• New Elected Officials Meet, Greet and Engage in Regional Issues
• Puget Sound Trends: Housing Permit Activity Slows
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An energetic group of newly elected local leaders got acquainted with each other, asked lots of questions and shared common concerns at the Regional Connections workshop on December 10th at the University of Washington.

What is the most important regional issue facing your community over the next few years)

Sustaining quality of life and community identity, as well as addressing transportation in all forms, were identified by the new electeds as universal concerns due to growth and the rapid pace of change in the region.

Finding the right balance between local and regional priorities is both a challenge and a necessity, especially to small communities with limited resources, they said.

With some exceptions, the majority of local elected officials in the region serve on a mostly part-time basis, squeezing in time to attend regional meetings, regular council meetings, and public events, while also working their day jobs.

To provide the newly elected officials a brief introduction to regional activities and how to get involved, PSRC, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, Sound Transit and the Evans School of Public Affairs team up every two years to host the workshop, Working Together: Regional Connections for Local Leaders. A total of 122 new local officials were elected in 2007, and about half attended this year's workshop.

"We were really pleased by the great turnout and by the caliber of the discussions with the new elected officials," said Bob Drewel, PSRC executive director. "I'm excited to work together, engage with them on regional activities, and offer regional resources that will help their communities plan for the future."

The workshop was led by Professor Stephen Page of the Evans School, who moderated a panel discussion focused on the characteristics of successful regional action.

Panelists included Auburn Mayor Pro Tem Sue Singer, PSRC President; Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, Sound Transit Chairman; and Tacoma Councilmember Bill Evans, Puget Sound Clean Air Agency Chairman. The directors of the three agencies, Bob Drewel, Joni Earl and Dennis McLerran, also participated.

The panel noted that a recent successful effort - the Prosperity Partnership - works well because it joins key issues together (economic development, transportation, quality of life) and aligns public and private interests and resources.

Executive Ladenburg offered that the departure of Boeing headquarters in 2001 "woke up" the region to the need to actively retain and attract businesses. And while the region has been economically fortunate during the last 50 years, the next 50 years may not be as easy due to increasing competition from other metropolitan regions around the globe.

The panel described other successful regional examples, including the Diesel Solutions program to retrofit diesel vehicles to reduce emissions, the Tri-County Endangered Species Act effort, which addressed federal requirements for protecting fish, the FAST freight corridor strategy, and the regional effort to support legislative action on transportation in 2003 and 2005, which resulted in the approval of significant additional state investments in transportation.

During the panel and small group discussions, the new elected officials had the chance to step up to the microphone to offer their own comments on how the region can better work together. Some of the concerns they said the region should pay attention to:

For more information or to request a copy of the workshop materials, contact Anne Avery at 206-464-7079, aavery@psrc.org.

After three years of steady growth in housing development, the annual net total of permitted units decreased in 2006, following a national trend of slowing residential construction.¹ The number of permitted units was approximately 19 percent less than in 2005, and was one of the lowest levels seen in the last 10 years. Permits were issued for approximately 22,830 net units in 2006, compared to 27,780 net units in 2005.

Residential construction and construction job growth across the country slowed in 2006, as the nation's more volatile housing markets began to weaken and home prices fell in a number of areas. Home prices showed more resilience in the central Puget Sound during this time, but economic instability in the national arena may have left large national homebuilders wary of over-constructing homes in the central Puget Sound region.²

Each category of housing permits by structure type experienced a decrease from previous years' levels. The single family category decreased 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, reflecting a sharp reversal after several years of steadily increasing development. In 2006, 13,830 single family units were authorized regionally compared to 17,600 units in 2005 (Figure 1).

The net total of multifamily housing units permitted in 2006 was one of the lowest in the last 10 years, although multifamily housing did gain share within the regional housing mix. Multifamily housing construction, which is strongly tied to overall economic conditions, decreased in response to the last recession. After showing a rebound during 2004-05, the net total of authorized units decreased from the 2005 total by approximately 610 units, with 8,900 multifamily units authorized in 2006 (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Net Permitted Multifamily Units by County, 1997-2006

King County continues to maintain the largest share of residential construction in the region, authorizing nearly 50 percent of net development in the present decade. While King County's share has declined since the 1980s, residential development has refocused there from the other regional counties since the 1990s (Figure 3). Pierce County has experienced the most growth in share since the 1980s, surpassing Snohomish County as the second largest seat of housing growth in the region. Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties all saw losses of housing share between 1990-99 and 2000-06, with Kitsap County experiencing the sharpest drop - from 9 percent to 5 percent between decades.

More information on housing permit trends is contained in the January issue of Puget Sound Trends, available online at psrc.org or by contacting the PSRC Information Center at 206-464-7532, info@psrc.org. For questions regarding the data presented in this article, contact Rebeccah Maskin at 206-464-5833, rmaskin@psrc.org.

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