SEQUIM — Come to Sequim, give us good-looking affordable housing, and we’ll make it worth your while.
That’s the message City Councilman Bill Huizinga wants to send developers.
He’s head of a committee of low-income housing advocates that has overhauled the city’s planned-unit development ordinance.
The proposed changes offer developers bonuses that could change the look — and price — of life in Sequim.
They could also provide a blueprint for other cities seeking to build their stocks of reasonably priced housing.
On Aug. 22 the city Planning Commission unanimously recommended the revised ordinance, and it could become law after a public hearing during a Sept. 11 City Council meeting.
The revisions, Huizinga said, would allow developers to build more homes on small lots, provided they set aside a percentage of those lots as “affordable.”
In 5-acre developments, 20 percent must be affordable housing lots, according to the new version of the ordinance.
For every lot earmarked as affordable, the developer would receive a bonus lot.
In subdivisions of more than 5 acres, developers must set aside 20 percent of the land as open space.
But by building affordable housing into their plans, they can reduce that requirement by half.
The ordinance, then, allows denser housing.
