PORT ANGELES – The city of Port Angeles plans to suspend permit fees for those building accessory dwelling units and other multiple-family housing.
This week, the city council directed staff to prepare an ordinance to suspend permit fees until September 1, next year. That would be for ADUs, duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, cottage developments, and multifamily developments that are used for residential housing available for families at or below 80% AMI.
Councilmember Mike French supported the move, but he also says he’s not sure waiving fees will make the impact some might expect in getting developers to build more multi family units in the city.
“From my perspective, I would just like to say, let’s focus on finding project partners. Let’s build apartment buildings in the city limits. Let’s subsidize the construction for affordable housing and use it as a learning experience. I’m not sure that permit fees are going to have really much of an influence on the end-users’ housing cost. I think that adding supply will definitely affect the end user cost. And so, if we have the idea that removing permit fees will add supply, I’m in favor of it. I’m not sure that’s true,” said French
The permit fee idea came in a package of recommendations from the city’s planning commission that also included reforming water and sewer development charges and increasing density in the city’s R7 zone. City staff say they believe the utility changes are already in the works and the city can already deal with the R7 density.