Dear friends and neighbors,
In these emails, I share updates about all the bills we have passed on all sorts of different issues. But ultimately, the act of just passing a bill does not matter by itself. What matters is making real change in the lives of Washingtonians.
That is why I am happy to report back to you with good news about some of the housing legislation I have championed over the past few years and the impact those bills are having today.
We all know that housing is too unaffordable today because there are not enough homes to rent or buy that meet people’s needs and budgets. Right now, people our communities rely on – like teachers, childcare workers, nurses, firefighters, and service and retail workers – can’t find homes they can afford in the places they serve.
Housing is a difficult issue to track success in – new zoning and planning legislation takes time to implement, new homes take time to build once the new laws are in place, and the housing market takes time to adjust once those new homes are built. We can do everything right here in Washington and still see costs go up because of national trends, like Trump’s unnecessary tariffs making building materials more expensive and shocking immigration actions that hurt our construction workforce.
But there is good news!
My 2025 Parking Reform and Modernization Act, SB 5184, reformed parking mandates to give more flexibility to how much parking is required for a new project. Did you know that the Capital Mall, with its massive and sprawling parking lots that almost never fill, would be illegal to build today because it would not have enough parking. That is preposterous, and the sort of case my bill was intended to address.
Childcare centers are a prime example of this. Many cities had laws requiring many mandatory parking slots at every childcare center, driving up land costs even though nearly all of the people there would be little children who cannot drive. Those laws were targeted for reform by my bill. Thanks to the legislation, there are already new childcare centers being built, and more families will be able to get the help they need, closer to home.
Many cities are recognizing how counterproductive strict mandates for required parking minimums can be and are already passing their own reforms. Bellingham, Bremerton, Bothell, Port Townsend, Shoreline, and Spokane have all already gone further than my bill required and passed full repeals of parking minimums, Bellevue, Tacoma, and Vancouver have full repeals moving forward through their legislative processes, and Kirkland, Lynnwood, and Vancouver are taking early adoption to enact the policy in my legislation ahead of schedule. It is so encouraging to see this movement for parking reform that make sense and lower costs to build spreading across our state!
Another major bill I sponsored was HB 1110 in 2023, the landmark ‘missing middle housing’ legislation that legalized more housing options like duplexes and townhouses in more places. That transformative reform of zoning laws took time for our cities to implement, but we are already seeing the results. Tacoma was one city that has moved aggressively to implement the law and expand more housing, and they’ve seen a 62% increase in proposed housing units and a 39% increase in permit requests! More housing on the market drives down costs and means more affordability for people trying to live and find a home in our state.
I know housing costs are an urgent issue for so many people in our community, and I am pushing for action as quickly and effectively as we can. It is frustrating to deal with a system that can be so slow to implement good ideas, but by cutting red tape, legalizing more housing options, and making it easier to build affordable starter homes, we can give more people a chance to own their home, build wealth, and provide solid foundations of economic stability and opportunity for themselves and the next generation. I am encouraged by this progress, and I look forward to what we do next.
Thanks for reading! As always, feel free to reach out with thoughts and feedback to Jessica.Bateman@leg.wa.gov. Have a wonderful day!
– Jess
