On Sunday, August 12th, Gig Harbor’s Six Month Moratorium on residential building will come to an end. In the six month period, with the help of a consultant, the City staff and Council had to amend the moratorium once to clarify unclear language, set out to divide desired code changes into 3 different groups, Groups 1 and 2 for Code Amendments have been passed to date, Group 3 changes will be pursued after the moratorium.
Group 1 Amendments include defining a serial short plat, prohibiting serial short plats, allowing residential uses in B-2 and C-1 districts as conditional units and as permitted uses in the DB district above or below street-level nonresidential uses, allowing a maximum of eight dwelling units to the acre, eliminating the minimum residential density requirements, eliminating the maximum 12 dwelling units to the acre allowed through the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) process, and eliminating the CUP process to increase the maximum residential density allowed by the underlying zone that the PRD is combined with.
Group 2 Amendments include the removal of critical area buffers from net buildable area for density calculations; changing the minimum and maximum residential densities in R-2, RB-1, WR, WM, and WC zones; requiring 15% tree preservation (of significant trees) in short plats; and requiring guest parking in subdivisions (with ten units or more).
Group 3 Amendments are still in the works. Stay tuned for the proposed changes on our website!