Residential Building Capacity

In June, 2020 the City of Stevenson received a grant from the Washington Department of Commerce to evaluate and modify City regulations which limit residential development. These limitations have had negative side effects for the community’s well being:

• Housing costs increase because supply cannot satisfy demand.
• Utility service costs increase because economies of scale cannot be achieved.
• Builders become frustrated because regulations do not suit the needs of the market.
• New development does nothing to address the housing needs of the existing residents and workforce.

These concerning trends were revealed through a Housing Needs Analysis conducted by the Skamania County Economic Development Council. This analysis projects a need for almost 2,000 housing units over the next 20 years. This analysis also determined 45% of the new housing should to be attainable for households earning less than $88,000 per year. In Stevenson alone over the next 10 years another report anticipates the need for more than 225 homes. Unfortunately, this immense need does not align with current City and County zoning, nor are public water and sewer utilities available to serve this development. As a result of these regulatory and infrastructure deficiencies, less than 20% of the buildable residential land in the Skamania County is available to serve these needs. Fortunately, the City and the County have the power to fix this problem. The City is doing its part by reevaluating its:

• Zoning Code -This effort will consider policies to 1) make it easier to build more and 2) make it harder to build less.
• Zoning Map - This effort will consider expanding where multi-family residential construction is allowed.
• Utility Policies - This effort will consider whether and under what circumstances properties outside of city limits can access city utilities.

Please email planning@ci.stevenson.wa.us if you’d like to be added to the email list for updates on this effort.

Contract: N/A
Progress: 75% Complete
Budget: $25k / $0 Spent
Funding: $25k Department of Commerce Grant
Planned Completion Date: October 31, 2021