2018-03-14 Community Development and Neighborhoods Minutes

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Community Development & NeighborhoodsMinutes.............................................................................................March 13, 2018 Whereas, the City wishes to provide more affordable housing for its residents; and Whereas, the City wishes to minimize impact on surrounding single family homes by limiting ADUs and DADUs to one per lot and requiring documented homeowner occupancy of at least one of the units 100% of the time; and Councilmember Hougardy noted that she has been researching the impact of ADUs on affordable housing and there are differences of opinion. She suggested it would be helpful to contact an organization like A Regional Coalition for Housing (ARCH) to see if their policy efforts toward increasing ADUs are quantifiably helpful with increasing affordable housing stock. Staff offered that providing smaller units can naturally alleviate some housing pressure. All three Councilmembers expressed concern with getting the parking requirement right. Staff suggested that one solution could be to link parking requirements to number of bedrooms rather than square footage, as that may more accurately reflect occupancy. Councilmember McLeod stated that would make sense for Tukwila. Councilmember Robertson requested the addition of a specific size limit to the waiver request for maximum permitted area for all ADUs. Staff noted that with regard to waivers it is important to incentivize compliance with regulations, or people could continue to provide illegal ADUs and life safety concerns of the City will continue to go unaddressed. The Committee requested the following for the Committee of the Whole discussion: Amend to link parking requirements to number of bedrooms rather than square footage Add pages illustrating lot sizes with varying examples of ADUs Remove the parking waiver option Flag the maximum square footage for a discussion item NO RECOMMENDATION. FORWARD TO APRIL 9, 2018 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE. Short-Term Rental Regulations D. Staff is seeking Committee direction on whether to prohibit or regulate short-term rentals for ADUs and single-family dwellings. The code currently prohibits short-term (less than 30 days) rentals in multi-family dwellings but is silent on single-family and mobile-home dwellings. Dormitories, boarding houses, and bed and breakfast facilities are also unrestricted for short and long-term rentals. Due to the growth of such companies as Airbnb and Vacation Rental by Owner, many cities are working to implement regulations in this area, with Seattle and Kirkland taking action at the end of 2017. Short-term rentals are already occurring, even in multi-family dwellings, with a December 28, 2017 online search revealing around 35 listings for Tukwila. If the City Council were to allow short-term rentals, property owners would be licensed through the Rental Housing Program which would provide a modest revenue increase, although there would be additional work associated with enforcement. Councilmember Robertson spoke about a short-term rental on his block that was advertised on Airbnb and made his neighbors very unhappy due to bringing more strangers and vehicles around. Councilmember McLeod spoke in