NPR: Growth Management Act, housing

ANNOUNCER
One phase of the state’s comprehensive Growth Management Act requires that local governments provide for adequate low—cost housing. Wenatchee is the first city in Washington State to propose meeting those requirements by allowing manufactured housing throughout the city. Diane De Rooy reports.

DIANE
A population boom in the Wenatchee Valley has sent housing costs up, while wages have remained relatively low. As a result, affordable housing has been priced out of reach for about half of the population.

The city’s planning department has proposed an ordinance allowing manufactured housing to be sited without discrimination throughout the residential area.

But some local citizens are opposed to the ordinance, envisioning barren city lots occupied by aluminum—clad mobile homes. City planner Bob Hughes says that stigma is well deserved. But he adds that the industry has responded to complaints of shoddy construction by making their homes solid and aesthetically pleasing.

Since the Uniform Building Code requires that a manufactured home must cost more than the price of the lot, Hughes thinks most homes will cost about $80,000, an unheard—of price for a home in Wenatchee today.

He adds that the distinction between “affordable” and “low-income” housing needs to be considered by neighbors and the real estate industry.

Hughes says allowing more manufactured housing will lessen the margin between homeowners and renters by 25 percent.

For Northwest Public Radio, I’m Diane De Rooy.