A suite of zoning changes under consideration by the Tacoma Planning Commission provoked its "most well-attended" hearing in decades.
"Several hundred people packed a Tacoma meeting room [August 18], and for more than four hours told the city Planning Commission in no uncertain terms that its ideas for building more types of housing were bad," reports Kathleen Cooper.
"Person after person lined up to demand a change to the law that allows six-story buildings in neighborhood business districts. In about equal number, people protested the idea of allowing single-family homes to be turned into duplexes and triplexes, particularly in historic neighborhoods."
The public outcry came in response to the Planning Commission's consideration of annual amendments to the city's Comprehensive Plan. Tacoma residents have seized on to the example of the Proctor neighborhood, which already allows six-story buildings. A neighborhood group is organizing to reduce height limits there, and one speaker at the August 18 hearing described a new building in Proctor as a "six-story monstrosity" that "destroyed the character of that part of town."
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