Dear Orting City Council 

Orting is known as a Charming Place to Live, Work, Play, and Do Business 

We are a destination for park visitors, mountain adventurers, and river lovers.  Our community is full of events during the summer months:  from farmers' markets to Summerfest to the Kingsmen Car Show.  And in the winter months, we host our very own Red Hat Days, Pumpkinfest, and countless holiday celebrations.  There are many reasons generations of residents chose to establish roots in Orting.  However, due to the incredible housing market of the last decade, we face a scenario unique to our time. 

The average income in Orting cannot afford the entry-level house in Orting.

Where We Are Going and How We Got Here

The Orting of tomorrow may end up a retail housing speculator's paradise.  

Over the next twenty-five years, the Puget Sound region needs to add 810,000 additional households to account for inbound population growth. 

Eight hundred thousand units is:

• 229% of the current number of units in all of Pierce County.
• More than all the current units occupied and vacant, in Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap Counties.
• An entire new county the size of King County.

In communities like Orting and the surrounding county, this population bomb is something we are already experiencing.  As new residents get forced to move out from the core of the Puget Sound, desirable communities like Orting see skyrocketing home valuations and proportionally high rental prices.  A recent review of available housing stock in Orting showed the cheapest available home for sale at $410,000 and zero homes or apartments for rent in the city limits.  We have an evident crisis of housing availability and affordability. Moreover, the housing affordability crisis is resulting in an emerging community identity crisis. 

The people who grew up here, live here, and want to retire here cannot afford to do those things.  Our own City Clerk, for example, retired early to move out of state.  Her concerns are that the retirement income she will receive from decades of service to our community is insufficient to afford housing in the very community, and county, she faithfully served.

Good Policy Can Mitigate Aspects of this Crisis

This year, the council wisely adopted several zoning updates to address housing development and zoning modernization using HB1923 funds.  This action is an example of how a smart policy opportunity (HB1923) created incentives that Orting and twenty-six other Puget Sound communities used to adopt meaningful ordinance updates to allow for additional entry-level and rental housing in their communities.   Policies like HB1923 will be part of the solution to our housing affordability crisis.  But these policy options do not originate in a vacuum; they are informed, crafted, and championed by those who speak the loudest and with the best evidence. 

Planning to Avoid Catastrophe Is a Leadership Activity

We should be proud of recognizing the housing affordability problem and our initial steps to address it.  Of the 288 cities in Washington State and 81 in the Puget Sound, Orting was one of only 28 who had the forethought to address the need for affordable housing with HB1923 policy updates. The results of these leadership actions will be increased capacity in Orting for housing at all income levels, especially entry-level, income-limited, and retirement-style housing.  Nevertheless, we must continue to identify and champion opportunities like HB1923. 

We have a mandate to act on the housing crisis we see before us.  There will inevitably be housing affordability policies that mandate us to act in ways we may not wish to.  We should act now and influence how Pierce County and Washington State craft that policy.  We should be a voice of reason in those policy solutions and steer them towards practicality for semi-rural suburban communities like Orting. 

Orting Has a Long History; It is Worth Preserving

Since 1854, we have been a family-focused community.  Generations grew up here.  Many stayed here after high school or college.  They built homes, they worked for the city, they created businesses and reared their kids here.  We live on streets named after these families; many of them still live among us now: Silvernail, Colorossi, Sasaki…

What is our vision for Orting in the future?  Are we to be a city with little familial connection to its past?  Or will we be a community whose values are defined only by those with no link to our past?  Those who have displaced the many families that grew up here but can't afford to live here.

Will we be a community that our children are unable to afford to live in?

Or, will there always be a place in our community for buyers and renters of all income levels to live?  The high school graduate working through an apprenticeship?  The single-parent household?  The widower, with three children?

There Is No Status-Quo Solution to Our Current Reality

Doing nothing is a commitment to being told what to do by others that have no interest in the particulars of Orting in their heart.  We should seek to engage in every discussion about housing affordability, housing policy, and solutions.  We should strive to lead in those discussions too. 

You are aware of the now-forming South Sound Housing Affordability Partners (SSHAP).  Through SSHAP, we will collaborate with communities from the entirety of Pierce County on our shared housing challenges.  In SSHAP, we will advocate for policy lobbying, policy research, and policy proposals that reflect our values.  In partnering for thoughtful housing planning, we will root ourselves into the more extensive conversation about solutions.  And we will do all this without ceding agency over our destiny. 

SSHAP is made possible by another clever policy opportunity from the state.  Similar to how HB1923 allowed us to use State money to fund housing affordability focused ordinance updates, SHB1406 enables us to retain a portion of local State sales tax to fund partnerships like SSHAP.  These funds are normally remitted to the State General Fund - now they may be retained locally to help us create regionally practical solutions.

In July, I will bring you an intergovernmental agreement that commits us to pool our SHB1406 funds to join in establishing SSHAP as a regional partnership. SSHAP's mission is to collaborate on housing affordability policy and solutions. 

With your support for SSHAP, Orting will continue to be a leading voice in the solution to our regional emergency. 

*This article is the opinion of the Mayor of Orting and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff or City Council