Get Involved! The City is creating a Housing Action Plan, which will address housing costs and availability in Lynnwood.

by Phong Nguyen | November 23, 2020 10:27 am

The City is creating a Housing Action Plan to promote more housing diversity, affordability, and access to opportunity for all income levels. The Plan will address current and future housing needs. When complete in early 2021, Lynnwood’s Housing Action Plan will be a comprehensive tool that helps the City implement housing policies, programs, and strategies.

Lynnwood’s Housing Action Plan is:

• An actionable policy document that outlines how to meet all of Lynnwood’s housing needs.
• Based on data and analysis vetted and grounded through an inclusive and robust public process.
• A comprehensive approach to leverage resources and implement cohesive, effective, and feasible housing strategies tailored to the Lynnwood community.
• Tailored to the housing needs of the Lynnwood community to ensure decent, safe, and affordable housing for all.

Housing Action Plan Overview

What is a Housing Action Plan (HAP)?

The Housing Action Plan is a policy document and implementation guide to address current and future housing needs of the Lynnwood community.  A Housing Action Plan (HAP) uses an equity lens to develop clear, actionable strategies to meet current and projected housing needs. Washington State law requires the HAP identify strategies to encourage construction of:

• A greater variety of housing types; and
• Housing at prices that are accessible to people with a wide range of incomes.

Why is the city developing this HAP now?

Housing affordability is a high priority for Lynnwood residents and elected officials. While several housing policies and programs are occurring in the City of Lynnwood, there is a need for an updated coordinated housing strategy. 

To address these issues the City of Lynnwood applied for and received a $100,000 grant from the Department of Commerce (under ES2HB 1923) to develop a HAP.

Project Schedule

The Department of Commerce requires the HAP to be adopted in June 2021. The timeline below identifies project milestones. The final Plan will detail next steps for implementation so the HAP’s goals can be fully realized.

Public outreach and engagement are a critical part of developing the Housing Action Plan. Meaningful public engagement is an important goal of this project and the City is exploring alternative public engagement methods that comply with Governor Jay Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order. In-person community engagement will be postponed until further notice, potentially impacting the timeline and some milestones. 

Get Involved!

Lynnwood’s community includes a wide range of residents and households with unique needs and challenges. The City wants to hear from the community to develop the HAP so that the housing strategies reflect all residents and are based on community members’ knowledge of Lynnwood’s strengths and challenges.

The Housing Action Plan will be shaped by prior planning efforts, data, analysis, and an inclusive public process. In response to public health considerations for COVID-19, in-person community engagement will be postponed until further notice. However, there are other ways to get involved:

• We want to hear from you! Share your ideas for how Lynnwood can grow together. A survey[1] is available through November 30.
• Sign up to receive email announcements about this project. Select “Housing Action Plan” to receive project updates. If you already receive City of Lynnwood emails, be sure to update your preferences. 
• Stay tuned! Check this website for more opportunities to share your ideas as this project continues. 

Learn More

The Community Development Department is the project lead for the Housing Action Plan. To learn more, reach out to the project manager Kristen Holdsworth, AICP, Senior Planner at kholdsworth@lynnwoodwa.gov[2] or 425-670-5409

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