It took a lot to pass that missing middle legislation. In this episode, Doug Trumm and Ray Dubicki bring together interviews with key players who worked to get through the visible and invisible layers of legislating. You will hear from Marcella Buser from Futurewise and Cliff Cawthon from Habitat for Humanity of Seattle-King and Kittitas Counties about the process of building a coalition. Carl Schroeder from the Association of Washington Cities will talk about reaching compromise among many that may not really be interested. And Bryce Yadon from Futurewise and Senator Yasmin Trudeau (D27 – Tacoma) will talk about working the floor in the state legislature. Through it all, lead sponsor of HB 1110, Representative Jessica Bateman (D22 – Olympia) will narrate the process.

We want to know your thoughts on the passage of HB 1110 and the hurdles middle housing needs to overcome in Washington. Reach out to us at podcast [at] theurbanist.org.  

As always, you can find The Urbanist podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and other major platforms. And if you are enjoying the podcast, be sure to offer a “like” or “thumbs up” on your favorite platform. It’s a great way to spread the word to new listeners.

The post The Urbanist Podcast: An Oral History of Passing the Missing Middle Housing Bill first appeared on The Urbanist.

The Senate voted 43 to 6 to pass the new drug possession bill, which criminalizes drug possession as a gross misdemeanor. The House passed the bill on a 83 to 13 vote on Tuesday and sent it to the Governor who signed it the same afternoon and issued a celebratory statement.

“This bill is not designed to fill our jails, it’s designed to fill our treatment centers,” Inslee claimed. “And the investments we’re making will create treatment resources in small townships and big cities. This is a statewide solution to a statewide problem.”

Democratic senators Bob Hasegawa (D-11, Seattle), Jamie Pedersen (D-43, Seattle), and Rebecca Saldaña (D-37, Seattle) joined three Republican senators in voting no. Nine Democrats voted no in the House “all from Seattle or Shoreline: Reps. Emily Alvarado, Frank Chopp, Lauren Davis, Darya Farivar, Nicole Macri, Gerry Pollet, Cindy Ryu, Sharon Tomiko Santos, and Chipalo Street,” as Andrew Engelson noted in PubliCola.

While the bill failed to garner the votes in the House during session, the reworked version had concessions aimed at securing votes from both Republicans and peeling off some of the more progressive Democrats who wanted a greater focus on treatment than jail time, which somehow worked simultaneously. While classified a gross misdemeanor, jail time is capped at 180 days until the third offense, when it jumps up to the full 364 days allowed for gross misdemeanors typically. Not applying full gross misdemeanor jail time for the first two offenses helped flip some Democratic holdouts. The maximum penalty for a simple misdemeanor is 90 days.

Additionally, the final compromise increased funding for various drug treatment programs by $19.6 million over the previous version to a total of $62.9 million spread out to fund “housing, recovery and treatment services, diversion programs, new mobile methadone clinics, creating pilot ‘health hubs’ designed to lower barriers to treatment and services, and funding to boost the number of public defenders,” Engelson reported.

Meanwhile, keeping prosecutors as the gatekeepers of diversionary programs and permitting local jurisdictions to ban harm reduction programs helped secure Republican votes. That said, the bill opens the door slightly to harm reduction programs overall by decriminalizing drug paraphernalia (e.g., syringes and smoking supplies), when used in harm reduction efforts. The operating budget also directed $300,000 to fund a study by a safe supply workgroup tasked with issuing a final report with policy recommendations by December 2024.

Opponents of the bill pointed to the lack of evidence that jail time and fines aid in drug recovery. The American Civil Liberties Union Washington (ACLU-WA) said the bill marked “a huge step backwards in Washington’s fight against the ever-growing public health crises of substance use disorder and the opioid overdose epidemic” and continued a failed approach flying in the face of evidence of what works to treat substance use disorder and curb drug overdose deaths.

“We cannot punish people into recovery,” said Alison Holcomb, ACLU-WA’s director of political strategy, in a statement. “Lawmakers spoke in both chambers today in favor of using handcuffs and jail cells to punish those who use drugs, ignoring the lessons of the past 50 years. The data and evidence have never supported maintaining criminal penalties as a solution to the public-health crises of substance use disorder. That approach has and will continue to fail and will only funnel more people of color and poor people into our criminal legal system.”

The ACLU-WA pointed out incarceration comes at great cost and will strain a system already grappling with full jails and rehabilitating people with criminal records

“The bill increases criminal penalties for drug possession to a gross misdemeanor, allows local jurisdictions to block harm reduction programs, and is projected to add 12,000 new cases to Washington’s courts each year at an annual cost of $46.3 million,” the ACLU-WA wrote in a statement. “It will also leave individuals impacted by the criminal justice system with records that present barriers to employment, housing and more.”

Signs everywhere that Washington State is content not only to stand still on community care and police accountability, but also move backwards.

We don’t have much need for conservatives in the Pacific Northwest; many progressives will do just fine. https://t.co/KcUMpgMcY8

— Shaun Scott (@eyesonthestorm) May 17, 2023

Proponents of ratcheting up penalties on drug use, especially of a public variety, include leaders in the business community and several party leaders on both sides of the aisle. Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce CEO Rachel Smith deeply thanked legislators in a statement arguing that criminalizing drug use as a gross misdemeanor would increase public safety.

“Addressing the Blake decision was a moment for leadership and action –- and many of our state legislators rose to the occasion. Those who continue to push an either/or approach to addressing public safety and dangerous drug use have it wrong – and they are on the wrong side of the voters,” Smith said. “We need to deploy every tool we have: at the state level that means making drug possession a gross misdemeanor and funding treatment and services; at the county level it means passing and implementing a behavioral health crisis care network; and at the local level it is adequately resourcing public safety strategies.”

