Housing Action Plan
What is the Housing Action Plan project?
Woodinville, like cities across the region, is facing a range of pressing housing issues. Despite new construction, the housing market remains highly competitive and has caused a steep rise in rents and prices for homes. Demographic and workforce changes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to these issues. What can the City do to close the gaps in housing availability and affordability today and prepare for anticipated growth and change in the coming years?
To help answer these questions, the City of Woodinville is using grant funding from the Washington State Department of Commerce to develop a Housing Action Plan (HAP). This includes researching current and future housing needs and issues (as part of the Housing Needs Assessment), then identifying actions the City could take to provide a wider range of affordable housing options at all income levels.
Community engagement is a key component of the HAP - the project team will conduct interviews, a survey (coming soon), and outreach at events during the summer of 2022 to gather community feedback.
The HAP is not a regulatory or binding plan. It is a set of tools that the City can use to help address community challenges. It is also an opportunity to have a community-wide conversation about housing and will help inform the Comprehensive Plan update that the City will be completing in the next two years.
What is the timeline for the HAP?
| Project Kick-Off | Public Engagement Plan Development | Housing Needs Assessment | Draft Housing Action Plan | Draft Available for Public Review & Comments | Final Housing Action Plan (approval process) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May - June 2022 | June - July 2022 | May - October 2022 | November 2022 - January 2023 | January - March 2023 | March - June 2023 |
What do we know now?
As part of our research, we have already uncovered some housing data about Woodinville. Here are some of the key pieces we're working with.
2.6 percent of Woodinville’s population both live and work in Woodinville. Woodinville residents are commuting to Seattle, Redmond, and Bellevue and then more locally to Kirkland and Bothell. The average commute for a Woodinville resident is 29 minutes.
Of these commutes, here are the types of jobs residents are heading toward:
Woodinville had 14,925 jobs in 2020 and is projected to have 21,300 jobs by 2040. This is a 2.1 percent increase each year, resulting in 6,375 more jobs. Most of the job growth is predicted to happen in the FIRE sector (Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate). Woodinville has 2.6 jobs per housing unit, which reflects its status as an employment center, especially for retail and tourism, and its tight housing market.