The City makes more Progress on Housing Action Plan

The City of Leavenworth accepted building incentives for affordable and workforce housing on April 26, along with approving a personnel policy update and abandoning the sewer services for the Waterfront Park restrooms.

Chelan County Corporal Monika Haynes reported a potential rise of homeless camps near Blackbird Island, with law enforcement partnering with the new behavioral health units to tackle this issue if it ever arose. Corporal Haynes also disclosed how law enforcement have apprehended a possible suspect for the multiple cases of vehicle prowling.

Reister asked if there was any progress made for the Ski Hill robbery investigation. Haynes said that a cash machine has potentially been recovered, but may look into using DNA matching.

The public hearing was opened for the Affordable Low-Income Housing Incentives action item. According to the Feb. 4th Staff Report, the affordable low-income housing rentals would be retained for at least 50 years and are required to meet design requirements.

The Affordable Housing Incentive Program is intended to provide incentives to builders to create units for the working class population.

Builders can also opt for the following incentives: density increase, lot coverage increase, setback reductions, alley access, parking reductions for low income developments, and height increases within the Tourist Commercial District.

Erik Snyder was the first commentator, asking the council to provide peer-reviewed sources that backed up their claim that more housing availability would equate to affordable housing. Snyder later expressed his belief that this incentive program will not work.

Upper Valley MEND Executive Director Kaylin Bettinger expressed her support for the incentive program and encouraged the council to accept them. Snyder later interrupted Bettinger, asking her what classifies as low-income, and apologized afterwards. Bettinger explained that those who make below the Chelan County median income of $63,380 would qualify as low-income.

Kim Tobiason urged the council to pause on this action and look into funding more than just the three houses Upper Valley MEND hoped to build with Borealis Builders.

Snyder asked how this program would personally incentivise him to build more units on his property if it was not going to be an affordable investment. Mayor Carl J. Florea reminded Snyder that the purpose of this public hearing was to state your position on the matter and not to hold a debate. Development Services Manager Lilith Vespier said that she could answer his questions privately at a later time.


Carrie Kingsley was in favor of the incentives and commends the work Upper Valley MEND has done regarding affordable housing.

Polly Mcintyre understands the need for affordable housing but does not how that will be achieved with the incentive program. She would like to see the council take a pause on this item and look into how this change would impact the community.

Council closed the public hearing portion of the meeting. Mayor Florea tried to motion the item, however Councilmember Anne Hessburg reminded the mayor that the council still needed to discuss the action item before making a motion. Mayor Florea claimed that the council usually makes a motion beforehand and then has a discussion afterwards. Anne rebutted that recent comments may have raised some new questions amongst the council.

Councilmember Jason Lundgren asked if they were still going to make these affordable housing units in perpetuity, rather than over a 50 year span, like they agreed to in the April 12th study session. Vespier noted that the council talked about perpetuity in relation to the workforce grant program, but if they wanted to add that for this action as well, then they can move to make that part of their motion.

Hessburg clarified that the allowance of increased lot coverage would be for properties with more that three units on their property and Vespier confirmed that that was correct.

Councilmember Sharon Waters stressed the need to educate the community on these new housing initiatives and that she would like to see the council take a pause until that can be accomplished.

Councilmember Zeke Reister echoed Lundgren’s concern regarding perpetuity and how that will affect affordable housing in the long-term. Mayor Florea reminded Reister that that can be amended to this item, but that the perpetuity question was more geared towards the workforce grant program.

Councilmember Marco Aurilio brought up community testimony from previous meetings, with people moving away from Leavenworth due to lack of affordable housing. He asked the council whether a public survey would be helpful in statistically gauging what the community supports.

Mayor Florea said that legislation does not usually do statistical polls and that they are not the bottom line of tracking community support. He added that if council members seem to not represent their communities, then those communities can vote them out. Vespier also reminded Aurilio that the Housing Action Plan did receive a public survey and found that affordable housing was unpopular across the community.

Afterwards, council came to a 6-1 vote with Sharon Waters being the only one voting against the item.

Finance Director Chantell Steiner presented the Personnel Policy Update presented at the Study Session on April 12. The update includes changes to travel reimbursement rates and the State’s Per Diem rate structure for 2022, that would be adjusted based on cost-of-living changes. This action was passed unanimously.

Public Works Director Tom Wachholder presented the Professional Services Agreement between the city and RH2 Engineering, in regards to the Waterfront Park Restroom Sewer Force Main Relocation project. Design and engineering services would cost the city $99,850. The city has until October 31, 2022 to abandon sewer and electrical services at the Waterfront Restrooms. The council voted unanimously to accept this contract.