While fans of the policy will see bipartisan compromise at work, some progressive commentators lamented that Democrats were using their large majorities to carry out conservative priorities rather than progressive ones.

“Signs everywhere that Washington State is content not only to stand still on community care and police accountability, but also move backwards. We don’t have much need for conservatives in the Pacific Northwest; many progressives will do just fine,” prison abolitionist and former Seattle City Council candidate Shaun Scott tweeted.

The lack of focus on evidence-based solutions rather than ones that poll well or sound nice as legislators head into reelection mode could ultimately doom efforts to reduce drug overdoses and disorder and crime associated with drug use. I named Rep. Roger Goodman (D45 – Kirkland) as one of the “zeroes” of the 2023 session for his failure as House public safety chair to pass a bill at the end of session or drive policymaking toward treatment and services rather than punishing drug users. It was a controversial pick since Goodman had seemed to brandish some reform credentials earlier in his career.

Rep. Goodman appeared to recognize that the compromise was weighted toward the status quo punishment-based system in his quotes in PubliCola, even as he hoped harm reduction strategies would gain traction down the road.

“As the chair of the committee, my role was to manage this process, and move through a piece of legislation that’s politically tenable,” Goodman said. “In doing so, I have permanently tarnished my drug policy reform credentials. But this is only a step in the continued evolution of our drug policy.”

Politically drugs are a hot potato issue, but legislators can only make so much progress when their solutions are not grounded in modern science and a public health approach that can actually solve the root problems driving this crisis.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated jail time for the first two drug offenses was capped at 90 days. In fact, new state legislation capped jail time at 180 days for each of the first two offenses. We regret the error.

The post Legislators Continue Failed War on Drugs Approach in Blake Fix Bill first appeared on The Urbanist.

The Urbanist has covered historic district abuse around Seattle, from a cookie cutter drive-thru bank costing downtown housing to Ballard Avenue Landmark District’s attempts to decapitate the neighborhoods’ popular pergolas. Particularly ridiculous and egregious has been the use of historic designation to perpetuate segregation in Wallingford. While true reflection of history would reinstall a streetcar and build dense affordable housing, some Wallingford residents have instead pursued a very narrow definition of historic that freezes the neighborhood in carbonite by banning new residents. Last year, the neighborhood crossed one of its final hurdles to inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

Most interesting in the video is the observation that historic designation attempts have boomed in California and Oregon after each state passed their respective laws to end single-family zoning. Following Oregon’s House Bill 2001 passage in 2019 and California’s Senate Bill 9 passage in 2021, each state saw neighborhoods rush to designate low density neighborhoods as historic. Now that Washington has passed HB 1110 legalizing missing middle housing, we can expect more Wallingfords.

The post Sunday Video: Historic District Abuse first appeared on The Urbanist.

The state legislature took up a record number of housing bills and passed an impressive number of them, including design review reform that will limit local jurisdictions to one meeting and narrow the parameters than boards can consider. This should speed up the permitting process. Another reform would allow single stair apartment buildings, which are both more economical to build and tend to create residences with better lighting and ventilation.

“It’s been an extraordinary session,” Governor Jay Inslee said in a statement. “Lives are going to get better because of massive housing investments totaling over $1 billion, new gun safety laws, the clean energy jobs we’re creating, and our investments in education.”

The progress on addressing the housing crisis was vital and commendable, but much work remains to be done both on housing and other crises facing the state, from traffic safety to the drug epidemic to spiraling wealth inequality. There’s also the community safety crisis, the struggling education system, and the climate catastrophe barreling down on us. Progress on those issues wasn’t as pronounced, and some much needed legislating was left undone for yet another session.

The heroes and zeroes among the state legislature named here are informed by the following things that did or didn’t happen this session.

• Passed missing middle housing
• Passed design review reform
• Passed new gun safety laws
• Passed climate planning in growth management bill.
• Passed a bill inviting more police chases, which often results in road fatalities.
• Didn’t pass bills to address traffic safety
• Didn’t pass property tax cap lift
• Didn’t pass progressive tax reform
• Didn’t pass rent stabilization
• Didn’t pass a policy to address the drug addiction crisis and replace expiring temporary Blake fix.
• Passed a one-billion-dollar capital budget instead of the $4 billion bonding package Inslee proposed.

This mixed record certainly did draw criticism, even with the triumph of new housing legislation.

Tenant advocates were frustrated the housing wins didn’t include more tenant rights wins. In her newsletter, Michele Thomas, policy director at Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, heralded the capital budget adding another $400 million for housing trust fund but lamented that rent stabilization didn’t pass

“Lawmakers opened the legislative session by declaring ‘this is the year for housing’ and they had opportunity to create transformational change, but failed to pass bills that would have stabilized rents, provided longer notice of rent increases, and created permanent funding with progressive revenue to build affordable homes at the scale the crisis requires,” Thomas said. “They did pass many bills to make it easier for developers to build market rate housing. But these homes will be out of reach for low and even moderate-income households and will not provide the affordable homes our communities need.”

Rather than point to any of those shortcomings, however, Inslee pointed to failure to ratchet up laws criminalizing drug possession, seemingly begging to reignite a failed war on drugs that has led to mass incarceration but not gotten us any closer to mass sobriety.

“I hope the successes of this session aren’t overshadowed by the way tonight ended with the failure of the Blake bill in the House,” Inslee added. “But what happened tonight was unacceptable. Decriminalization is not an option for me and it is not an option for the state of Washington. I expect legislators to deliver a solution.”

