What We Do

Our Goals

1. Encourage, support, and enable cities and counties to create and update station area plans based on community vision to achieve complete communities based on equitable transit-oriented development
   
   
2. Provide cities and counties with the capability to acquire, assemble, lease, or landbank land within and adjacent to station areas to be developed into affordable and mixed-income housing
   
   
3. Provide cities and counties with the means to partner with the development community to produce affordable and mixed-income housing and related infrastructure

We achieve these goals by conducting the following activities:

In the 2019-2020 Washington State Legislative session, Sound Communities advocated for House Bill 2898- Concerning housing benefit districts and Senate Bill 6618- Establishing housing benefit districts which would have provided cities and counties with the tools to conduct station area planning, acquire and assemble land, and produce low-income and middle-income housing and related infrastructure. Sound Communities continues to advocate for legislation that provides jurisdictions with the tools they need to develop additional housing.

Sound Communities plans to engage both grassroots and grasstops community organizations to create and ensure the implementation of municipal tools that will reduce racial and socioeconomic disparities in housing outcomes and advance racial and social justice in housing.

In 2019 and 2020, Sound Communities met with a number of local government representatives who confirmed the need for a set of regional tools for housing and community development. Our goal is to provide local jurisdictions with the finance tools, know-how, technical assistance, staff support and policy framework to enable them to create complete communities around transit centers.

Sound Communities is in the process of drafting a Scope of Work for a site-study analysis and fiscal study to analyze the efficacy of municipal tools for creating additional housing and community investments, and to analyze the net economic benefit that would result from the development.

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