Major legislation to help expand Washington’s housing supply will be heard in the Senate Housing Committee 10:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 26. The hearing can be streamed live or replayed on TVW here.

The two bills, the Housing Accountability Act (SB 5148) and the Parking Reform Act (SB 5184) are both sponsored by Sen. Jessica Bateman (D-Olympia), who also chairs the committee.

Housing Accountability Act – SB 5148

Bateman offered the following quote on the bill:

“Washington already faces a severe housing shortage, and it’s only going to get worse unless we act. We’ve passed a lot of important housing reforms in the past few years, but we need accountability to ensure those new laws fully go into effect and truly deliver on the promise of more affordable homes for the people struggling to find a place to live. We’ve got to cut the red tape and stop the delays so builders can get to work now on building the homes Washingtonians need.”

How the bill works:

  • Cities must submit their housing plans and development regulations to the Department of Commerce for review. Commerce will assess whether these plans comply with state housing laws.
  • If a city’s housing plans are not approved, the “Builder’s Remedy” takes effect, and the city cannot deny affordable housing projects. The developers must ensure affordability for at least 25 years, and cities may still deny projects that violate state or federal laws or are located outside urban areas, in critical areas or areas not zoned for residential use.
  • A public compliance list will track which cities follow the law, and cities failing to meet deadlines and comply with state law will risk losing access to state grants and infrastructure funding.

Parking Reform Act – SB 5184

Bateman offered the following quote on the bill:

“This bill is about giving builders flexibility to build parking for their projects in the right way for each community. It doesn’t force anybody to build a certain way — all it does is give us more options, so we can get more affordable buildings on the market. There are some places where it makes sense to have a lot of parking spots for every building, and some places where all that parking isn’t necessary, or where building lots of parking spots is counterproductive. Too many cities currently require more parking than they really need, and this bill prevents those overly broad requirements that force builders to pave more parking spots than the people who live, work, and shop there really need.”

This bill does the following:

  • Prohibits cities and counties from requiring more than 0.5 parking space per residential dwelling unit.
  • Prohibits cities and counties from requiring more than one parking space per 1,000 feet of commercial space.
  • Prohibits cities and counties from requiring any minimum parking requirements for existing buildings undergoing change of use and various other categories of residential and commercial buildings.
  • Prohibits cities with a population of at least 10,000 within a county with a population density exceeding 100 people/sq. mile from requiring off-street parking as a condition of permitting development of multifamily, middle housing, or ADUs that are located within 1/2-mile walking distance of transit service.

More information on parking:

  • 58% of all Washington renter households own one or no cars, but in most cities and counties, it is illegal to construct a home with only one parking spot. That means many landlords are forced to pay for parking their tenants don’t need, and tenants are paying higher rent as a result.
  • This isn’t just for renters either — one in four homeowner households in Washington have one or no cars, but nearly all jurisdictions (91%) require two or more off-street parking spaces for every single-family home. That’s thousands and thousands of Washington homeowners paying for parking spots they don’t need.
  • It affects businesses too! The typical office or retail store in Washington is required to dedicate more space to parking than to the building itself. The most common mandate for restaurants requires three times as much space to be paved over for parking than the floor space of the dining establishment itself.
  • Parking spots cost money. Requiring more parking than people need makes the cost of housing and doing business higher than it needs to be. Fixing our parking laws will help improve affordability for homeowners, renters, businesses, and shoppers.