King County Executive Dow Constantine launched a survey to plan Country budget cuts and expressed regrets that the state legislature didn’t address tax reform. Washington State’s tax system has been ranked the most regressive in the nation, and the 1% cap on property tax increases (which the legislature put in place replacing a Tim Eyman ballot initiative that was struck down in court) severely limits what counties and cities can do to raise revenue. Between fast-growing populations and inflation being near 9%, this makes budgeting very difficult for local jurisdictions. A proposed bill to raise the property tax cap to 3% failed to pass.

“No enterprise, public or private, can be expected to provide the same services year after year with revenues arbitrarily capped below the increasing cost of doing business,” Constantine said in a statement. “We are facing budget decisions that will affect the programs and services that people in King County depend on every day to keep them safe and healthy. These cuts will have real impacts on our residents, but we are left with no other choice given the legislature’s inaction.”

Democrats hold large majorities in both chambers and have little excuse not to drive the policymaking agenda as they see fit and tackle big issues. After picking up another seat in each body last year, the Democratic advantage is 58-40 in the House and 29-20 in the Senate.

Hero 1: Rep. Jessica Bateman

Rep. Jessica Bateman (D-22, Olympia) led the missing middle housing charge for the second straight session and her diligent efforts strategizing and pulling together a coalition secured passage of what will likely be remembered as the defining bill of the 2023 session. Washington statewide zoning reform goes farther than California’s duplex bill. Bateman’s House Bill 1110 will set the minimum bar at sixplex zoning across the transit-rich areas of the largest cities of the Puget Sound region.

“I spent years on Olympia City Council fighting for middle housing. When I got to the legislature, I made it my mission to legalize middle housing statewide. It took us 2 years, but we did it! The work continues and today we celebrate,” Bateman tweeted shortly after the bill’s passage.

The term “missing middle” refers to the fact that cities used to contains tons of modest middle-income homes in mid-sized buildings between single family manors and large apartment buildings. The vast majority of jurisdictions banned these middle housing options mid-century, and by modern times, most housing is at those two extremes and options for working class families has suffered because of it. Hence, restoring missing middle housing has been an emphasis for urbanists and housing advocates of many stripes, as evidenced by the broad coalition behind Bateman’s bill.

Many legislators have tried where Bateman had failed and her success is a testament to her acumen and tenacity. Beyond building and carefully managing a large coalition, Bateman was also a convincing spokesperson for the cause. During deliberations she spoke to growing up poor and eating ketchup sandwiches because her family’s budget was that tight. She’s not speaking from an ivory tower, but from lived experience of this crisis. The housing crisis has forced those kinds of choices on far too many Washingtonian families. Not providing working class families with reasonable housing options should not be an option for state lawmakers. Under Bateman’s steady leadership, the state has taken a big step forward on housing and Washingtonians will be better off for it for generations to come.

Check out our podcast special on HB 1110’s passage for more.

Zero 1: Sen. Lisa Wellman

Whereas Bateman used her experience of poverty to inform her fight for working class housing, Sen. Lisa Wellman (D-41) used her experience owning a multi-million-dollar single family home inform her fight to pull up the drawbridge on leafy Mercer Island, one of the wealthiest communities in the state. Wellman’s efforts helped reduce the requirement on Mercer Island and communities like it from fourplex zoning to duplex zoning, and the freakout of communities like Mercer Island about denser transit oriented development helped doom that bill as well.

Mercer Island and Bellevue are getting light rail access in the near future and sadly the local state senator is focused on fighting housing rather than embracing it. Polling suggests nearly three-quarters of Washingtonians support zoning reforms in single family areas, but legislators like Wellman are more focused on their local homeowner fiefdoms than the common good and popular will.

Hero 2: Sen. Yasmin Trudeau

While Bateman shepherded missing middle in the house, Yasmin Trudeau (D-27) did so as lead sponsor on the senate side. The bill did get watered down a bit in the senate, but it passed so it’s hard to find fault with compromises needed to get the votes. Trudeau delivered the votes, and for that she deserves credit and acclaim.

And she didn’t stop at one big housing win, Trudeau passed four more bills that she sponsored that grapple with smaller, but still important issues, like making it easier to vote and ensuring juries are more diverse. She also championed investments in behavioral health and affordable housing and was a proponent of rent stabilizing measures.

Like Bateman, Trudeau is a millennial, and that generational perspective — being left behind by housing policy — has made both excellent firebrands on the issue. Younger generations are being locked out of housing stability that previous generations took for granted and it’s great to see legislators act with urgency to fix it.

Zero 2: Rep. Roger Goodman

Kirkland Rep. Roger Goodman (D-45) is house public safety chair and dropped the ball in a big way this year. The House failed to pass a Blake “fix” bill and Goodman’s failure to find a solution that had the votes in his caucus is why. Caucus leaders appeared intent on a heavy-handed criminalization-centered approach that made drug possession a gross misdemeanor, and it appears the plan was to steamroll progressives in his caucus to get it.

For example, Seattle Rep. Julia Reed (D-36) said she would have voted for a Blake fix bill that made possession a misdemeanor, but Goodman insisted on ratcheting up penalties via the gross misdemeanor designation despite the indication this would cost him votes and be a misguided approach. The maximum penalty for a misdemeanor is 90 days versus 364 days for a gross misdemeanor. If jail time solved substance use disorder, the war on drugs would have been won long ago. Goodman’s push to reignite the drug war is a blast from the past and taking Washington farther from a real solution that actually works. Beloved by police guilds and sheriff lobbying groups, Goodman appears more focused on pleasing that special interest group, which has only lurched to the right in the Trump era, than bringing the caucus together.

