Housing

Support land use patterns that:

• Maintain or enhance community levels of service.

• Foster the long-term fiscal health of the community.

• Maintain and enhance resident quality of life.

• Promote compatible, well-designed development.

• Implement goals and policies of the comprehensive plan, related master plan and/or facility plans.

• Are compatible with FAFB and airport overlay areas.

• Support a walkable and bikeable City.

• Provide a range of housing types and options.

• Support living wage employment opportunities for its residents.

• Encourage travel demand reduction through use of mixed-use residential, commercial, and institutional development.

• Advance multimodal facilities to reduce reliance on single-occupancy vehicles.

• Promote connectivity between developments.

Apply or revise zoning designations with careful consideration of factors including:

• Future land use mapping.

• Compatibility with surrounding land uses.

• Restrictions in FAFB and airport overlay areas.

• Infrastructure and service plans.

• Existing and future traffic patterns are supported through a street network classified by function that enforces multimodal design standards on the City and private development.

• Goals and policies of the Comprehensive Plan, related Master Plan, and/or Facility Plans.

• Housing needs and affordability for all income ranges.

• Economic development and implementation of the Downtown Plan.

• Implementation of the Industrial Sub-Area Plan.

Encourage development patterns that provide suitably-scaled, daily needs services within ¼ mile of residential areas, allowing a measure of independence for those who cannot or choose not to drive.

Strategy:

• Identify small-scale neighborhood commercial sites that are suitable to service existing and planned residential development. These should be located along transit corridors.

• Ensure access to STA transit access is within ¼-mile of multifamily and large-scale single-family residential centers.

• Ensure access to parks within the 10 minute or ¼ mile of residential areas.

• Promote connectivity between developments.

Action:

• Rezone areas suitable for neighborhood commercial development following public outreach engagement.

• Assess, plan, and implement multi-modal transportation needs for neighborhood commercial areas.

• Promote the development of park spaces, including pocket parks, trails, multi-use paths, and more.

Plan for compact, pedestrian-oriented development patterns in neighborhoods and commercial areas.

Strategy:

• Develop and maintain design standards for pedestrian-oriented environment.

• Ensure access to STA transit within ¼-mile of multifamily and large-scale single-family residential centers.

• Promote the integration of pedestrian-friendly designs into subdivisions, incorporating features such as landscape boulevards, buffers, street art, “pocket” parks, traffic control measures, and pedestrian/bicycle infrastructure, such as benches and bike racks.

• Require private developments to conduct bicycle and pedestrian analyses, along with traffic impact analyses, as determined by the City engineer during scope sessions.

• Enforce Multimodal Level of Service (LOS) goals for private development, incentivizing compliance by offering reductions in the City traffic impact fee for meeting these standards. (See Transportation Section for multimodal LOS standards/definition.)

Action:

• Develop new pedestrian-oriented design standards that will support missing middle housing development and human-scaled neighborhood design with an emphasis on ground-related housing.

• Initiate discussions with SR 2 commercial owners regarding signs and design standards (including street trees) and the need for public intervention in the rejuvenation of SR 2.

• Develop design guidelines for commercial development on SR 2 which is pedestrian friendly, encourages a grouping of like activities, and is architecturally consistent.

Require, when possible, traditional residential development patterns, typically featuring:

• Housing that faces the street edge.

• Utilization of alleys for parking and service access.

• An interconnected grid or small-block street network of 300~350-foot-long blocks.

• Extension of the arterial and grid street network applied to all development.

• Cul-de-sac and curvilinear street patterns should be limited.

• Street sections designed for safety, traffic calming, and aesthetic appeal, including narrower lanes, sidewalks, bike facilities, landscaping, and lighting.

Strategy:

• Review the development code and best practices to identify updates to the development standards to reinforce traditional residential development patterns.

Action:

• Update development standards in the zoning code to implement traditional residential development patterns.

• Update the public works standards to require connections by development to the existing street network and extend the grid street network into undeveloped and urban growth areas.

Encourage compatible infill development and redevelopment of vacant and under-utilized properties within City limits, ensuring compatibility with FAFB and airport overlay areas.

Strategy:

• Review the development code and best practices to identify infill development standards including lot sizes, access to the roadway and utilities, and design standards for housing for missing middle and high-density housing consistent with the Downtown Plan.

Action:

• Update development standards in the zoning code to implement small-lot development standards and redevelopment in high-density areas consistent with the Downtown Plan.

• Develop a Geographic Information System (GIS) inventory and a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) or Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) strategy to address the infill of missing sidewalks along undeveloped sites, ensuring enhanced pedestrian and bicycle mobility and safety.

Prioritize location of schools in areas with:

• Access to arterial and collector streets.

• Ample sidewalks, bike, and pedestrian access.

• Proximity to residential areas being served.

• Cost-effective access to necessary utilities and services.

• Locations with multiple street access.

