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Home in Tacoma Update – September 2024

Many thanks to AIA Seattle for hosting a continuing education seminar this week which features multiple planning managers from Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, and Shoreline talking about their cities and how they’re approaching the middle housing code changes. Today we’ll focus on updating everyone on TACOMA.

Tacoma is making progress on middle housing, and it now has some working calendar dates attached to everything. Per my discussions this week with Shirley Schultz, Interim Planning Manager, the final stages of the process are coming up fast. City Council is expected to review final code language in October / November with Council votes happening as soon as early November. Assuming early November voting in the affirmative, that means the code could be live as early as February 1, 2025! Lots of variables still in play, but this is a big step in the right direction.

In the meantime, we have been looking at the new code and in particular the UR-3 zoning. This zoning allows the highest density possible on sites but clearly the code is written for a particular type of site or unit size. Building widths are limited to 90’ x 100’ footprints and 3 stories max before density bonuses are applied. Our sketches revealed (2) 2-bed units, (1) 1-bed unit) and (2) open-1 bed units per floor plate fit in this arrangement at a feasibility level of design, or approximately 15 units/building under base code. To hit a reasonable site density, we had to use the bonus tiers to get up to 20 unit/building and add another floor. Unit mix could obviously be adjusted, but we were trying to stay in a non-elevator building configuration. We plan on submitting for a preapp soon to test these assumptions out and get City feedback, as we anticipate the City receiving numerous building permit applications once the new code goes into full effect.

Stay tuned as we learn more about Home in Tacoma and how soon this plan becomes reality!