HomeMy WebLinkAboutWORKSHOP re Energy Efficient Stock Plans JEFFERSON COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA REQUEST
TO: Board of County Commissioners
Josh Peters, County Administrator
FROM: Jeremy Williammee, Community Development Director
DATE: August 24, 2026
SUBJECT: Workshop on Energy Efficient Stock Plans Grant
STATEMENT OF ISSUE:
Discussion of a Stock Plan program began in 2022, when the Board of County Commissioners directed
staff to move beyond an initial concept of four preapproved stock house plans and pursue a broader,
publicly solicited program in partnership with the City of Port Townsend, with the goal of reducing
design and permitting costs for residential construction. In April 2024, the Washington State Department
of Commerce awarded the County a$253,000 grant, a pass-through from the U.S. Department of Energy
to engineer eight selected stock plans for compliance with the 2021 State Building Code and demonstrate
energy efficiencies and to make those plans available for low-cost, self-help, residential construction.
Despite sustained efforts by County staff and by the participating design firms, copyright, audit, and
insurance concerns, together with standard county contracting requirements, prevented the County from
completing the engineering of the selected plans or securing a third-party consultant to host and
administer a plan library. The Department of Community Development has determined that the program
cannot achieve its full intended scope within the resources of the grant, and staff bring this update to the
Board to report the program's status, document the reasons for its partial completion, and seek direction
on next steps for the Stock Plan program.
ANALYSIS:
The Stock Plan Subcommittee, a joint City and County body, ran an open call for locally designed plans,
supported by community outreach including a questionnaire, a survey, and a public lunch-and-learn
session, and received 34 submissions. On December 18, 2023, the Board of County Commissioners
approved eight stock plans for public use, submitted by Artisan Group, Freedom, Care Pod, Tomato,
Hilltop, Blackberry, Urban Cottage, and Cabo.
To carry out the grant, staff reconvened the Stock Plan Committee and contacted each of the eight selected
design firms directly to arrange engineering, with the County offering to fund that work through the grant,
while conducting public outreach through a newspaper article and coordination with churches and other
housing providers. When copyright, audit, and insurance concerns made direct public purchase of the
plans impractical, the County shifted to a proposed third-party clearinghouse model and issued a Request
for Proposals seeking a consultant to host and administer the plan library. That solicitation drew no
participants at its pre-proposal session and closed on July 30, 2025 with no proposals received.
Staff then re-engaged the design firms to enter into direct Professional Services Agreements that would
allow payment of costs incurred by the firms to finalize plan engineering. These agreements included
standard clauses and insurance requirements consistent with County contracting policy and did not resolve
underlying questions of plan ownership and copyright, both of which proved challenging for the design
firms to accept. Staff also developed and offered an alternative prescriptive build approval letter intended
to let construction proceed without formal engineering review. Because engineering represented the bulk
of the intended grant budget and could not be secured, the grant closed only partially completed.
Of the grant's core objectives, the County met the plan-selection and public-outreach requirements but did
not meet the engineering requirement: no design firm agreed to complete engineering of its plan, even
with grant funding offered, and no third-party could be secured to host the plan library. As a result, the
deliverable of low-cost, energy-code-compliant engineered plan sets was only partially achieved. As of
April 2026, the finalized, but un-engineered plan sets remain published on the County website, at
www.co.jefferson.wa.us/1645/Energy-Efficient-Stock-Plans, with each designer's contact information so
that interested residents and builders may pursue engineering and licensing directly with the originating
firm.
City staff presented Council on August 17, 2026, with a range of options for the City's own path forward.
These options spanned a fully City-funded program using affordable housing set-aside reserves, a
community ownership model relying on housing partners and existing Housing Grants Coordinator
capacity, an open registration pathway for qualified designers and builders, a regionalized approach
coordinated with Jefferson County and other jurisdictions. City staff recommended that Council postpone
implementation while directing staff to monitor federal, state, regional, and philanthropic funding
opportunities and to coordinate with Jefferson County DCD on a shared catalog should capacity and
funding allow.
FISCAL IMPACT/COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS:
No appropriation is requested. Staff are working with Commerce to secure reimbursement for an
estimated $8,000 to $9,000 in staff time associated with grant administration and the accomplished
deliverables. As no consultants were employed, and the engineering portion of the grant was not utilized,
there are minimal funds to be recovered. DCD staff will continue monitoring regional and federal funding
opportunities that could support a future preapproved plan catalog.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommend that the Board receive this update and concur with staffs recommendation to pause
active implementation of the Stock Plan program. Staff will continue exploring regional mechanisms and
future funding opportunities and return to the Board as viable options emerge.
REVIEWED BY:
Josh 0. Peters, County Administrator Date