Prioritize location of new industrial development in areas that provide:

• Close proximity to major transportation corridors including in the industrial sub-area and along 21st Avenue.

• Siting near existing industrial uses, where possible.

• Cost-effective access to utilities and services.

• Access to transit to reduce employee vehicle trips.

• Paved roadway access to arterials.

• Ability to minimize trucking through residential areas.

Ensure new industrial uses near residential areas do not create noise, odor, air, or visual pollution beyond that normally associated with residential uses.

Ensure that adequate land is available for future housing needs, helping serve residents of all ages, incomes, and abilities through provision of diverse housing types and price levels.

Strategy:

Monitor land availability and build out results for housing developments to ensure housing goals are being accomplished.

Action:

Initiate urban growth area modifications as needed to address housing. Annex urban growth areas as needed and able to be served.

Encourage   maintenance of housing in an attractive, safe and sanitary condition, helping   extend the service life of housing and enhancing the general appearance of   the city and its neighborhoods.

Encourage the preservation and rehabilitation of older housing stock throughout the community.

Encourage housing developments to front on streets or open space and promote clustering of units in new residential development to enhance service efficiencies and create opportunities for shared open space, landscaping, and creative approaches to shared parking solutions.

Ensure regulations apply equally to site-built and manufactured housing types.

Consider location of multi-family development in areas that:

• Can be integrated into existing neighborhood development patterns, ensuring compatibility in building scale and neighborhood character, replicating neighborhood design elements, and supporting a pedestrian-friendly environment. Examples include: limiting number of units in buildings limiting the building height to 1-2 stories requiring buildings to be along street frontages, creating a clear entrance and space related to the street requiring differing building forms built on a neighborhood block scale such as mixes of duplex, triplex, fourplex, courtyard apartments, townhomes and cluster housing.

• Can be designed to minimize large surface parking lots and promote shared parking, requiring parking on the interior of the site, behind buildings.

• Provide a transition between higher- and lower-intensity development patterns.

• Are appropriate and compatible with existing land uses.

• Are part of projects involving mixed-use or master-planned areas.

• Have convenient access to STA transit via use of pedestrian and/or bike accommodations (i.e. sidewalk, pathways, bike lanes, etc.)

• Have access to a collector or arterial.

• Do not concentrate multifamily developments in an area of the city, but rather distributes them throughout the community to avoid concentrations.

Develop and enhance a transportation system in Airway Heights that:

• Facilitates the safe, efficient movement of people, goods, and services.

• Supports non-motorized and recreational needs.

• Supports land use objectives.

• Promotes livable neighborhoods.

• Increases access to and encourages the use of public transit.

• Improves safe pedestrian and bike routes to schools, housing, employment areas, and between communities.

• Encourages completion of the street grid and improved alley access for development of low density, medium density, and infill housing.

• Provides a residential grid network that ensures multimodal mobility between developments, recreation, services, and schools along City collectors and arterials.

• Implements sound access management techniques by providing connectivity between contiguous commercial developments off the street system.

Develop partnerships and financial incentives to encourage a variety of housing developments.

Action:

• Coordinate with business and housing agencies to site special needs housing close to relevant business.

• Facilitate business and housing agency collaboration to promote economic development and meet diverse housing needs.

• Coordinate with housing nonprofits for development incentives.

• Coordinate with Fairchild Air Force Base and others for funding or other support to make relocation attractive to residents from the Accident Potential Zone II (APZ).

• Consider density bonuses, financial methods, and design standards to encourage mixed-use housing.

Update regulations to enable a broader range of housing opportunities.

Action:

• Revise development regulations to expand the types of housing   that are permitted in the residential zones with a focus on “missing middle”   housing such as accessory dwelling units, townhouses, cottage housing,   courtyard apartments, triplexes, and fourplexes.

• Combine the low- and medium-density land use categories to   provide for a greater variety of housing opportunities.

• Actively mix housing and commercial uses in and near the   Downtown as depicted in the Downtown Plan to provide higher quality, lower   cost housing.

• Reduce parking requirements for mixed-uses, especially those   designed to serve low-income or senior citizen residents.

• Eliminate redundant and unnecessary requirements for   development regulations and standards.

• Review existing and proposed building and development   regulations, standards, and permitting processes to increase regulatory   efficiency.

In the Downtown, integrate a mixture of housing options including affordable and “missing middle” housing.

Strategy:

• Promote new development concepts in housing, retail, restaurants, and the arts, such as mixed-use development, incubators, maker spaces, and other lower-cost start-up spaces for local entrepreneurs.

• Actively pursue housing developments within the downtown subarea and along US-2 that support “missing middle” markets such as young professionals, first-time homebuyers, and downsizing households.

• Ensure land use designations, zoning, subdivision, and development standards are supportive of mixed housing and downtown redevelopment.

• Evaluate the feasibility for a mixed-use housing pilot project.