Community Environment Government

Proposed new Gig Harbor comp plan doubles down on housing density

In its draft 2024 Comprehensive Plan update, the city of Gig Harbor is doubling down on increased housing density.

The plan would increase the number of dwellings allowed per acre within certain zoning districts. The city will unveil it at a public hearing on Monday, March 24, at the Civic Center on Grandview Street.

The plan proposes to quintuple the number of dwelling units that can be built on land with B-2 (commercial/business) zoning in different parts of the city.

Accommodating moderate to low incomes

The comprehensive plan guides the city’s development over the next 20 years. State growth management law requires the city to revise the document every 10 years. Gig Harbor’s update is overdue: The deadline for adopting it was Dec. 31, 2024.

Comp plan updates include targets for housing growth. The state tells cities how many new dwellings they must accommodate. Between now and 2044, Gig Harbor must enable developers to create 662 new homes.

But under a new state law, jurisdictions must accommodate housing for a variety of income levels. Gig Harbor must ensure that people with moderate to low incomes can afford more than half of its new dwellings over the next 20 years.

That means building more duplexes, triplexes and apartment buildings. To facilitate this, the city needs to allow more residential units to be built per acre of land.

Among its changes, the proposed plan allows a fivefold increase in allowed density on a 13-acre parcel in Swede Hill that has seen several years of unsuccessful development efforts, as well as litigation between the city and property owner Henderson Burnham LLC, over zoning.

The plan proposes the same quintupling of allowed density in a large area around Point Fosdick Drive and Olympic Drive.

This graph from Gig Harbor’s draft 2024 Comprehensive Plan update shows that creating duplexes, triplexes and other multi-family housing has not been Gig Harbor’s strong suit.

Opposition already forming

Much of that area is already built out. But upping the density allowed under the district’s B-2 zoning — to 32 dwelling units per acre from the existing 6 units per acre — could spur redevelopment. Some of the neighborhood’s single-story shopping centers and strip malls, built in the 1980s and ’90s, could transform into denser mixed-use projects, said Eric Baker, the city’s director of community development.

Some of the proposed upzones in the draft comp plan are already controversial. Residents from the Henderson Bay Estates and Horizon West developments in Swede Hill will attend the Monday evening hearing to oppose the upzone on Henderson Burnham’s property, said Robert Himes, a former Gig Harbor City Council member who lives in Horizon West.

Neighbors have turned out before to oppose Henderson-Burnham’s plans for multifamily development at the site. “We’ve been down this road before,” Himes said.

What’s disheartening to opponents this time is that the city, not the developer, proposes a much higher level of density than in the surrounding neighborhoods of single-family homes, he said.

Himes predicted a minimum of 20 — and as many as 60 — opponents of the Henderson-Burnham project would turn out for the Monday hearing. He allowed that many neighbors are “suffering from Henderson Burnham property high development fatigue.”

A boost for Village at Harbor Hill?

In at least one part of the city, neighbors may greet the higher density allowed under the plan more warmly. Village at Harbor Hill, a commercial project in Gig Harbor North, has been stalled for more than a decade. Its owners have been unable to secure a grocery store to anchor the 18.5-acre project.

At a meeting held by property owner/developer Raydient last June, residents expressed frustration at this stymied progress. Attendees seemed to accept the idea of moving from a purely commercial project on the site to one with a mix of housing and commercial uses, in order to get the project unstuck.

The draft comp plan update delivers that change, moving the site from a commercial-only land use designation to Planned Community Development-Commercial. The latter zoning allows up to 32 housing units per acre.

Jon Rose, Raydient vice president, said the proposed rezone results from collaboration between his company and the city. “We’ve been working together to explore the potential for a mixed-use approach, including multi-family housing,” he said.

“The community’s suggestions reinforced our belief that residential development is a productive alternative to some of the planned retail space. Additionally, we recognize the city’s need to accommodate population growth under the Growth Management Act,” Rose  said.

But Rose also reiterated earlier statements that Raydient and its partner, Powell Development, would “need to consider selling the property and letting someone else propose a path forward” if they cannot find a grocer to anchor the project.

Single family homes dominate the local market

State law doesn’t require Gig Harbor to provide housing, whether affordable or not. That’s up to property owners and developers. But it must provide the development options that will influence property owners and developers to create homes that are in line with the state’s affordability targets, Baker said.

