One affordable housing project in Battle Ground is moving forward with discussion while the City Council won’t continue hearing from another as the developments raise concerns over parking and residential use in commercial areas.
During their July 17 meeting, Battle Ground City Council heard from representatives of two different affordable housing projects. Though the council wasn’t set to approve anything on either at the meeting, councilors agreed to move forward in discussions about the Weaver Creek Commons project, which seeks a density “bonus.”
Weaver Creek Commons is a proposed 100-unit affordable housing development on the east side of town.
Based on current densities, the project would only be an 80-unit development. Vancouver Housing Authority Chief Real Estate Officer Victor Caesar presented to the council the current plans, which had an estimated total development cost of $30.8 million, or about $388,000 a unit.
Caesar noted affordable housing tends to be more expensive to build than market rate. Vancouver Housing Authority is a long-term owner of its developments, which Caesar said led to a focus on higher quality. The housing authority is required to meet more prevailing wage and environmental requirements than private development, as well.
The housing authority is eyeing a 25% density bonus above what is allowed under current city zoning, which would allow for that 100-unit goal. Having the bonus would increase construction costs by $2.7 million, which would generate more sales tax, reduce cost per-unit by $25,000 and won’t require any more on-site staffing, Caesar said.
The land for Weaver Creek Commons is located at the end of Southeast Clark Avenue. The housing authority has been working on the project since 2021, Caesar said.
Caesar said the housing authority would work with the Battle Ground Education Foundation to refer families at risk of homelessness to fill vacancies at the development.
Allowing for the density bonus would make completing Weaver Creek Commons more feasible. The increased scope allowed the housing authority to leverage more debt to close a $5 million gap the project has, Caesar said.
“A lot of the sources of funds we’ve pretty much tapped,” Caesar said about other funding opportunities.
With the density bonus, Caesar said the housing authority was eyeing 125 parking spaces for Weaver Creek. The current proposal has 34 studio apartments proposed, which he said would help with the number of cars for the two-bedroom units.
Current city code requires 1.5 spaces per unit. City Manager Erin Erdman said there was code to look at parking studies for studio apartments to make adjustments.
Though the buildout of the road connection as part of the development could lead to on-street parking, current code doesn’t allow developments to take that into account to fulfill the parking requirement, Erdman said.
Parking was a concern for both projects, though the second one had a potentially more impactful change proposed.
Prestige Development proposed McNair Plaza, a 60-unit development on Northwest First Way. The project would be a senior-focused apartment building that would require an allowance to avoid commercial use in order to meet parking requirements, Prestige’s Vice President of Housing Development Peggy Sheehan said.
The land for McNair Plaza is currently zoned as a “regional center,” a commercial designation. The zoning requires at least a ground floor of commercial space for any building.
City code’s requirements for commercial space would prevent the building from having all the parking spaces needed for both that portion and the apartment units, Sheehan said.
“The commercial requirement, for us, is going to be the most difficult,” she said.
Apart from being able to fit the parking requirement, providing ground-floor housing would allow for Americans With Disabilities Act units on that floor, which is beneficial for the building’s target senior demographic, Sheehan said. As the proposed development is a block off of Main Street, Prestige also has concerns over visibility for commercial businesses that would ordinarily be required.
Councilor Shane Bowman was concerned that making an exception for McNair Plaza would run counter to the purpose of having the zoning in the first place.
“Everyone wants us to change the zoning to allow them to do something different because it’s going to be this great project for the city, and it’s not saying it isn’t, but that’s the whole reason we go through these zoning processes, to try and kind of lay out our city and how we want it to look,” Bowman said.
Limiting parking was another sore spot for some members of the council, who can recall past times the request was made.
“I don’t care who stands before me and tells me that parking isn’t going to be an issue because it will be an issue in Battle Ground,” Bowman said.
He said the lack of accessibility for non-motorized travel and generally larger vehicles in Battle Ground compared with other cities exacerbated parking woes. Even with current requirements, Bowman said any complex in the city has tenants’ cars parked outside of the property, leading to complaints from neighbors.
Battle Ground Mayor Philip Johnson agreed a lack of parking leads to complaints.
“The neighbors really do like you until you park in front of their house on a permanent basis,” Johnson said.
The council agreed to have staff work with the Vancouver Housing Authority on Weaver Creek Commons to come up with a development agreement including their density bonus and parking requirement allowance. Councilors opted to not consider McNair Place any further.
