Affordable Housing

Housing affordability is essential to maintaining a healthy, inclusive, and resilient community. The City of Gig Harbor is committed to supporting a variety of housing types and income levels to ensure seniors, essential workers, young families, and all residents, can find and keep a home in our community.
 
 This page provides an overview of our affordable housing efforts, state requirements, tools available to local governments, and ways residents can stay informed and engaged.

Affordable housing is defined as housing that costs no more than 30% of a household's income. It can take many forms—from subsidized apartments to accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH). In Gig Harbor, we strive to support a range of housing options that serve diverse household sizes and income levels.Picture1

Contact Us

  1. Shealynn Smiley

    Housing, Health, and Human Services Program Manager
    Email Shea
    Phone: (253) 530-7070
    More Information

Key Legislation

House Bill 1220 

Amends the Growth Management Act (GMA) to mandate that local governments "plan for and accommodate" housing for all income levels, significantly strengthening the previous goal of simply encouraging affordable housing

Local governments are required to update their housing elements to:

  • Inventory and analyze housing needs by income level, including permanent supportive and emergency housing
  • Identify sufficient land capacity (zoning and density) to meet those needs.
  • Address racial disparities, displacement, and exclusion in housing policies.
  • Document programs and actions to ensure housing availability.

Housing Accountability Act 

  • Builders Remedy: The act creates a "builders remedy" for affordable housing, meaning a city or county cannot deny an affordable housing development unless they have a compliant housing element. 
  • Compliance List and Targeted Review: The act establishes a system to track local government compliance with housing goals.
  • Restrictions on Denials and Conditions: Local governments that are not in compliance with their housing plans may face restrictions on their ability to deny or impose adverse conditions on affordable housing developments. 
  • Eligibility for Certain State Funding: Non-compliant housing elements may limit a jurisdiction’s access to infrastructure and other state funding sources.
  • Focus on Affordable Housing: The bill specifically addresses housing for very low, low-, and moderate-income households, and emergency shelters. 

House Bill 1337 – Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)

  • Mandatory ADU Approval: Cities and counties must allow at least two ADUs on any residential lot within urban growth areas that meets the minimum lot size for the principal dwelling.
  • Flexibility in ADU Type: Local regulations must permit ADUs to be attached, detached, or a combination of both, and conversions of existing structures are also allowed.
  • Minimum Size: Local governments cannot set a minimum size for ADUs below 1,000 square feet.

Affordable Housing Townhall 2025

Affordable Housing Town Hall

On Monday, July 21, 2025, the city hosted an Affordable Housing Town Hall that brought together over 100 community members for a night of learning and discussion. The event was well-received, with the vast majority of participants reporting they were satisfied or very satisfied. It marked a meaningful step in ongoing education and public engagement on housing policy.

Panelists Included:

  • WA Department of Commerce
  • Pierce County Housing Authority
  • South Sound Housing Affordability Partners (SSHAP)
  • City of Gig Harbor Community Development Department
  • City of Gig Harbor Public Works Department

Presentation Materials:

Increasing Housing Opportunities

Regulation Updates

Based on recent state mandates and the growing housing crisis, the 2024 Comprehensive Plan update established goals to increase housing options for new and existing residents. This update expanded density options in many zones, specifically in the centers of local importance, and established direction to revise the zoning map and development regulations accordingly. The focus is on increasing opportunities for townhomes, row housing, accessory dwelling units and multifamily in the city. 

Accessory Dwelling Units - Based on new state mandates, the city updated its code allowances for accessory dwelling units (ADUs). To make development easier and more common, these code updates allow for up to two ADUs per property, reduced setback and other site requirements. 

Zoning Map and Phase 1 Code Development Updates (Fall 2025) - This effort is focused on the update to the zoning map which establishes allowed uses, housing densities and development regulations for future construction. This also includes updates to zoning and other development codes to acknowledge the increased densities allowed by the updated comprehensive plan. 

For more information, please visit the project website. To provide comments, please click here. For more information, please email Katharine Shaffer, Principal Planner, at kshaffer@gigharborwa.gov.

Phase 2 Code Development (June 2026) - Following Phase 1, the city will be updating zoning and subdivision code to address state mandates regarding barriers to housing density. These revisions will primarily be focused on codes applying the centers of local importance (e.g. Gig Harbor North, Kimball, Uptown) but may include other areas.  Areas of potential revisions may include building heights, parking requirements, setbacks, hard surface limits and other site design requirements. More information will be available this Fall. 

Incentives

In addition to updating code requirements, the city is also exploring incentives for private development to include lower-cost housing (own and rent) for those making less than 100% of area median income ($106K per year). These incentives may be monetary (reduction in fees or taxes) or process (expedited permitting). 

Multi-Family Tax Exemption (MFTE) - One incentive currently being explored by the city council, is an MFTE program to be focused on specific areas of the city. This program allows a property tax exemption for up to 12 years for multi-family development (apartments and condominiums) that offer 20% of the new units at rates affordable to families making less than 100% of area median income (less than $106k annually per family). 

This program does not reduce city revenues but instead distributes the exempted tax equally across all other city properties (tax shift). In exchange, the program guarantees affordable units within the city for business employees, hospital workers, wait staff and other eligible families.

For more information regarding the MFTE program, please see the presentation from the city's 2025 Affordable Housing Town Hall or visit the Washington State Department of Commerce webpage.

Traffic Impact Fees – Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) - Also, in response to recent state legislation, the city will be reducing the required traffic impact des for new affordable dwelling units by 50%. This change is being considered by council this summer as part of the full update of traffic impact fees. Please stay tuned as more information becomes available. 

South Sound Housing Affordability Partners (SSHA3P)

The City of Gig Harbor is a founding member of SSHA3P, an intergovernmental collaboration between Pierce County, Pierce County cities, and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, working together to create and preserve affordable, attainable, and accessible housing throughout our communities.

SSHA3P provides advocacy, funding, and developer resources to stimulate affordable housing growth throughout the county.