Town also advances its affordability strategy
Hundreds of new homes could go up in Twisp over the next decade, including 135 at Milltown, the proposed development on the town’s south end that the Twisp Town Council approved on July 28.
The residential developments proposed for Twisp offer no guarantee that any of the new homes will be affordable for low-wage earners. And concern is mounting among Methow Valley residents and some council members that a town with barely more than 1,000 people can sustain that pace of growth.
In response to these concerns, Mayor Hans Smith and other town leaders have taken initial steps to bring affordable housing to Twisp.
A reluctant approval
Milltown, on 18 acres east of Blue Star Coffee Roasters, met all the requirements of the town code. Two weeks before their vote to approve, council members tried at the very least to prohibit wood stoves from being used in the development. That effort was abandoned, however, upon advice from Twisp’s attorney.
“Our current code and laws don’t support doing additional restrictions on wood stoves,” Smith told the council at last week’s meeting.
With council members Will Menzies and Rosemary Seifried absent on July 28, only three members were available to cast the deciding vote on Milltown. All three said they felt comfortable “moving forward” with the approval, given the attorney’s advice — despite objections from some community members.
Methow Valley Citizens Council (MVCC) Executive Director Rebekah Phillips had called on the council to prohibit wood stoves at Milltown because they contribute to poor air quality in the winter months. Speaking more broadly, MVCC cofounder and retired board member Maggie Coon had asked the town council to plan more deliberately for growth and put a check on large housing developments that she said the Methow Valley cannot sustain.
“It’s on us to do some work on the code to make sure that we’re meeting the ask of the citizens,” council member Tim Matsui said, moments before the Milltown vote. “But we can’t do anything about it right now.”
As currently proposed, Milltown would include 26 to 38 single-family lots, 14 to 20 units for senior housing, 20 to 30 apartments, a handful of loft homes with businesses on the first floor, and an unspecified number of tiny homes.
While the tiny homes might sell for $160,000, and the single-family residences could go for $350,000 to $650,000, according to Milltown’s developers, they are not fixing their prices to be affordable to those making substantially less than the area mean income.
Affordability coming?
Believing that Milltown won’t solve the valley’s affordability crisis, town leaders are pursuing ways to provide more low-income housing in Twisp. Officials are working behind the scenes to draft language that would incorporate “inclusionary zoning” into the town code.
Inclusionary zoning offers developers a trade-off: They get to build more units than would be allowed by the code, or receive other incentives, in exchange for setting aside a fraction of the homes in their project for those who make less than the area mean income.
The affordable housing incentives would need to be voluntary, not mandatory, Smith noted.
“We have some good drafts of what kind of incentives might work,” Smith told the council, but the language still needed to be vetted by the town attorney.
The mayor said the draft language would eventually be available for public review, when it comes before the planning commission and then the town council.
The mayor also has begun a collaboration with MVCC on how to grow Twisp more sustainably.
Smith informed the council last week that MVCC offered to help the town find additional funding to update its comprehensive plan, which would establish growth targets for the town over the next 20 years.
“There’s definitely a lot of overlap of interest between what I’ve heard coming out of council and what the Methow Valley Citizens Council is interested in seeing in town,” Smith said. “Hopefully I can continue some good communication with that group.”
MVCC highlighted its position on affordable housing and growth in a newsletter on Wednesday (July 29).
“MVCC stands in staunch support of affordable housing; even more, we stand in support of sustainable planning that reflects the community’s autonomous vision for how it wants to grow,” the newsletter said.
“We are all frustrated to hear that the town’s hands are tied when it comes to conditioning proposals that will affect the look and feel of the valley for decades to come,” it added.
The newsletter asked MVCC members to comment on Twisp’s growth at the town council’s next meeting, on Tuesday (Aug. 11).
“We encourage you to let town officials know you support a thoughtful, ‘big picture’ approach to planning that reflects the goals of its citizens,” it said.
Planning grant
The council also voted last week to pursue a $75,000 grant from the state Department of Commerce to support its planning department, including a possible rewrite of the town code to accommodate affordable housing.
If awarded, the grant would also streamline the permitting process for developers. The funds would enable Twisp to hire a consultant that would “conduct permit reviews, recommend and implement procedural improvements to our permitting system, and … identify and correct barriers to housing development,” according to the grant application’s cover letter.
The funds would also be used to “create housing-supportive tools, such as density bonuses, incentives for affordable housing and other strategies,” according to the grant application.
The consultant support is needed because town budget constraints limit Twisp’s planner to a 20-hour workweek. Council members have repeatedly said that the town needs to devote more time to its planning efforts.
Council last week also agreed to pay consultant SCJ Alliance $14,500 to assist with the planning grant and two transportation improvement grants.
The transportation grants — one for $500,000 and the other for about $1.2 million — would enable the town to continue the renovation work started this year on Glover Street. Both applications will be submitted to the state Transportation Improvement Board, which awarded Twisp $2.6 million in 2024 to cover about half the cost of the Glover Street project.
The new money, if awarded, would pay for sidewalks and other street improvements on Twisp, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth avenues. Construction would take place in 2028.
If the grant applications aren’t successful, the town would reapply next year for construction in 2029, Public Works Director Andrew Denham said.
