SB 5184, HB 1299 

Sponsors: Sen. Bateman, Rep. Peterson 

Parking mandates are local governments’ requirements that every new home or business come with an arbitrary, pre-determined number of parking spaces. From bowling alleys to churches, daycares to moth breeding facilities (yes, really), these excessive prescriptions drive up the cost of new homes, businesses, and community resources at a time when Washington urgently needs more of all of these things. It writes sprawl into law and makes it harder to build the great neighborhoods and Main Streets people love in their communities.  

The Parking Reform and Modernization Act would cap residential and commercial mandates and provide full parking flexibility for projects like daycares, senior housing, affordable housing, and other building types that need it most. To be clear, the bill does not bar anyone from building as much parking as they like as part of their project. Rather, it returns these decisions to the people investing in their communities, whether a homeowner, homebuilder, or entrepreneur, who are best positioned to know how many parking spaces they need for their dream to succeed.  

Read more: 

• Bill explainer: Washington bill would cap excessive parking mandates around the state 

• Report: The state of parking mandates in Washington 

• How does your town stack up? Washington’s most parking-burdened towns and cities 

• Understand parking mandates’ full costs for communities: The 4 big reasons why states should ditch parking mandates 

SB 5604

Sponsor: Sen. Liias

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a strategy of building more homes near transit hubs so people can live closer to and more easily access the places where they work, learn, and recreate. Pursuing this strategy in Washington in particular would make the most of the state’s large public transit investments in recent years. 

With these benefits in mind, SB 5604 would establish several new ways for the state to incentivize TOD. But unlike typical TOD bills it does not address zoning at all. For new housing developments in transit station areas, it would create special property tax abatements, sales tax exemptions, lower excise tax rates, and reduced impact fees, along with associated affordability requirements. It’s designed to complement TOD zoning, existing or future.  

High interest rates and construction costs have made apartments difficult to finance, and future permitting has plummeted in cities throughout the state. That’s why SB 5604 focuses on helping housing development pencil. It doesn’t rezone because that’s not the limiting factor at most major station areas in Washington metros. 

HB 1491 

Sponsor: Rep. Reed 

Similar to Washington’s 2024 TOD bill, HB 1491 would legalize larger apartment buildings near major transit stops, with stipulations that some of their units meet affordability mandates—known as inclusionary zoning (IZ). Setting statewide minimum standards for multifamily zoning near transit is a key piece of the TOD puzzle. However, the effectiveness of HB 1491 is jeopardized by its uniform IZ requirement, which could backfire by impeding housing development in the very places we need it most. Sightline sees great potential for merging HB 1491 and SB 5604 (described above) so that the inclusionary zoning element is funded.    

Read more: 

• To fix inclusionary zoning, fund it 

• From The Urbanist: Washington legislature sets its sights on transit-oriented development… again 

• The vast potential of pairing homes and transit in Washington state 

HB 1443, SB 5332 

Sponsors: Rep. Gregerson, Sen. Shewmake 

Mobile dwelling units (MDUs) are a low-cost, fast-build, flexible solution for more homes now. They’re something of a kid sibling to better-known ADUs (accessory dwelling units), the backyard cottages and basement apartments that Washington led on legalizing in 2023.  

But MDUs have a number of advantages over ADUs—namely, that they’re faster, cheaper, and more adaptable to the changing needs of their owners and landmates, and all without the need for public subsidy. They meet a critical need of the price rung for many Washingtonians, while ensuring safe, inspection-approved hookups to water, sewer, and electricity services. HB 1443 and SB 5332 would legalize one MDU per residential lot inside urban growth areas throughout the state. 

Read more: 

• Sightline’s Q+A with MDU hookup installation pro Kol Peterson 

HB 1576, SB 5554 

Sponsors: Rep. Walen, Sen. Salomon 

Historic landmarking is an important means of honoring our communities’ pasts while building for their future. Unfortunately, it can also be weaponized against building new homes when landmarking is allowed without the consent of the property owner. In Washington, that’s how it works in about a quarter of Washinton cities, including Seattle and Tacoma. In those cities, typically anyone can nominate a building for landmarking, and that step alone can kill a homebuilding project by injecting uncertainty over whether anything can be built at all—uncertainty that can drag out over a year or more before the final yes/no landmarking decision. The risk of that delay is especially toxic for the small builders that typically construct the middle housing that 2023’s HB 1110 legalized.  

HB 1576 and SB 5554 would make the reasonable change to require owner consent and set a minimum age of 40 years for landmarking a building as historic.  

Read more: 

• Surprise! Your home is now a historic landmark (action alert email to Homes4WA subscribers) 

• Article: Historic preservation claims have blocked hundreds of homes in Seattle alone  

SB 5156 

Sponsor: Sen. Salomon 

A small elevator is better than no elevator, and it improves accessibility for residents, including the growing population of older adults in Washington. SB 5156 would allow elevators smaller than what standard code dictates in buildings up to six stories in which elevators are not required. The bill would also mandate adoption of national and international standards to reduce costs.  

These changes would make it more feasible for builders to include elevators in small apartment buildings, creating more accessible apartments. 

Read more: 

• Let’s legalize small elevators (action alert email to Homes4WA subscribers) 

• Article: Aging solutions are climate solutions 

• Podcast episode: How elevator rules cost us homes, from the Missing Middle podcast 

• The American elevator explains why housing costs have skyrocketed, in the New York Times 

• Brief: Elevator code comparisons (PDF), from the nonprofit Center for Building in North America 

HB 1183 

Sponsor: Rep. Duerr 

Too many small, outdated pieces of code needlessly make homebuilding more expensive or can prevent innovative construction methods. HB 1183 is a sort of “goodie bag” of upgrades, including a prohibition on local requirements for facade modulation or upper-level setbacks for mass timber, passive house, modular construction, and affordable housing. The bill also grants setback and height leeway for extra insulation, to facilitate passive house construction and retrofits.  

Read more:  

• From The Urbanist: In praise of dumb boxes 

• Climate action via housing code, a Bluesky thread from architect Rob Harrison 

HB 1096 

Sponsor: Rep. Barkis 

HB 1096 would let property owners split off and sell a part of their lot for the construction of another home. This practice of “lot splitting” offers cash-strapped homeowners a “mortgage helper” that can help prevent displacement while also creating on the new lot the kind of affordable starter homes many Washingtonians are seeking. 

Read more: 

• Bill explainer: Washington lot split bills would create starter homes, support community stability (Note: Bill numbers referenced within are from 2023) 

• Memo: Legalize lot splitting, from the Black Home Initiative 

SB 5148

Sponsor: Sen. Bateman

SB 5148 would hold cities and towns accountable to doing their part to build the homes Washington needs. It would grant the Department of Commerce new authority to review and approve the local housing plans required by state law. And for cities that fail to bring their housing plans into compliance, it would establish a “builder’s remedy” granting automatic permit approval for multifamily developments that meet certain affordability thresholds.