Unfortunately, much of the discourse on the Blake fix has focused on the electoral implications rather than good policymaking and the real lives impacted. The Blake decision only deals with drug possession, not dealing. Drug trafficking and dealing remain illegal in either case, and law enforcement has the legal tools to go after distributors of fentanyl and other troublesome drugs.

Democratic leaders have tried to blame Republicans for the failure to pass something on this issue, but really they should get their own house in order. To make matters worse, by dwelling on Blake, they’ve failed to effectively articulate their plan to deal with an uptick in drug overdoses and abuse. They could have focused on drug treatment and prevention, which has much more evidence behind it than a bankrupt incarceration-centered approach. It was Goodman’s job to lead and zero in on approach that had enough support in the caucus. He failed to do so, proving himself a very poor choice for chair of the community safety committee.

Hero 3: Rep. Davina Duerr

Rep. Davina Dueer (D-1) of Bothell earned top hero billing last year for her climate and land use work, and this year she was back at it. In fact, she took her bill that adds climate planning into growth management plans over the finish line after it died a dramatic death at the final buzzer last session. Last year’s ill-fated HB 1099 became the successful HB 1181 this year.

Duerr was also a steadfast vote and voice for middle housing, and she advanced bills that will make that soon-to-be legalized housing easier to build from a practical standpoint. Simply put, she’s an urbanist star toiling every year to solve the twin crises of housing and climate.

Zero 3: Sen. Christine Rolfes

Bainbridge Sen. Christine Rolfes is a bad vote on housing and she has squandered her influential post as chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Instead of using that pivotal perch to advance key legislation on tax reform or go for a bigger capital budget, she’s used it obstruct housing legislation and keep progressive revenue off the table. The moderate stranglehold on Senate Ways and Means greatly limits what legislation is possible.

Taking advantage of her committee power, Rolfes introduced a lot of bad amendments tinkering with and watering down HB 1110 late in the process. Luckily, her colleagues rejected most of these, but she did get one through and her efforts threw up unnecessary obstacles and backward momentum to what should have been a slam dunk. Even worse, Rolfes voted against HB 1110 when it came to final passage. What is it with legislators who live on islands wanting to pull up the drawbridge on new housing?

Hero 4: Marko Liias

Edmonds Sen. Marko Liias (D-21) chairs the Senate transportation committee and admittedly does share some of Fey’s blame for failure of the traffic safety agenda. However, Liias made progress on a host of other issues, including passing a bill protecting gender-affirming and reproductive care (SB 5599), which is essential with the Supreme Court’s recent attacks on transgender and reproductive rights.

Liias was lead sponsor on the transit-oriented development (TOD) bill that passed the Senate before stalling out in the House. The TOD bill (SB 5466) appears likely to be back next session and even passing only one chamber it served an important purpose in helping clear the skids for the missing middle bill. At the beginning of session, Liias said he thought that TOD bill had much more support that missing middle housing and would be much easier to pass.

“As I talk to my constituents, I’ve got folks in Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mukilteo, that are really wary about missing middle [housing],” Liias told PubliCola. “When I talked about transit-oriented development, virtually everybody’s in agreement that we should be siting more housing next to transit. That’s a much more consensus perspective.”

As it turns out, the opposite was true. The Association of Washington Cities (AWC) was focused on stopping HB 1110 at the beginning of session, allowing the TOD bill to waltz through the Senate. However, once the AWC set its sights on the TOD bill it was able to peel off a lot of support in both chambers, spreading fears it’d mean too much density near transit. Disagreements about affordability requirements also sapped momentum. Killing the TOD bill, however, only increased the pressure to pass HB 1110. Liias may have been wrong about his bill’s popularity, but its existence helped pass HB 1110; with more education and organizing work, the TOD bill may cross the finish line next year.

Zero 4: Sen. Bob Hasegawa

Seattle Sen. Bob Hasegawa (D-11) did not get the memo that 2023 was the year of housing and took some terrible votes punctuated by opposing HB 1110 at final passage. The longtime Teamster organizer is known as a good labor vote, but the Washington Labor Council’s ardent support of housing push didn’t seem to sway him. Hasegawa didn’t just oppose missing middle housing, he also opposed the TOD bill, which leaves us with the headscratcher of a question: where in the world does he want the housing to go?

And it’d be a mistake to think Hasegawa was opposing housing supply bills because of a principled stand around affordable housing or equity. We know that’s not the case because of his pushback against HB 1474 directing downpayment assistance grants toward people of color affected by racial covenants that denied access to homeownership. That will raise about $150 million per biennium via a document recording fee increase on real estate transactions. In Way and Means, Hasegawa didn’t back the bill, but he did ultimately vote for it at final passage.

Perhaps after 19 years in the State Legislature Hasegawa was not impressed by the broad coalition behind expanding housing and thinks he a shoe-in for reelection no matter what. Eventually that attitude might catch up with him. At the very least, it’s odd that senators that oppose what is supposed to be the caucus’s biggest priority continue to get prime committee posts on Way and Means.

Hero 5: Rep. Andrew Barkis

Rep. Andrew Barkis (R-2) was the lead Republican sponsor on missing middle housing, and he was true to his word (see our interview with Barkis) that he’d fight for the bill. The Republican support Barkis was able to ensure helped keep HB 1110 from getting held up by procedural moves, and the 22 Republican votes he delivered in the house guaranteed the vote wasn’t close. The 75-21 nod gave the bill some momentum as it went over to the Senate.

