SEQUIM — Consultant Tom Beckwith has seen progress all over the West, and since Sequim has hired him, he wants to help this city become the next success story.
His goal: to make more affordable housing happen here as Sequim’s population grows to a projected 15,000 over the coming decade. The City Council has charged him with developing an “action plan” it can use to update its policies on housing development.
Even in some of the country’s priciest markets — Santa Fe, N.M., Seattle, the San Juan Islands — Beckwith said working-class people can buy homes in mixed-income neighborhoods, thanks to a set of “tools.”
At a brainstorming session he organized with real estate agents, City Council candidates and housing agencies Wednesday evening at the Guy Cole Convention Center, Beckwith got a stiff dose of Sequim reality.
Higher density
One way a city can promote lower-priced housing construction, he said, is to permit higher density — as in smaller homes built close together, high-rises, or both.
Annette Nesse, chief operations officer of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe and member of Sequim’s Affordable Housing Task Force, tried to be gentle.
“I think you have to look at the history of housing in the Sequim area,” she said. “There might be some push-back from the community that doesn’t appreciate high density.”
Ted Miller, a city planning commissioner running for City Council against incumbent Walt Schubert, added: “One thing we have trouble with is convincing the public of the need for affordable housing.”
Bringing Beckwith still further down to earth was Sequim planning commissioner and City Council candidate Mike East.
“Everybody’s concerned about a view and anything that’s going to obstruct it,” he said.
In another mountain town where he lived, homes were built along the base of the mountain range, “so you look over the top of them.”
Taller buildings
Another approach to high-rise development, Beckwith said, is the “wedding cake,” which has the tallest buildings in the center of the city.
Don Hall, East’s opponent in the City Council race, said that whatever happens, the city should reconsider its height limit, which in most areas is 35 feet.
“That’s got to change,” Hall said.
But Colleen McAleer, a real estate agent with ReMax Fifth Avenue in Sequim, interjected that people would “freak out” if the city tries to go too tall.
She also alluded to a planned high-density development known as CityWalk. Developer Larry Freedman envisions 42 condominiums on a little more than 2 acres off Fifth Avenue, near the Boys & Girls Club and Helen Haller Elementary School. All the condos would be well under $200,000.
But Freedman ran into opposition, McAleer said, because of the nearby commercial strip. Residents worried about “affordable housing” bringing crime came to City Council meetings to complain. Loudly.
Some said, “Oh, we’re going to have murderers and rapists,” McAleer said.
Actually, they spoke about drug dealers, Freedman said.
“They were saying it was going to turn into a ghetto,” too close to the elementary school and youth club, East added.
Beckwith emphasized that density can’t be the lone solution to the affordable-housing maze.
“You’ve got to have more than one bullet in your gun,” he said, to drive down the cost of construction.
Other means to that end include allowing more manufactured homes, setting aside parcels of land for lower-priced developments and waiving permit fees and utility hookup charges.
Bellingham is one city where Beckwith has seen such tactics work; he said an ordinarily $200,000 home can drop to $125,000 when such measures are used.
But “our city doesn’t have money. They can’t waive fees,” McAleer said.
Beckwith forged ahead: Another tool the city might employ is to option a piece of land, master-plan a mixed-income neighborhood on it and then put out a request for proposals. Then developers can compete for the contract to build it, he said.
Cities and organizations elsewhere in the country have established land trusts for affordable housing, Beckwith added.
“We need to catalog the land in town where this could happen,” East said. “We may have to buy property . . . and tear down what’s there.”
McAleer added that she’d like to see city leaders develop a master plan for the whole community.
“We need more planning,” Hall agreed.
Finally Beckwith promised that he would be back, armed with the compiled comments made during Wednesday’s session.
He’ll host an open house for the public to come together and tackle the affordable housing puzzle again, so he can complete the final phase of his contract with the city.
Meantime, organizations such as Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County remain eager to break new ground.
“We’ve got volunteers;, we’ve got hammers and nails,” said Habitat president Rob Onnen. “We’re looking for a place to build.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
