Project Overview

The City of Puyallup has adopted a Housing Action Plan (HAP) to identify strategies, actions, and policy tools to create a variety of housing options to meet community needs. Puyallup received a grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce to develop this HAP to address current and future housing needs. The HAP was adopted in September 2021.

A Housing Action Plan is a policy document with a set of concrete steps for the City to support and encourage new housing production that meets local housing needs. The HAP used an equity lens to develop clear, actionable strategies to meet current and future housing needs.
Public outreach/engagement was conducted using a variety of approaches to ensure a cross-section of the community’s voices were included in the development of the HAP. Those methods included:

• Community Survey: Housing Needs
• Interviews with community stakeholders
• Online Ideas Wall
• Online Community Survey: Draft Plan
• Meetings with panel of experts
• Interviews with City Council Members
• Updates to City Council, Boards, and Commissions

Puyallup's Housing Action Plan is: 

• An actionable policy document that outlines how to meet Puyallup’s housing needs.
• Based on data and analysis grounded in an inclusive and robust public process.
• A comprehensive road map to implement cohesive, effective, and feasible housing strategies tailored to the Puyallup community.
• Tailored to the housing needs of the Puyallup community to ensure safe, healthy, and affordable housing for all.

To learn more about Puyallup’s Housing Action Plan project, community demographics, and information from the recently completed Housing Needs Assessment, watch these narrated presentations.

Implementation

The City Council has directed the Planning Division to begin implementing certain strategies from the HAP. Work currently underway or recently completed includes:

• High Priority (HP) Strategy 8: Adopting code amendments regarding permanent supportive housing, consistent with HB 1220 (2021).
• HP Strategy 5: Considering expansion of the area eligible for the multi-family tax exemption. 

Two strategies are anticipated to be implemented as part of the city’s 2024 Periodic Comprehensive Plan Update project:

• HP Strategy 2: Rezone areas to facilitate higher density and more diverse housing types. Specific areas to consider include around frequent high-capacity transit (See map) and near additional resources and amenities.
• HP Strategy 6: Revise existing zoning provisions, such as:
  1. Consolidate single-family zones
  2. Expand missing middle housing opportunities
  3. Consider different code approach (for example, form-based code)
  4. Consider modifications to parking and commercial mixed-use regulations

For more information on the status of the work on strategies 2 and 6, please go to the Comp Plan Update project webpage here.