Tacoma Sees 62% More Homes Enter Pipeline Following 2025 Zoning Overhaul

The City of Tacoma is seeing early signs of success after unleashing builders across formerly single-family residential zones last year, bucking a trend of stagnant housing permits statewide. In the year since Tacoma adopted new zoning standards last February, the number of new permits entering the pipeline jumped by 39% compared to the five-year average, with the number of units included in those permits growing by 62%, according to City figures.

Tacoma's average number of housing units per application increased 16%, indicating a modestly higher density per project.

Confirming early data reported in The Urbanist last year, these numbers likely aren't at the scale needed to match Tacoma's ambitious housing goals, but do paint an encouraging picture when it comes to pent up demand for more diverse types of housing within Washington's third largest city.

Tacoma expects to add as many as 45,000 households by 2040, with its population projected to grow to 325,000 residents. That would be a dramatic uptick in growth for a city of nearly 230,000 that has grown by just shy of 20,000 residents over the last decade. City leaders have framed upzones as needed to respond to long-term growth pressure and moderate the growing affordability crisis.

https://www.theurbanist.org/tacoma-sees-62-more-homes-enter-pipeline-following-2025-zoning-overhaul/