Washington Legislative Update #3

An update on housing, land use, and related environmental bills

Note: we have added several bills to the list in this edition! And we have included additional analysis behind a paywall for our paid subscribers.

Here is a quick rundown of bills and whether these are alive or dead (as of 6:00pm tonight).

HB 1245 Lot Splitting (Companion SB 5364)

HB 1245 raced through the house on day one to send a message to the Senate to act on this bill. It has been introduced in the Senate and referred to the Senate’s Local Government, Land Use & Tribal Affairs Committee. But there has been no hearing or other proof of life. And its companion bill similarly was introduced in the Senate but not referred to committee.

Consider this bill dead. Which is unfortunate, as lot splitting would create a clear permissive standard by which more housing can be more easily created.

HB 2321 Modifying middle housing requirements and the definitions of transit stop.

This bill was passed out of the House Committee on Housing and is in Rules. It is up against the 5pm February 13th deadline to clear the House.

The bill proposes some fixes and clarifications to last year’s watershed missing middle housing bill (HB 1110), which amendments will help this bill’s implementation at the local level.

SB 5118 Concerning modifying the multifamily property tax exemption to promote development of long-term affordable housing.

This bill is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Committee on Ways & Means at 1:30 PM tomorrow. This bill is alive and has until February 5th to pass out of Ways & Means and head to the floor.

This bill considers changes to the multifamily tax exemption program as recommended by the Department of Commerce in a report last fall. This includes changes that:

• Clarify the definitions of low- and moderate-income household to use area median income rather than median family income.

• Requires the project to be within a target area that includes areas with high-capacity transit, rather than be located within one mile of high-capacity transit, to qualify for the 20-year exemption and removes the population threshold.

• Provides that the project must have an average minimum density equivalent to fifteen dwelling units or more per net acre.

• Replaces the requirement that a residential targeted area designated by a county be in a county having a higher education campus with at least 1,200 students living there during the academic year with a requirement that it be in a county with a population greater than 275,000 people.

HB 2160 Promoting transit-oriented housing (Companion SB 6024)

As of January 25th, the House version of the bill is in the Capital Budget committee. Thus, it is cut-off would be February 5th. If it is going to move, we should see it appear on the committee’s schedule for action soon.

The companion bill had a hearing in the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use & Tribal Affairs on January 11. It is not moving. The companion bill is dead in the Senate.

This bill would require certain levels of development intensity (via floor area ratios or FARs) at station areas, which are those areas within one-half mile of a train station (light rail), or one-fourth mile of a fixed route transit stop (rapid transit lines).

HB 1998 Co-Living (Companion SB 5901)

The House version of the bill cleared committee and is in Rules committee for review which is the next step before being pulled to the floor. It now has a cut-off date of February 13th at 5pm to be passed out of the House and sent to the Senate.

The companion bill has seen similar action. It has passed out of the committee and is on second reading in the Rules Committee. Action on one or the other bill looks promising.

Co-living housing consists of multiple ‘micro’ housing units within the same structure, which use common kitchens and other areas. Think boarding houses. This bill would require jurisdictions to allow co-living housing as permitted use in any zone allowing multifamily housing. It would also limit required parking to 0.25 stalls per sleeping unit and prohibit parking requirements altogether if located within one-half mile of a major transit stop.

HB 2158 Urban Growth Area Expansions

Surprisingly, this bill got a hearing in the House Housing Committee on Jan 25 but there has been no action since. This bill is dead.

The bill would have required that jurisdictions planning under GMA would need to expand their UGAs at the next periodic update. Such expansions would add parcels to the UGAs that share common boundaries with other parcels along the UGA or are along a road that serves as the boundary for the UGA.

SB 5834 - UGA Swaps

This bill was placed on second reading by the Rules Committee and is pending a floor vote. It is very much alive and appears headed to the house soon.

SB 5834 proposes to amend RCW 36.70A.110, adding a provision to allow UGA Swaps during a county’s annual review process (aka the annual docket cycle). It would impose the same types of conditions as previously approved swap legislation which limited swaps to the periodic update.

HB 1351 - Prohibiting Minimum Parking Reqs (Companion SB 5464)

There has been no action yet on either the House or Senate version of the bill. They are dead.

The bill would have prohibited minimum parking regulations on certain types of housing to encourage transit-oriented development, as well as struck existing minimum parking requirements from RCW 36.70A.620 and replaced it with a prohibition that cities and counties may not impose minimum parking on new residential and commercial developments, except for off-street parking permanently marked for the exclusive use of disabled persons when the project is within 1/4 mile walking distance of a major transit stop.

HB 1252 - Impact Fee Deferrals

This bill is dead. The bill would have helped to defray some of the carrying cost of impact fees by eliminating the limit on the number of payment deferrals allowed per applicant. 

SB 5875 - Balancing Energy Efficiency with Housing Affordability

This bill is dead. Momentum in Olympia clearly favors those who have been pushing for the quick implementation of the state’s new energy code to tackle climate change. This bill would have required that new efficiency standards can be adopted “as long as the benefits of increasing energy efficiency are not outweighed by considerations of housing affordability, development costs, feasibility, or other similar factors apart from energy efficiency.”

HB 2008 - Housing Cost Driver Taskforce

This bill passed out of the House Housing Committee and has been referred to appropriations. It will need to clear appropriations before the cut-off on February 5th.

The bill proposes to create a legislative task force to look at the primary cost drivers for housing in Washington State. The task force would need to include economists and a representative each from the non-profit and for-profit housing developers, as well as some other key stakeholder groups.

SB 5934 - Concerning Pollinator Habitat

This bill has passed out of the Committee on Local Government, Land Use & Tribal Affairs and is now in Rules on second reading.

The goal of the bill is to help create more pollinator habitat by requiring that local governments update the landscaping standards in new commercial and residential projects to include at least 25% of the planted area as pollinator habitat to the extent practicable. It is these last four words that may help this bill move forward. Local governments would need to adopt the list of native forage plants developed by the department of agriculture.

Here are some summary updates on other legislation we’ve been following. Full updates on these bills are for paid subscribers only:

• HB 2070 Environmental Justice - still alive, but the companion bill is dead.

• HB 2114 Rent Stabilization (capping rent increases) - still alive, but . . .

• HB 2113 Compliance with Housing Element (aka Builders Remedy) - alive

• HB 2354 Concerning Tax Increment Finacing, still alive in the House.

• HB 2343 Latecomer Agreements, dead

• HB 2344 Concerning the Effective Filing Date of Annexations - Still alive

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