The Culdesac community in Tempe, Arizona, is one of the developments the Washington delegation will visit. Culdesac’s website touts the project as the first walkable community of its kind.
Eastside housing leaders will be among 26 area business, city, and state representatives who will visit Arizona next to week to learn how the Phoenix region is building housing faster to meet the affordability needs of its population.
The trip is being conducted by the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County, or HDC, an affordable-housing advocacy organization for the 39 cities and towns of King County. The delegation of elected officials, city and state policymakers, and affordable-housing developers are primarily from East King County, including city leaders from Bellevue, Bothell, Kirkland, and Redmond, and their state representatives.
“King County is not building homes at the scale and speed we need; we’re only on track to meet one-third of our new housing needs by 2044,” Patience Malaba, HDC executive director, said in a news release today announcing the trip. “We want this delegation to immediately launch into action — not just see nice buildings but dive into the process and particulars of making progress on affordable housing in our own cities.”
Many Phoenix area leaders are shifting processes in order to house people affordably and securely, according to the release.
The trip’s itinerary includes a walking tour around downtown Mesa where a new zoning code has helped turned sprawling commercial land into mixed-use developments with thousands of new, and often affordable, homes near light rail stations.
The delegation also will tour the Culdesac community in Tempe, a car-light development that continues to expand. With the city’s support, Culdesac is able to offer a dense suburban neighborhood, complete with food options and communal spaces. A panel of advocates and elected officials will provide local perspectives on the project.
Another project on the tour, La Esperanza Terrace affordable-housing development in Phoenix, emerged from land-banking of school district surplus land. Washington’s delegation will learn about the process of creating the first project and laying the groundwork for a pipeline of land-banked affordable-housing opportunities.
Bothell Mayor Mason Thompson added in the release, “A big reason we have such a deep housing shortage is because our suburban development patterns haven’t allowed housing supply to meet demand. We need to produce more homes while making our communities more attractive places to live. I’m hopeful we can bring back what we learn in Arizona to do just that.”
The Arizona Housing Innovation Tour begins on Nov. 16 and is hosted by HDC with support from Natural & Built Environments, OneRedmond, Microsoft, and Alaska Airlines.