While Heroes and Zeroes has not previously recognized a Republican, there’s a first time for everything. Republicans stepped up big time for the housing supply bills and that helped smooth the path to passage. Barkis put policy over party, which is worthy of praise.

Zero 5: Chris Stearns

Auburn Rep. Chris Stearns (D-47) ran on a generic platform with no issues page and it turns out he was not a supporter of missing middle housing. Stearns was one of three Democrats to oppose HB 1110 in the house. Big surprise, the guy who ran on nothing accomplished little in his first term. The Urbanist Elections Committee called this one by endorsing his opponent: Shukri Olow. While Stearns had pledged housing affordability would be a priority for him, that didn’t mean rethinking exclusionary zoning, apparently.

Hero 6: Rep. Mark Klicker

Rep. Mark Klicker (R-16) passed design review reform and for that he deserves commendation. HB 1293 will limit jurisdictions to one meeting per proposal and narrow the scope of design review to reduce opportunity for superfluous objections. New zoning capacity means little if homebuilders can’t get projects approved in a timely manner. Klicker opposed HB 1110 so let’s not pretend he’s a full-blown urbanist, but he does recognize the value of housing development enough to remove some hurdles. With Seattle’s process to reform design review moving achingly slow, the state assist was huge and will spread the benefits of a more streamlined process statewide.

Zero 6: Rep. Jake Fey

Tacoma Rep. Jake Fey (D-27) chairs the House transportation committee which ended up being a roadblock for traffic safety legislation. Governor Inslee and other Democratic leaders held a big press conference in January launching a traffic safety push, but most of those safety-minded bills fizzled, as Urbanist reporter Ryan Packer recapped recently. With traffic deaths on the rise across the state, that failure to act is a big deal and it will cost lives. The state has pledged to campaign to eliminate traffic deaths by 2030, but fatalities are headed in the wrong direction and lawmakers don’t seem too concerned.

Banning right turn on red near schools and high foot traffic areas, lowering the blood alcohol limit to 0.05%, ramping up driver education, and repealing jaywalking laws (which data shows are used to target racial minorities) headlined a slew of bills proposed this year. But most of the bills ran into legislators who held a windshield perspective of a motorist worried about speed and convenience before safety. It’s the transportation chair’s job to ensure legislators get the information they need to have a deeper understanding, and that clearly didn’t happen. Traffic safety is too important to be an afterthought.

Hero 7: Sen. Manka Dhingra

Where Goodman fought for a tougher punitive approach to drug possession, Redmond Sen. Manka Dhingra (D-45) stuck her neck out for an compassionate evidence-based approach to drug treatment and penalties, putting her position as chair of the Senate Law & Justice Committee to good use. As a result, the Blake fix that came out of the Senate was more progressive and data-driven. It’s when Goodman and his colleagues got their hands on the bill that things fell apart.

In addition to flexing her criminal justice expertise, Dhingra was a solid vote on housing. With some of the Eastside delegation wobbly on the issue, a steady vote is a relief.

Zero 7: Rep. Tana Senn

Mercer Island Rep. Tana Senn infamously torpedoed last year’s missing middle proposal in committee by greatly watering it down, and that energy was back this year, as she worked to weaken the bill and its requirements on Mercer Island especially. Senn ended up voting for the bill, but her work meant a weaker version. Senn was smartly left off housing committee that replaced local government committee (where she proved so disruptive) as the key committee stop for housing supply bills. This helped limit the damage she could do, but she appears likely to be an obstacle to the TOD bill in years to come. On the positive column, she did support Rep. Alex Ramel’s rent stabilization bill.

Honorable mentions

• Rep. Strom Peterson (D-21) was instrumental in passing both gun bills and housing bills.
• Rep. Liz Berry (D-36) spearheaded new gun laws and was a great voice on housing and transportation.
• Rep. Julia Reed (D-36) was a good housing vote and carried the TOD bill in the House, appearing well-poised to pick up where they left off next year.
• Rep. Mia Gregerson (D-33) authored the accessory dwelling unit (ADU) bill that passed (HB 1337), backed the other housing bills, and championed even year election reform.
• Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck championed the housing supply bills and is aiming to do the same next session for TOD.
• Rep. Nicole Macri (D-43) was great on housing as usual, backing missing middle and negotiating a strong budget.

Dishonorable mentions

• Sen. Kevin Van De Wege (D-24) is a bad vote on transportation among many other topics (see last year’s zero writeup). He put out one of the most pathetic press releases we’ve ever seen opposing Seattle traffic cameras in the name of yokeldom.
• Sen. Steve Conway (D-29) voted against HB 1110, which wasn’t a big surprise given his history, but disappointing nonetheless.
• Rep. Larry Springer (D-45) opposed the ADU bill and pushed to water down the missing middle and TOD bills.
• Sen. Phil Fortunato (R-31) was a bad vote on housing reform, which wasn’t unique among Republicans but the obnoxious way he went about it was, with smart aleck suggestions like making the whole thing optional.
• Rep. Gerry Pollet (D-46) lost his local government chair which prevented him from being as disruptive to housing bills, but he is still someone who tends to overcomplicate things and water down good ideas.
• Rep. Jesse Salomon (D-32) has taken some bad housing votes over the years, and also appeared to part of the Goodman contingent monkeying up the Blake negotiations by dabbling in reigniting the failed war on drugs.
• Rep. Tina Orwall (D-33) likewise botched the handling Blake negotiations from her perch in leadership.
• Rep. Amy Walen (D-48) voted against HB 1110 and ADU reform.
• Rep. Alicia Rule (D-42) was the only Democrat to vote against Rep. Duerr’s climate planning bill.

