Kitsap County, WA Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Density Bonus Law (2026)

080(B) creates a voluntary incentive system for the Gorst subarea, the area covered by the Gorst Subarea Plan adopted under Ordinance 534 (2016). The incentive measures apply to every zone and land use within the Gorst urban growth area except the commercial (C) and industrial (I) zones. 080(C) lists the qualifying public benefits and the resulting bonus: a landscape plan retaining at least 20% of significant trees outside buffers earns a 50% density bonus (plus 50% height and 50% impervious surface bonuses); multilayered native landscaping on 30% of the site earns the same 50% package; and a minimum 35-foot native habitat corridor connecting critical areas, protected by a native growth protection easement, earns a full 100% density bonus plus 50% height and impervious surface bonuses.

Separate access-improvement benefits, such as shared roads, shared driveways, shared parking within a 1,200-foot radius, or screened consolidated loading areas, earn bonuses ranging from 25% to 100%. An applicant may stack more than one public benefit, but the combined incentive is capped at one hundred percent of the bonus, and in no case may the resulting density, height, or impervious surface coverage exceed the maximum allowed by the underlying zone. 080(D) cross-references the minimum, base, and maximum density, height, and impervious surface figures by zone for confirmation, and the ordinance directs that the zone-specific language controls if it conflicts with the table.

Because this is a county ordinance, it governs only unincorporated Kitsap County land within the Gorst UGA; it has no effect inside Bremerton, Port Orchard, Poulsbo, or Bainbridge Island.