Planning for Housing Needs by Income Bracket

Session 7C | Thursday | 9:30 – 10:45 AM (PT)

With the updated housing element requirements, jurisdictions must play a larger role in planning for the housing needs of all economic segments. Come learn the basic recommended guidance from Commerce on allocation, land capacity and adequate provisions, and then learn how several jurisdictions are doing this work. What should jurisdictions know going into this work? What lessons learned are there? And how do jurisdictions plan to interpret and implement the guidance?  Come find out answers to these questions and more!

Laura Hodgson

Laura Hodgson is a Senior Planner in the Growth Management Services unit at the Washington State Department of Commerce. Laura currently supports local governments updating their housing elements as communities take a more active role to plan for and accommodate housing needs of all incomes and address racially disparate impacts, exclusion and displacement. She recently oversaw the development of guidance for communities updating their housing elements with HB 1220 (laws of 2021). Previously, Laura oversaw the $5M HB 1923 Increasing Residential Building Capacity grant program administered by Commerce, administered technical assistance to grantees and supported development of guidance for these grants. She has been with the Commerce since January 2020. Laura has been working in urban planning for 17 years. Prior to working at Commerce, she worked for a county planning department in Maryland and did consulting work in transportation and urban planning. Laura has a Bachelor’s of Architecture and a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Tech.

Snohomish County

Amber Piona is a Senior Planner with Snohomish County where she works in the Long Range Division focusing on housing policy. Previously she worked for the City of Fresno in California working on subarea plans as well as housing element implementation and monitoring. Her training as both a historian (UC Davis B.A/CSU Sacramento M.A.) and a planner (UW M.U.P.) has given her the ability to stand on a street corner and look both forwards and backwards in time.

City of Redmond

Coming soon.

City of Snoqualmie

Jonathan Kesler, AICP, joined the Community Development Department as a Senior Planner in April 2023 after serving three and a half years in Current Planning with the City of Kent. Before that, he was a Senior Planner – Historic Preservation with the City of Ellensburg. Prior to coming to Washington state, Jonathan had a nearly decade-long stint as a Current Planner in New Mexico. He has a Master of Arts degree in historic preservation from Western Kentucky University and is an American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) member. He has served on the board of the Planning Association of Washington (PAW) since 2017.

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