Mullet Mention

Perhaps no one had a more varied record that Sen. Mark Mullet this session. He ended up being a key vote for HB 1110 in Ways and Means, but only after exacting some concessions that watered it down. Still, after he got his tweaks, he went to bat for the bill and helped beat back bad amendments from Chair Rolfes, which took some courage. He was a zero last year for his bad votes on climate, transportation, and progressive taxation, but this session proved he is at least good for something.

The post Heroes and Zeroes of the 2023 Washington State Legislature first appeared on The Urbanist.

Heroes and Zeroes is a standing tradition at The Urbanist, and this year’s session concluded on some high notes as missing middle housing and climate action achieved victories. But there were some disappointments along the way too. This episode will cover the legislators who hustled urbanist priority bills past the finish line, as well as those who watered bills down or flat out blocked them.

As always, we love to hear from you. Tell us what you’re reading, as well as any questions, comments, or ideas for future episodes. Reach out to us at podcast [at] theurbanist.org. 

You can find The Urbanist podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and other major platforms. And if you are enjoying the podcast, be sure to offer a “like” or “thumbs up” on your favorite platform. It’s a great way to spread the word to new listeners.

The post The Urbanist Podcast: Heroes and Zeroes 2023 first appeared on The Urbanist.

As the legislative calendar winds its way to adjourning sine die (until next year) on Saturday, it’s easy to focus on issues that were lost in the process or ideal bills that did not get out of the legislature. Rent stabilization failed in all forms, as did most tenants’ rights legislation. Bills about transit-oriented development and giving homeowners the right to split oversized lots made it through one chamber but not the other. And all of the bills that did pass were watered down with significant concessions, including the point access building legislation that went from allowing single stair buildings to punting the rulemaking to a study group.

It’s important to recognize that the laws which did pass are impressive. And now we have a firm list of four important measures that will reach the governor’s desk as they have fully completed their legislative approvals.

First, the hard work of Representative Davina Duerr (D – Bothell), the folks at Futurewise, and a host of advocates pushed through a climate bill that was three years in the making. HB 1181 requires all comprehensive plans to include a climate change and resiliency component that shows how jurisdictions will create the green, accessible infrastructure needed to respond to our warming planet. The plans must specifically look at greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, the region’s largest contributor to climate change. In the past, the only time plans mentioned “climate” was to talk about improving the business climate. Considering the Earth’s climate in a comp plan amounts to a sea change just in time to match their rising levels.

Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) will be allowed throughout the state under HB 1337. The legislation compels cities to permit two ADUs, detached or attached, on all residential lots. The units may be up to 2 stories and 1,000 square feet on any legal residential lot, and the rules have to be in place by six months after a jurisdiction’s next comprehensive planning update. There are also requirements on dropping parking requirements, impact fees, residency requirements, and multiple ADU provisions. 

Also fully passing the legislature is HB 1293 which streamlines development regulations. The bill accelerates the permitting and design review by committee process by requiring “only clear and objective design review standards.” Such ascertainable standards that do not result in a reduction of density can only be assessed during one (1) single public meeting that is consolidated into the rest of the permit review process. Historic districts and landmarks are exempt, but jurisdictions are encouraged to expedite approval for affordable dwelling units.

Of course, the big one is HB 1110 permitting missing middle housing to be developed across large portions of the state. The bill, sponsored by Representative Jessica Bateman (D – Olympia) and also supported by Futurewise, passed the legislature on Tuesday, April 18th as the House concurred with the Senate’s amendments by a vote of 79 to 18. What passed is a very different bill than it started in the house. The new rules require jurisdictions to permit more housing, increasing based on the state’s official size of the jurisdiction:

• Cities of at least 75,000 people must allow:
  • four units per lot in all predominately residential zones
  • six units per residential lot within 1/4 mile walking distance of a major transit stop
  • six units per residential lot if two units are affordable
• Cities of 25,000 to 75,000 people must allow:
  • two units per lot in all predominately residential zones
  • four units per residential lot within 1/4 mile walking distance of a major transit stop
  • four units per residential lot if one unit is affordable
• Cities of less than 25,000 people “that are within a contiguous urban growth area with the largest city in a county with a population of more than 275,000” must allow:
  • two units per lot in all predominately residential zones

For that last small city part, the law is being understood to apply only in King County, as it has the only city in the state with over 275,000 people. The wording is a bit weird, as a plain reading of the provision would suggest it applies to counties of over 275,000 people. Seven of Washington’s 39 counties would have met that threshold (with their largest city in parenthesis): Clark (Vancouver), King (Seattle), Kitsap (Bremerton), Pierce (Tacoma), Snohomish (Everett), Spokane (Spokane), and Thurston (Lacey, which surpassed Olympia last year). The rules are being understood to apply county-by-county, so the small jurisdictions in Pierce and Snohomish are not impacted by being within Seattle’s GMA.

But still, cities and towns with less than 25,000 people in a contiguous Urban Growth Boundary with Seattle must now allow at least a second unit on all the residential lots. We’re looking at you, Medina, sitting right off the highway and inside the growth area. Understandably, such towns will be required to increase units, but Skykomish out in the mountains will not. Still a huge benefit.

For the record, there are 23 counties in Washington that do not have a jurisdiction over 25,000 people, of which 11 don’t have 25,000 people in the entire county. The state’s population is quite clustered.

Considered together, these three tiers sound intricate, but make a pretty astounding change. Not only will large cities over 75,000 people be increasing the allowable density up to six units per lot, smaller cities will be doubling or quadrupling their allowable units. And just to fill in the small enclaves between, the smallest cities can no longer use their planning authority to exclude second units. The bill smartly focuses this allowable density measure on King County around Seattle, that does contain the most population and most sorely needs more housing.

