Spokane's Interim Housing Ordinance Allowed City to Do 'Some Great Things'

When then Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward declared a housing emergency in 2021, it wasn't a shock to those hearing it.

Spencer Gardner, AICP, who took over as planning director of Spokane a year later, affirms that it reflected what was being felt in the community at the time.

"We knew there was a crisis because we personally felt it," he says. "I think everybody [saw] rents were rising exponentially and house prices had shot up. Everybody had personally experienced or knew somebody who was struggling to find a place to live — even people with decent jobs, and good wages. It was just increasingly hard for people to find housing.

"We weren't the only community dealing with that, and I think there are a lot of complicated factors that went into why that was happening, but we all could feel it."

The emergency declaration was made in concert with a housing action plan the city had commissioned the year before to determine the scale of the problem and offer strategies to address the housing supply and affordability gap. Soon after, the city's planners were tasked with building off one of those strategies — crafting an interim ordinance that would spur housing supply.

"My philosophy was this: We declared an emergency about this. If your house is on fire, you don't lazily walk around trying to figure out which exit to take or what items to [take] with you. You get up and run," Gardner says. "We felt similarly about our housing crisis. If this was an emergency, then we needed to act right away — and the elected officials and the mayor agreed with that."

The Building Opportunity and Choices for All interim ordinance adopted by Spokane in 2022 allowed for up to four housing units to be built on any residential lot, including these townhomes on Mission Avenue that were constructed between two existing homes. Due to the success of the ordinance, permanent code changes were enacted by the city council in late 2023. Photo courtesy of Spencer Gardner, AICP.

No Time to Waste

In July 2022, the city council approved the Building Opportunity and Choices for All (BOCA) interim ordinance that allowed for more housing to be built immediately. The ordinance, which under state law could be in place for six months to a year while city planners worked on a plan to address the issues permanently, specifically allowed up to four housing units to be built on all residential lots regardless of what was previously allowed.

"The interim ordinance allowed us to make those immediate effects without wasting [time]," says KayCee Downey, AICP, a Spokane planner who worked on the ordinance. "Then, through the work plan to [today], we were able to tweak and adjust to feedback as it was playing out."

That ability to adapt on the fly eased concerns from the public, too, as it could always be rescinded if the community didn't like the effect of the ordinance.

"[But] we heard pretty clearly from the public during all of our outreach that they were less concerned with the number of units on the property and more concerned with the size and scale of development and whether it seemed consistent with their neighborhood," Gardner says. "It really boils down to a history of locking neighborhoods in amber and not allowing them to change and grow over time. We felt that allowing for a few additional units on each lot was a way to open up for incremental growth that didn't necessarily overwhelm any one neighborhood but allowed for each to adapt and change over time. That's been born out in our experience so far."

The planners also worked with local developers and real estate stakeholders to explain what the interim ordinance did and how it impacted them. That level of outreach, provided by what was dubbed the missing middle housing support team, aided in navigating the code and solving technical problems.

Storytelling Crucial to Success

City officials did not expect the interim ordinance to solve all the city's housing problems, but it did spur activity, with 76 units approved from July 2022 to October 2023. Meanwhile, a total of 455 units were in pre-development since the ordinance went into effect. As a result of the trial period successes, the city council approved permanent changes to the comprehensive plan and residential code in December 2023, such as removing density limits in residential zones except for new development.

"Sometimes you just have a moment that things align, and you can get some great things done," Gardner says.

And there were lessons to be learned — and replicated — for planners in other towns, like the importance of storytelling in garnering support. In Spokane, planners were able to showcase positive examples like a nonprofit that builds housing for children going through cancer care. The interim ordinance enabled the organization to add more units. But it also helped multigenerational families stay in Spokane and aided people who had children who were graduating but couldn't find affordable housing nearby.

"One of the consistent themes was that everybody knew somebody who was struggling to find housing," Gardner says. "I think that's what led to our success. Ultimately, we grounded it in people's experiences and the struggles they were [feeling] at the moment."

Top image: A townhome project on Manito Boulevard recently finished construction in Spokane, Washington. It was built thanks in part to the Building Opportunity and Choices for All interim ordinance the city council approved in 2022 to spur immediate housing supply. Previously, there was a detached garage on the site that was demolished to allow for the new units to be built. Photo courtesy of Spencer Gardner, AICP.