Providing multi-family housing is not Gig Harbor’s strong suit. Between 2010 and 2024, single family homes comprised 70 percent of new housing built here (compared to 23 percent in Tacoma and 38 percent in University Place), according to the draft comp plan. In 2024, 62 percent of existing housing in the city consisted of single family homes.

The comp plan update proposes some re-zones, such as at Village at Harbor Hill. It also rejiggers existing zoning designations to allow more housing.

The Future Land Use Areas Map from the draft 2024 Gig Harbor Comprehensive Plan update. The pale yellow areas are Residential Low R-1 zones, mostly containing single-family homes, which would not change under the draft comp plan. The red zones around Olympic Drive and Point Fosdick Drive are Commercial/Business B-2, slated to see allowed housing density soar to 32 units per acre, from the current 6 units per acre. The pink area south of Borgen Boulevard includes Village at Harbor Hill, a development that is stalled due to a lack of major tenants. Proposed zoning there is set to shift from commercial/business only (no housing), to mixed use with up to 30 dwelling units per acre.

Areas designated Residential Low (R-1) zoning – colored light yellow in the updated comp plan’s Future Land Use Areas Map — would see no changes. But neighborhoods that are a step up the density ladder, with Residential Medium designations (RB-1 and R-2 zoning), would see at least a doubling in allowed housing density.

Gig Harbor’s Downtown Business area would see a moderate increase, with 12 dwelling units allowed per acre, compared to today’s 8 per acre. The change could give a nudge to redevelopment of downtown’s long-underutilized Peninsula Shopping Center. (Baker said that the city council has “also budgeted for a sub-area plan to be developed for that area to begin later this year. That public process will better inform development possibilities beyond the currently proposed small density increase.”)

While the draft comp plan update specifies the levels of housing density allowed in different districts, the city would work out many of the zoning details that would support these densities after the council adopts the updated comp plan. These include standards like required parking and setbacks.

Little affordable housing in city

Allowing taller buildings is “a conversation” that would take place when ironing out these details. Baker said he doesn’t expect to see many (if any) new 5- to 6 story buildings, but more 3- and 4-story structures in higher density areas is “probably the next iteration.”

Baker downplayed the possibility that higher housing densities allowed under the draft comp plan will unleash a wave of new development. He pointed to the minuscule amount of housing – two units in the last four years – created in Gig Harbor that is affordable to people making 80 percent or less of Area Median Income.

“This has limited housing opportunities for young families, aging residents and many employees” of city businesses, requiring workers “to commute from outside the city, further impacting our road system” and not paying property taxes or other fees to Gig Harbor, Baker said.

He also noted that even when higher density is allowed, some properties have features like slopes and wetlands that prevent buildout to the maximum allowed dwellings.

Henderson Burnham principal Nick Wall echoed that sentiment. With his property’s features, “I don’t know how you get 32 units on there.” Nevertheless, he said he was happy to learn about the proposed upzone. “I’ve been fighting for it for about eight years.”

At least one Gig Harbor elected official is skeptical of allowing higher housing density. “I have huge concerns about the proposed comprehensive plan,” said City Council Member Jeni Woock, who came to office in 2017 as part of a slower-growth movement that emerged after years of torrid development.

Infrastructure concerns

She echoed local residents’ reasons for opposing highly dense residential development on Henderson Burnham’s property.

“For an area like that, you should have sidewalks, you should have public transit, you should have groceries, you should have medical” services in place nearby, she said. Instead, new residents would be in their cars and driving in the nearby Burnham Drive roundabouts, which she characterized as “failing.”

She said that since the state is mandating the higher density, it should pay for a higher share of the infrastructure needed to support growth, “and not put it on the backs of the citizens.”

“Residents’ concerns are valid,” Baker said. “Growth can bring increased traffic and other impacts. The city is working to ensure that developers and property owners pay their share” to support transportation needs and other side effects of development, he said.

“This is through impact fees, connection charges and other mechanisms.”

Growth will come to nearby areas like the Key Peninsula, South Kitsap, and Port Orchard regardless of what the city of Gig Harbor does, he said.  “This new population will still drive to and through the city to access services and retail. They will use city roads, parks and other services but do not pay property taxes or other fees to the city other than sales tax on certain purchases.”

“There is a benefit to having growth live within the city, paying a greater share of infrastructure improvements” such as roads and sewer upgrades, many of which would be needed regardless of growth, he said.

Gig Harbor is not alone in having to balance concerns about growth and affordable housing, Baker said. “This is an issue facing many communities across the state as the Legislature is requiring cities consider obstacles to housing for the range of income bands.”