It will be interesting to see how “towns” with planning authority like Yarrow Point, Hunt’s Point, and Beaux Arts Village take to being told to double the number of units on each lot just because they are within the catchment of Seattle’s growth management area. The comprehensive plans of all three municipalities are carbon copies, calling the towns virtually built out and touting their financial contribution to regional affordable housing rather than constructing it within their borders. One would expect these towns will likely fight coming under the rules of HB 1110. 

It could be seen that the ADU and design review bills extend the impact of HB 1110. The missing middle bill specifically allows ADUs to fulfill unit density requirements. It also requires only administrative design review for middle housing. The new ADU and design review bills apply very similar rules all jurisdictions that engage in planning, without the size constraints.

Another cool feature of HB 1110 is that it requires cities to allow at least six of the nine types of middle housing, which it defines as duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, fiveplexes, sixplexes, townhouses, stacked flats, courtyard apartments, and cottage housing. Combining that with ADUs means that we’re not just talking about a different shape of housing, but potentially different ownership systems. A house doesn’t have to just be on its own lot any more.

We have discussed how zoning constraints are only one among several intertwined processes that keep middle and multifamily housing from being constructed. While the new law will not overcome some of the financing and deed covenants that stop non-detached housing, it’s written specifically to compel jurisdictions to unwind their subdivision rules that stand in the way.

Which gives us a good takeaway from these legislative wins. They’re absolutely going to impact the supply of housing. It remains to be seen (and kind of unlikely) if those impacts will fully double or quadruple the amount of units buildable and available in a specific place. But what these bills have done is expand what is considered housing. HB 1110 breaks down the monoculture of what housing looks like in the state. HB 1293 limits how design review can be weaponized against everything not single-family detached. And HB 1337 allows ADUs to eliminate the cloistered enclaves that use ownership to exclude residents.

In the original decision allowing zoning, the U.S. Supreme Court focused on detached houses and called apartment homes “mere parasites.” A century later, we know it’s the detached homes that are wasteful, lonely, and polluting. Now Washington’s definition of residential homes has expanded, including sixplexes and courtyard apartments and many different ways of owning them. Financing will start to follow, and the focus will turn to fully ending a true parasite: restrictive covenants that formerly barred people by race, but now prevent multi-family homes and ADUs in many subdivisions.

A second takeaway needs to be heard by the state’s micro-municipalities, who are put on notice that their segregationist zoning and intransigent stance on accepting a fair level of growth can be brought to a swift end. Some towns and cities will take these laws as an impetus to rethink their position on growth and go beyond the relatively modest requirements of HB 1110. Others are going to double down on the lobbying and litigation to get exempted from the rules. These bills should remind all jurisdictions that they are creatures of state laws. Their grab bag of municipal excuses are shrinking because the folks writing the laws are ready to make significant changes.

Note April 20, 2023: This piece was updated to reflect the interpretation that HB1110 only impacts King County and clarifying the date for HB 1337.

The post Four Vital Housing and Climate Bills Survive the Washington Legislature first appeared on The Urbanist.

• In This Digest:
• Important Bills At A Glance
• Weekly Focus: So You’ve Passed Your Second Chamber! Now what?

Adjournment Sine Die — the end of the legislative session “without future” — is just 10 days away, and the annual meeting of the Washington State Legislature is moving ahead with a flurry of floor votes. Bills we’ve been tracking have passed their second chamber and now head to conference committees to iron out the changes between House and Senate versions.

By a healthy margin, the State Senate passed Rep. Jessica Bateman’s HB 1110. Following amendments covered last week, the “missing middle” bill would replace single-family zoning with fourplex zoning in cities with at least 75,000 residents, and bump that to sixplex zoning within a quarter-mile of frequent transit or if builders provide two affordable homes (at 60% of area median income). In mid-sized cities or cities within the contiguous growth management area of Seattle, HB 1110 permits duplexes in all residential areas, and fourplexes near transit. Senators Bob Hasegawa (D – LD11 Seattle) and Christine Rolfes (D – LD23 Bainbridge Island) were the only Democrats to vote against HB 1110, which passed 35-14.

Two bonus bills continue to move forward through the legislature. In the Senate, HB 1293 to streamline development regulations passed its second chamber. The bill accelerates the permitting and design review by committee process by requiring “only clear and objective design review standards,” which it then goes on to define as ascertainable standards that do not result in a reduction of density. Historic districts and landmarks are exempt. It is somewhat narrower than HB 1026 another design review bill that failed this session by still allowing design review. But where HB 1026 would have put constraints on what kind of projects could go through the time consuming process, the passed HB 1293 focuses on the rules themselves. There are amendments from the Senate, so the bill will need the concurrence of the House, as discussed below.

In the house, SB 5491 passed which will move forward the opportunity to build single-stair apartments up to six stories. While the original bill made the change itself, the House amended the legislation to call on the state building code council to recommend making changes to the building code. Props to champion of point access blocks Michael Eliason on the vast amount of testimony and calm explanation that it took to get that bill voted upon.

