Last Tuesday, Master Builders Association of Pierce County held its monthly Legislative Strategy Committee meeting. From that meeting, we have a couple of items of interest for members.
The Pierce County Council will be holding a public hearing on Development Regulation Amendments to Title 18 on Tuesday, March 20th at 3:00 pm. (These amendments are a result of work completed by the Red Tape Reduction Task Force which was aimed at improving the regulatory environment for land development/building in the County). The ordinance has been attached for your review. Please attend if you are available and voice your support for the amendments.
We have also attached the initial “Staff report for Ordinance 2017-89s” to give a general overview, but please note that the ordinance has since been amended by the Community Development Committee. (For example, the proposed amendment to change the Rural 5 setbacks was rejected by the committee).
Puyallup was designated an “Age-Friendly City” by the World Health Organization and AARP in 2016. With that designation, a committee was formed to consider 8 domains which are required to be addressed, one of which includes housing. As part of this process, committee representatives met with the MBA to discuss how they can improve the development/building atmosphere in Puyallup.
Attached is a survey which was handed out at our LSC meeting for MBA Members to provide their feedback on what they view as barriers to building in Puyallup. (Please note that the committee is interested in “attainable” housing, meaning not just low income, but housing that is attainable to ALL income levels). If you have not already completed the survey, please fill the attached copy out and return it to me by March 22nd. You can also view the PowerPoint presentation for more information.
The Gig Harbor City Council will hold a public hearing on the six-month temporary moratorium on new residential development on March 26, 2017 @5:30 p.m. The City will be accepting written comments up until 3:00 p.m. on March 26th. Written comments can be submitted via email to kesterj@cityofgigharbor.net. I encourage you to either attend to speak at the public hearing or submit written comment to the City regarding this issue, especially given that the City implemented this moratorium without any prior notice to the public.