plan changes provide more clarity about that question and they very clearly indicate that BOCA housing types should be allowed in all areas of the city.”

Even then, many underdeveloped sites still will be constrained by existing limits on development, such as utility connections, sensitive natural areas or topographical issues, staff added. New development also will have to mitigate its impact on city infrastructure such as roads or water systems.