East Wenatchee Community Development Annual Report Confirms Continued Housing Crunch

The East Wenatchee City Council was presented a rundown of the city's Community Development Annual Report for 2020.

Director Lori Barnett said the report normally covers building permit activity, but the recent report also included activity from the planning division.

Very few single-family permits have been issued for the last five years. On top of that, multifamily residential permit activity peaked in 2015.

"We don't have a lot of vacant single family lots. There's just not that much inventory out there for people to build homes on." explained Barnett, "Briarwood is just about full and that's one of our major subdivisions."

Future expansion will have to occur in Douglas County. The state has been encouraging cities and counties to concentrate on urban growth areas (UGAs), and Barnett said only 30% of the UGA is within city limits.

The city received funding from the Department of Commerce last year to evaluate the single family zoning district. East Wenatchee ended up amending their zoning code to allow duplexes and triplexes on corner lots of a certain size. The administrative short plat process was also increased from four lots to nine, which puts East Wenatchee in line with other jurisdictions like Wenatchee and Douglas County.

Most major building permits last year revolved around Eastmont School District's various construction projects.