Kenmore Council’s affordable housing mandate would encourage more middle housing

Kenmore council prefers an Inclusionary Zoning mandate to incentivize smaller, more affordable Middle Housing types.

Illustrations from the city show single-family, triplex, ADUs, stacked flats, duplexes, and cottage housing types

By Oliver J. Moffat

In a shift away from the Planning Commission’s recommendation, the Kenmore City Council told staff to draft a housing policy that would encourage smaller, more affordable homes while requiring larger (typically more expensive) new homes to include affordable units or pay a fee.

At the May 12, 2025 meeting, the Kenmore council unanimously directed staff to draft policy for an Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) mandate requiring developers to offer 10% of units larger than 1,750 square feet as affordable or pay a fee-in-lieu.

Mayor Nigel Herbig supported the shift, saying it "...both penalizes what we already have too much of, which is large single-family houses, and incentivizes what we're looking for, which is smaller, more affordable units."

A new 1,600-square-foot townhouse sells for about $827,000, while new single-family homes in Kenmore are typically around 3,000 square feet and sell for over $1 million.

The "project-size threshold” recommendation from the Planning Commission would have exempted single-family homes, duplexes, and triplexes from the mandate — raising the cost of multifamily projects with more than four units, potentially encouraging developers to build larger, more expensive homes.

In contrast, the “unit-size threshold” policy council preferred would exempt smaller, typically more affordable multifamily homes from the mandate, while larger, more expensive homes would pay a fee or offer an affordable unit.

A map from the city shows the R-4 and R-6 zones where a proposed Inclusionary Zoning mandate would apply.

Like cities across the state, Kenmore must update its code to allow “Middle Housing” in neighborhoods that previously allowed only single-family homes. 

Under state law, cities must allow at least two homes per lot and up to four units if one is affordable. Near a transit stop, the allowed density increases to four units with up to six units allowed if one is affordable.

An owner-occupied home must be affordable for people earning 80% of Area Median Income (AMI), and rental units must be affordable to people earning 50% of AMI. Kenmore’s proposed Inclusionary Zoning policy would apply to the R-4 and R-6 zones.

A public hearing on the draft of the rules is planned for June 9, with a final Council vote anticipated on June 23.