§ 10.5 - Adequate Provision of Housing Through Preservation of Housing

• Jurisdiction: Washington

§10.5 ADEQUATE PROVISION OF HOUSING THROUGH PRESERVATION OF HOUSING

The tension between preserving existing housing stock and neighborhoods in an Urban Growth Area (UGA) and challenging historic low-density patterns of development was illustrated in Master Builder's Ass'n of Pierce Cnty. v. Pierce Cnty., CPSGMHB No. 02-3-0010, 2002 WL 31998487 at *10 (Final Decision and Order at 14-15) (Feb. 4, 2003), http://www.gmhb.wa.gov/LoadDocument.aspx?did=1655. In that case the Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board (CPSGMHB) held that although the GMA encourages preservation of existing housing stock and requires that every plan include a housing element that ensures the vitality and character of established residential neighborhoods, "any opportunity to perpetuate an 'historic low-density residential' development pattern" of a given neighborhood ends when a county includes that neighborhood within its UGA. Id., 2002 WL 31998487 at *10 (Final Decision and Order at 14) (emphasis in original).

To preserve low-income housing accounted for within an inventory, jurisdictions have sought to find mechanisms to keep affordable housing in place or assist those living in that housing during their relocation. Doing so has been fraught with legal challenges.

For instance, in 1980, the Seattle enacted a housing preservation ordinance (HPO). The purpose of this ordinance was "to mitigate the loss of low income housing in the city caused by demolition for development and to reduce the hardships experienced by displaced tenants." Robinson v. City of Seattle, 119 Wn.2d 34, 42, 830 P.2d 318, 324 (1992). The first iteration (HPO-1) "required that before a change of use or demolition of housing units could...