Olympia 2045: Housing

What’s happening?

Every 10 years, the City is required by State law to review and update its Comprehensive Plan. This update will look out to year 2045 to show, among other things, how the City will accommodate new population and employment growth. It is also an opportunity to make sure the Plan and Development Regulations meet current state requirements that may have changed since the last major update of the Plan.

Each chapter of the Comprehensive Plan will be updated individually, with its own public participation process and opportunities to provide feedback.

This page is for the Housing chapter update. To learn more about the general update process or other chapters, visit our Comprehensive Plan Update home page.

What does the Housing chapter address?

Housing will be a new chapter in the Olympia 2045 plan. Currently, housing issues are addressed in the Land Use and Urban Design and Public Services chapters.

This chapter will provide policies and guidance for addressing the housing shortage in the community. It will address multiple aspects of housing such as: existing housing conditions; supply; affordability; population growth; and planning for future residents of Olympia.

What recent plans/work influence this update?

The City is working to address the varied aspects of the housing issue within the community. Efforts include work to implement the recommendations and policies within the Housing Action Plan(External link), participation on the Regional Housing Council(External link), and a City department dedicated to addressing affordable housing and providing support and temporary housing for unhoused residents.

The Growth Management Act was recently amended to include several new requirements regarding housing issues. To carry out some these requirements, the City of Olympia partnered with Uncommon Bridges to conduct four (4) affinity group conversations to gather community stakeholders for a discussion about housing displacement risk in Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater, and Yelm. Affinity group topics included:

1) Manufactured housing communities,

2) Communities of low-wage workers,

3) Military families and households, and;

4) Accessory dwelling units

A key aspect of this project involves assessing community insight, perceptions, and lived experiences around the impacts of livability, affordability, and displacement in Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, and Yelm. A robust data collection effort, including multi-lingual outreach via community anchors, focus groups, and an open-access multi-modal survey, sought to engage both those who have been frequently engaged as well as new perspectives and experiences not included in past policy and housing assessments conducted in the region.

How to get involved

Review and comment on the public hearing draft below. Comments or questions can be submitted to Casey Schaufler at cschaufl@ci.olympia.wa.us(External link) or olympia2045@ci.olympia.wa.us(External link).

Staff developed a public hearing draft, based on comments from the public, staff, and advisory committee input. The public hearing was held on Monday, January 27, 2025.

• View Housing Chapter Public Hearing Draft