Bellingham for Everyone Learning Series

“Opening the door for Middle Housing: Aligning comprehensive planning, the WA State model code, and design/development of middle housing.”

Matt Hutchins is a principal at CAST architecture, housing advocate, Seattle Planning Commissioner, Passive House designer, policy wonk, zoning hacker, occasional professor, former design-builder and first-time developer. He is focused on abundant housing, climate action through sustainable building and green zoning, and making cities great places for the people who live there.

On February 1st, we’ll be honored to host City of Spokane’s Director of Planning Services, Spencer Gardner to learn about their unique legislatives and planning success to become one of the most successful cities in the United States to legalize new housing.

Even before Washington State’s historical middle housing bill, HB 1110 was passed, the city of Spokane was hard at work developing the framework for innovative middle housing laws. In November 2023, Spokane City Council put the last piece together and passed legislation that went above and beyond HB 1110. They’ve passed what has been called the some of the most innovative middle housing laws in the Northwest, if not the country.

This is all an attempt to increase the housing supply in Spokane, one of the most successful strategies for helping our housing crisis. What unique characteristics make Spokane so successful in adopting these laws? What prompted them to go above and beyond HB 1110? What types of barriers did they experience? What can Bellingham learn, as it reviews and considers the state model code?

Following his presentation, we’ll have time for Q&A, so Bellingham can dig a little deeper and come out of this Learning Series event better prepared for our own deliberations on middle housing adoption.

John Emmeus Davis has been involved in the development of community land trusts since the early 1980s. He assisted with the early development of community land trusts in the United States.

He worked as the housing director and Enterprise Community coordinator for the City of Burlington, Vermont from 1986 to 1996, under mayors Bernie Sanders and Mayor Peter Clavelle. Davis is the President, Center for CLT Innovation.

He was one of the founding partners in Burlington Associates in Community Development in 1993, a consulting cooperative providing assistance to nonprofit organizations and municipal governments in designing and evaluating policies, programs, and projects promoting permanently affordable housing. He previously served as the housing director and Enterprise Community coordinator for the City of Burlington, Vermont. He has also worked as a community organizer and nonprofit executive director in the Appalachian region of East Tennessee. He is on the faculty and board of the National CLT Academy and currently serves as the Academy’s dean.

John will be talking about the state of Land Trusts in the United States, the place they play in our housing crisis, barriers the CLT community faces and how partner organizations and citizens can help.

“The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing within Reach (And Keeping it There)”, with Shane Phillips

This event, hosted by Bellingham For Everyone, we were joined by housing scholar Shane Phillips, who will discuss the findings in his book, “The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing within Reach (And Keeping it There)”. Watch the Recording.

“The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing within Reach (And Keeping it There)”, with Shane Phillips

This event, hosted by Bellingham For Everyone, we were joined by housing scholar Shane Phillips, who will discuss the findings in his book, “The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing within Reach (And Keeping it There)”. Watch the Recording.