County’s FY27 planning work plan keeps PRD overhaul moving—mitigation cut tees up

The county’s FY27 long-range planning work plan keeps one of the few levers that can add deed-restricted workforce units—the Planned Residential Development (PRD) / bonus-tools rewrite—moving toward adoption in summer 2026, even as staff warns the division is essentially fully booked with only one joint principal planner plus one county associate. That staffing reality matters because PRD tools have largely gone unused by builders; the work plan frames the rewrite as a choice between making the tools attractive again or removing them—either way with real consequences for how many units sit inside (or outside) the county’s growth management “pool.”

The other housing-relevant red flag is a new “housing mitigation amendment” staff says is needed to align with a new state fast-tracking law that increases the size of a single-family home that would pay housing mitigation fees, meaning fewer homes would be required to pay. In plain terms: if the county raises the threshold, it risks collecting less mitigation money right when workforce housing costs keep climbing—unless commissioners pair the change with a replacement funding plan.

Beyond housing, the County Workshop Staff Report — FY27 Long Range Work Plan stacks up major policy workload: water-quality LDR amendments (staff estimates 300 hours in FY27), a habitat-mitigation in-lieu fee program (180 hours), and ongoing Scenic Preserve Trust monitoring (~350 hours, with a note that an additional FTE isn’t in the FY27 budget). Planning commissioners also nudged the board to consider a review of large basements and business-park zoning—both of which can drive real-world housing and job-space outcomes if they ever make it off the “nice idea” list and into code.