The city of Vancouver is considering more short-term zoning changes to increase the city’s housing options, most notably a mobile home park zoning district that would help preserve the less-expensive homes.
Other potential changes mentioned at Monday’s Vancouver City Council workshop include allowing more accessory dwelling units and duplexes in single-family zones, allowing smaller lots and lowering the minimum parcel size of cottage cluster sites.
Most residential areas in Vancouver are zoned low density and designed for single-family homes. But with its population growing faster than its housing stock and rising home prices, the city needs other options.
“When you take a look at the permits that are issued in the city of Vancouver … and you see all the single-family homes and all of the permits that are issued for that, and then you balance that against the multifamily rental options, it’s day and night,” Councilor Bart Hansen said.
The proposed code updates are in response to the citywide affordable housing crunch and recent state legislation requiring cities to promote diversified and increased housing through zoning changes.
These changes — with the exception of the mobile-home park zoning district, which may take longer to create — will be up for a council vote in fall, along with zoning changes discussed in a March workshop.
City staff also plan to add more widespread code changes related to housing in its updated Comprehensive Plan update in December 2025.
Mobile home park zone
Mobile home parks are full of small, affordable homes; residents typically own their homes and rent the land upon which they sit. The average price of a Washington mobile home in 2022 was $158,400, according to a study by LendingTree.
However, closures and conversions of parks into other kinds of development have become more frequent in Southwest Washington, according to city staff.
To preserve these parks, city staff recommended a mobile home park zoning district that would apply to most of Vancouver’s 16 mobile home parks and allow “very few uses other than mobile homes,” according to a city staff memo.
The idea comes on the heels of a 2023 amendment to the Manufactured/Mobile Home Landlord-Tenant Act requiring landlords to provide two years’ notice of closure or conversion of a park and provide the opportunity for residents to purchase the park.
Mobile home park zoning was a key recommendation in a 2019 city anti-displacement plan called Reside Vancouver.
Bothell and Tumwater have similar zones.
“I very much understand the important role that our mobile home parks play in establishing stability, specifically for our retired population,” Councilor Ty Stober said.
City staff plan to reach out to mobile home park owners in Vancouver about the potential new zoning district, according to Bryan Snodgrass, long range principal planner for the city.
More ADUs, duplexes
House Bill 1110 requires cities to allow middle housing developments of up to four units on lots in single-family zoning districts citywide, and up to six units near bus rapid transit stations.
Currently, duplexes are only allowed in single-family zones as part of infill developments, which are projects that build on unused or underutilized land in an urban area.
City councilors are considering allowing two ADUs or duplexes per lot, which would bring the city into compliance with state law.
HB 1337 requires cities to allow two ADUs of up to 1,000 square feet each on lots. Existing Vancouver standards allow one ADU of up to 800 square feet or 50 percent of the footprint of the main house, whichever is smaller, per lot.
Hansen said ADUs offer more housing options in a changing market, where interest rates average 7 percent and home costs are high — $550,000 for the median home in Clark County.
“I’ve got a very big backyard, and I asked myself, ‘My 24-year-old son, what is he going to be able to afford?’ ” Hansen said. “ ‘Can he live in this community? What could he buy in the community?’ And to be able to put an ADU on your property and offer that as an opportunity, I think, is a game changer.”
Smaller lots
Because HB 1110 requires Vancouver to allow middle housing developments of four to six units on lots in single-family zones, the city also has to lower its minimum infill lot size requirements, currently 4,000 square feet to 16,000 square feet depending on the zoning district.
Right now, the city only allows properties 2.5 acres or smaller, that are surrounded by existing development, to be divided into smaller lots.
These lots are broken into two tiers, with Tier I infill developments allowing lots 20 percent smaller than allowed in single-family zoning districts and Tier II allowing 30 percent to 35 percent smaller lots.
Tier II infill developments require neighborhood meetings in addition to pre-application conferences. They are also subject to additional design criteria.
The city council is considering eliminating the two-tiered system, the neighborhood meeting and the design requirements in addition to cutting lot size requirements in half.
“We need to get rid of the additional step of notifying neighbors,” said Stober. “We’re in a housing emergency. This isn’t the opportunity for people to say, ‘No, I don’t agree with that, and I shouldn’t be playing a part in solving our housing crisis.’ ”
But Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle pointed out staff of neighborhood associations can’t have conversations with developers or city staff at pre-application conferences.
“Fircrest has been a wonderful example, where neighbors and developers work together so that you don’t have balconies looking down over bathrooms. They have that discussion. Those discussions never happen in pre-application conferences,” McEnerny-Ogle said.
Cottage cluster rules
Cottage clusters, smaller detached homes clustered on a single plot, are becoming a popular and more affordable solution to limited land and high home costs.
The city council is considering lowering the minimum size of cluster sites from 20,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet, as well as spelling out in city code that this form of housing is allowed.
Mayor Pro Tem Erik Paulsen said he likes the idea of cottage clusters.
“That lends itself more to an ownership product, rather than a rental product, which is something that we struggle with as we look to move to higher density in our city,” Paulsen said.
