PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend City Council authorized staff to pursue additional grants for the Evans Vista housing project, which could begin construction by fall 2028.
“We need thousands of units of housing in this community in the next 20 years,” Mayor David Faber said Monday. “I don’t think we’re going to get there without proceeding with this project.”
With Jefferson County’s rate of growth, the community is expected to need an additional 2,200 affordable housing units and 4,000 total units by 2045, said Renata Munfrada, the city’s housing grants coordinator.
The project could result in as many as 325 units, Munfrada added.
Of the units, 25 percent would be required to be kept affordable as middle-income units for at least 25 years, as outlined in grants already awarded to the city.
Munfrada said the units could be specified to be affordable for longer than the required time frame, but doing so could make securing traditional financing more difficult for a developer.
That number is increased from the 150 units in the project’s early phases, Public Works Director Steve King said.
The next steps include gauging developer interest and inviting developers out to the site.
“I found that once they come here and see that site and how beautiful it is and how perfect it is for this type of development, it makes them already a little bit more invested in this project,” Munfrada said.
Then the city would issue a request for proposal (RFP). Ideally, the city would work with a master developer, but the city could work with multiple developers across several phases before aiming to begin vertical construction in fall 2028, Munfrada said.
“We think that’s a reasonable and realistic goal for this type of project,” she added.
The 2028 goal is derived from the timeline required by a Connecting Housing to Infrastructure Program (CHIP) grant, which has a Sept. 26 application deadline.
“If we decide to not go for this at this time, are we more likely to not have that opportunity in the future?” council member Libby Urner Wennstrom asked. “Is it worth chasing this rapid timeline?”
Deciding not to pursue the funding would not hurt the city’s chance of pursuing future funding, Munfrada said. Pursuing the funding but failing to deliver could hurt the city’s future opportunities, she added.
“I think there is a great importance to keep this project in front of the funders,” King said. “Sometimes you go after grants even when you know you’re not going to get them because you have to be ready. Sometimes it takes three or four times of application before you’re ready.”
“This is actually really big,” council member Neil Nelson said. “I think that this is possible. I think it’s going to require quite a bit of commitment for everybody involved.”
In public comment, Port Townsend resident Derek Firenze drew attention to air quality considerations due to the property’s proximity to the Port Townsend Paper Corporation’s mill.
“The state mandated that you not create economic health disparities with your planning,” he said. “Evans Vista borders the paper mill, and the latest science from the federal Agency for Toxic Substances (and Disease Registry) concluded there are health risks associated with the air around the mill.”
Council members Ben Thomas, Nelson and Faber each acknowledged the importance of further understanding and addressing concerns about air quality on the property as a part of moving forward.
The property also is adjacent to a homeless encampment that has seen notable growth this year.
“To move forward at the rate of speed that we need to move forward, we’re going to deal with the homeless issue that we’ve got out there,” Nelson said. “That’s already proving to be a challenging concept. I think we can do it, but I think that we need to be aware of the fact that we have to do this.”
Failure to build units at scale will lead to more people experiencing homelessness, Munfrada said.
“We know that homelessness is actually a housing problem and that rising rents are the largest driver to homelessness,” she said.
In recent years, wages have increased incrementally while housing costs have increased exponentially, Munfrada said.
“A study from 2023 compared wages to home costs and found that the current ratio of home prices to wages is nearly double that of what it was during the Great Depression,” she said.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com
