Home in Tacoma

There are six people running to be the next mayor of Tacoma. On Aug. 5, voters will decide which candidates will advance to the general election. Ahead of the August primary election, Tacomans had a chance to hear from five of those mayoral candidates. Community groups including Tacoma For All, Common Good Tacoma, the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 367 held a forum for candidates running to be the city’s next mayor. All candidates except Tom Ginn participated in the forum.

The city of Tacoma loosened restrictions on what kinds of housing can be built in its neighborhoods. Now, people can build duplexes, triplexes and other multi-unit dwellings in areas that used to be only for single-family homes. The city’s Home in Tacoma initiative was implemented to help address the region’s housing crisis. The flexibility of more units on single lots is meant to vary the kinds of homes people can rent or buy. By doing so, the city hopes that will decrease costs.

The next phase of Tacoma’s attempts to address housing shortages will soon be implemented, as the Tacoma City Council has voted unanimously to adopt the second phase of the Home in Tacoma zoning package.The package of changes to city zoning standards aims to create more opportunities for different types of housing across the city, including by allowing more units to be developed on a standard city lot.

For years, the majority of Tacoma was reserved for single family housing development. But the city, as well as the state of Washington, is moving away from that. NWPB's Lauren Gallup talked with host Phineas Pope.

In season four, episode 19 of the sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” actor Bradley Whitford plays a city council member in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. Whitford tells Amy Poehler’s character, Leslie Knope, “City council isn't about making everyone happy. In fact, every decision you make is going to make a lot of people very unhappy.” Right now, the Tacoma City Council is considering a set of planning commission recommendations under the second phase of Home in Tacoma, the housing action strategy the city has been implementing over the last few years.