Dear District 4 residents,

Who should be able to afford to live in Tacoma? How do you want your neighborhood to look in the future?

As part of Tacoma’s Affordable Housing Action Strategy, Tacoma’s Planning Commission is reviewing the Home In Tacoma Project and is proposing changes to Tacoma’s housing growth strategy, policies and programs to increase housing supply, affordability and choice for current and future residents.

Currently, 75% of the city is zoned only to allow for single-family homes. This doesn’t even allow for duplexes. The new proposals would rezone most of the city to allow for more diverse housing types to create more inclusive, affordable and walkable neighborhoods.  

The city will continue to grow. Adopting a growth strategy that specifies what types of new homes can go where will best preserve the character of our neighborhoods while addressing housing needs. Proposals will be coming before the council and I am asking for your thoughts and feedback.

Read below to see what housing in your neighborhood might look like if we adopt proposals. You can share feedback by emailing planning@cityoftacoma.org and visiting the online Housing Growth Scenarios Map to learn more and provide comments. Your feedback is needed by Friday, April 9.

Sincerely,

Catherine Ushka
District 4 City Council Member

Examples of low-scale residential housing types

Low-scale residential housing types support diverse housing types in structures that are compatible in scale with houses.

Examples of mid-scale residential housing

Mid-scale residential housing types would support mid-scale multifamily housing in areas close to shopping and transit.

Two proposals being considered: Evolve and Transform

The Planning Commission is seeking input on two housing growth scenarios to help determine the housing types and scale to be allowed throughout the city’s neighborhoods (SEE MAPS BELOW). In both scenarios:

• Single-family and Multifamily Low-Density Land Use Designations are replaced by the proposed Low-scale and Mid-scale Residential Land Use Designations, allowing more housing choices citywide
• Areas where housing is not the primary goal are excluded (such as parks, commercial & industrial areas)
• No changes are proposed to Downtown and Centers which already support high-density housing
• Areas near Centers, Corridors, and (in Scenario 2) bus routes are proposed for Mid-scale Residential

SCENARIO 1: Evolve Housing Choices

Under this proposal, zoning in Tacoma would change to 75% Low-scale Residential and 25% Mid-scale Residential.

SCENARIO 2: Transform Housing Choices

Under this proposal, zoning in Tacoma would change to 40% Low-scale Residential and 60% Mid-scale Residential.

Give feedback

Learn more and provide your comments on these proposals:

The full proposals are at www.cityoftacoma.org/homeintacoma.

COMMENTS DEADLINE: Friday, April 9^th to planning@cityoftacoma.org or Planning Commission, 747 Market Street Room 345, Tacoma WA 98402.

Visit the online Housing Growth Scenarios Map to learn more and provide comments.

This is an important time to help set the City’s vision for our neighborhoods, and we will need your collaboration moving forward. The City Council is scheduled to take action on these proposals in June 2021. If Council adopts a new housing vision, there will be another round of community engagement to develop the zoning, standards, infrastructure and other tools we need to support our housing growth.

The City Council has directed staff and the Commission to provide zoning and development standards updates to implement the adopted policy direction by December of 2021. Sign up to receive project updates or email comments and questions to: planning@cityoftacoma.org.