Federal Way City Council approves temporary ban on apartment developments

by RAECHEL DAWSON

Federal Way Mirror Reporter

The Federal Way City Council passed a temporary ban on the development of apartment complexes in a 5-2 vote at its regular council meeting Tuesday night.

Council members Dini Duclos and Martin Moore voted against Council Bill No. 708, a six-month moratorium on the expansion or creation of multifamily housing in Federal Way. The ordinance wasn’t initially on the City Council’s meeting agenda; it was added early in the meeting by a unanimous vote that both placed the item on the agenda and allowed the ordinance to be enacted on its first reading if voted on by five council members.

Typically, an ordinance gets two readings before there’s an opportunity for the council to vote.

With a recommendation from Mayor Jim Ferrell for approval, Assistant City Attorney Mark Orthmann told the council a moratorium is to “maintain the status quo” as city staff continues to research zoning standards that determine where multifamily housing should be. It is currently allowed in six zoning districts, including Commercial Enterprise, City Center Core and City Center Frame zoning.

But Duclos questioned the timing of the moratorium.

“It just strikes me as strange that we’re doing this right after we’ve had some pretty serious crime in the city, and I hope it’s not reflective that multifamily housing is the basis for those crimes,” Duclos said.

In May, the city was hit with three murders within 48 hours. To address community concerns, city officials and the council held an emergency council meeting to address public safety. At the meeting, many citizens questioned multifamily and affordable housing in Federal Way and how the increase was related to crime, while several others defended those who live in apartments or receive Section 8 assistance.

Ferrell said the moratorium “has nothing to do with crime” and was more about the disproportionate impact of population growth on schools.

Councilwoman Kelly Maloney said the council has been talking about zoning designs as they relate to apartments in Federal Way for years, but she added that “the timing is unfortunate that it reflects in this way.”

Kelly Rider with the Housing Development Consortium, speaking during the meeting’s public comment period, reminded the council that there are many Federal Way residents struggling with housing insecurity and homelessness who need a “Safe Place” to turn to in the wake of the recent tragedies. A “Safe Place” is an official designation given to public places like schools and libraries so that young people who are thinking of running away or are homeless can have a safe place to go. The city has designated their own City Hall as a “Safe Place.”

“We know, right now, that 7,000 Federal Way households are paying over half of their income for their housing costs, placing them just one crisis away from homelessness,” Ryder said. “We know that 236 students in the Federal Way school district are struggling with homelessness or living with families and friends, waiting for an affordable place so that they can have a home, and we know that 263 individuals were without shelter in the most recent One Night Count.”

Ryder said these people are struggling, and adopting the multifamily moratorium “will send them a signal that housing options for them are causing a safety problem or that they are to blame.”

“We know, actually, in study after study it has been proven that affordable and multifamily housing is in no way connected to or increases or results in crime, but we know that when people’s needs are met – they’re safe and warm and their stress is reduced – they will, in fact, be less likely to have crime,” she said.

Mark Putnam, the director of All Home King County, said he can’t imagine why the city, which is part of Sound Cities Association– a multi-city collaborative group that works to find solutions to regional problems – would risk setting aside and not developing affordable housing in any part of the county.

“The housing costs and the housing wage for a resident in King County right now is $29 an hour,” he said. “That’s what it costs in this county to afford housing.”

Maloney clarified that the city is not putting a moratorium on affordable housing but on all multifamily housing. However, none of the council members could provide an answer when Duclos asked why a moratorium wasn’t imposed on all housing, including single-family homes.

Moore questioned how likely it was that a developer would want to “put through” another project. Ferrell said he couldn’t say anything publicly at the time, but answered the question with, “Do you really want to roll the dice?”

Although Councilwoman Lydia Assefa-Dawson voted for the moratorium, she, too, had concerns.

“If we’re talking about zoning in terms of what our city to look like and our future, I understand, but I still have concerns as to what’s been discussed,” said Assefa-Dawson, who works for the King County Housing Authority. “You look at who lives in multifamily housing and it still affects the same population: people who can’t afford to own their own homes, seniors, people with challenges and disabilities, the list goes on, and you’re still talking about the same population.”

Reading from a city staff-prepared document, Maloney said that 43 percent of Federal Way’s total housing is multifamily units while 16 percent of that is considered affordable housing. In comparison to other cities in the region, Federal Way is “on the high side”: Kent has 15 percent affordable housing, Renton has 9 percent, Burien has 6 percent, Des Moines has 10 percent, Tukwila has 6 percent, Bellevue has 10 percent, Kirkland has 5 percent, Redmond has 9 percent and Issaquah has 11 percent, she said.

Ultimately, the council agreed to change the wording of the ordinance to clarify that the moratorium was not in response to any recent crime within the city.

In spite of the council’s approval of the moratorium, which immediately went into effect, there will be a public hearing scheduled for the community to give input on the ordinance. The hearing is tentatively scheduled for June 21.

Reach Raechel Dawson at rdawson@federalwaymirror.com