Important Bills At A Glance

• HB 1110 – Missing Middle Housing – Increasing middle housing in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family detached housing. PASSED!
  • Next Move – Passed the Senate 35 to 14, following amendments. Next step will be review of the Senate’s amendments by the House.
  • Notes – Senate amendments, as covered in last week’s WALeg Wednesday round up, create three tiers of cities — under 25,000 residents in a contiguous GMA get duplexes, in cities 25,000-75,000 all residential zones get duplexes and fourplexes near transit, and over 75,000 get fourplexes and sixplexes near transit.
  • More Coverage – Read about the earlier amendments it took to get out of committee and PSRC’s analysis of the number of potential homes original versions bill would create.
• HB 1181 – GMA Climate Change provisions – Incorporating climate change provisions in municipal and county comprehensive planning. PASSED!
  • Next Move – Passed the Senate 29 to 20 with amendments. Next step will be review of the Senate’s amendments by the House.
  • Notes – Senate amendments include wildfire provisions, and requirements to include property owned by public entities and utilities.
  • More Coverage – Please see December’s Meetup with Futurewise and Futurewise’s campaign page.
• SB 5466 – Promoting Transit Oriented Development – Permitting increased density in specified areas around high frequency transit. We will be updating this with any changes as the evening progresses.
  • Next Move – Passed Housing (March 28) and Capital Budget (March 31) with amendments by Agriculture and Natural Resources.
  • Notes – More coverage below about the striker amendments required to progress in the House.
  • More Coverage – The Urbanist did a big breakdown of the bill from January and also has done a coverage of transit-oriented development (TOD) in the past. Sightline Institute also has some good info on earlier versions of this TOD bill.

• HB 1245 – Lot Splitting – Requiring jurisdictions to allow recorded properties to be divided for additional buildable lots. DEAD
  • Next Move – Executive session of the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use and Tribal Affairs on March 28 took no action on the bill.
  • More Coverage – See the March 1 WALeg Weekly Focus for more information about the bill. 
  • Notes – Floor amendment by Rep. Andrew Barkis (R – LD2 Yelm, Eatonville), who is doing some interesting housing work this year, increased resulting lots to minimum 2,000 square feet and effective date to six months after a city’s comprehensive plan update.
• HB 1337 – Easing Barriers for ADUs – Reduces regulatory and construction barriers for the construction of accessory dwelling units. PASSED!
  • Next Move – Amended bill passed the Senate 39 to 7. Next step will be review of the Senate’s amendments by the House.
  • More Coverage – See the March 1 WALeg Weekly Focus for more information about the bill.
  • Notes – A striker amendment removed provisions limiting parking, overall density calculations, and technical changes. An earlier striker amendment inserted language about Urban Growth Area compliance and coordination by the Department of Commerce.

• SB 5200 – The Capital Budget
  • Companion Bill – HB 1147 (Now completely lapped by the Senate bill)
  • Next Move – The capital budget passed the Senate 44 to 0 on March 24. The bill moved to the house, where it was read, skipped all the committees, and continues to sit on the the calendar for second reading.
  • More Coverage – The extensive list of proposals in the Capital Budget can be looked at in the Proposed Substitute Senate Bill (PSSB) 5200. We covered the budget process in the Week 11 WALeg Roundup and more in depth numbers in the Week 12 WALeg Roundup.
• SB 5187 – The Operating Budget
  • Companion Bill – HB 1140 (Now completely lapped by the Senate bill)
  • Next Move – The operating budget passed the Senate 40 to 9 on March 29 before passing the House 57 to 40 on April 3. The bill now heads to conference to pound out any differences between the House and Senate versions. Should that pass, it will go to the Governor’s desk for signature.
  • More Coverage – We covered the budget process in the Week 11 WALeg Roundup and more in depth numbers in the Week 12 WALeg Roundup.

Weekly Focus: So you’ve passed your second chamber! Now what?

The beautiful symmetry of bicameral legislatures is that bills require consideration and agreement from both chambers before heading to the executive for signature. Since each body deliberates their own way, it means that the final legislative product of each house can be different. That’s what’s happening with many of the bills we’ve been tracking.

In Olympia, these differences are ironed out in three different ways: by concurrence, dispute, and conference committee. What’s kind of interesting is that all of these specifics are in the House rules and Senate rules. The state constitution only says (in some of the worst online formatting possible) that no bill shall become a law unless its final passage is voted by yeas and nays, members voting be recorded, and a majority of each house votes in its favor. (Article II, Section 22.)

So the overall rule is that both chambers have to produce the same legislative text. How that happens depends on the leadership in each chamber. Once passed with some amendments by the second chamber, a bill returns to its house of origin where the leadership decides which bills will be discussed. Those bills are placed on the House’s concurrence calendar or the Senate’s concurring calendar.

If the first house concurs in the amendments, the bill has passed the legislature. If the first house disagrees with the second house, it can ask the second house to recede from the amendments. Should the second house recede, the bill has passed the legislature. Both of these actions are taken by floor votes.

In the event of a failure to resolve the differences between the chambers, one can ask for a conference committee. Of course, the legislature’s calendar continues to tick away, so this is a fast moving negotiation. If the committee can reach a report that melds the two versions of the bill, the report will be voted on by each chamber. Failure or delay at any step in this process means the bill does not pass the legislature.

We’ve had engrossed bills that pass each chamber, grossed because they are fattened with all of the amendments piled into one final text. Once a bill passes the legislature, it is termed enrolled. This is the complete text of the legislation with amendments that is ready for the governor’s signature, with all the bells and whistles of signatures from officiants in each chamber and a certificate proclaiming its passage from the legislature.

A recent example of conference committee tripping up a bill is HB 1099, which would have added climate planning to the Growth Management Act, but failed to get a House floor vote to approve the conference committee’s reformed bill due to some last minute shenanigans and poor clock management.

This is a developing story and may be updated with news of the transit-oriented development bill, SB 5466, which is expected to get a vote in the House soon. Spoiler: It didn’t pass.

The post Missing Middle Housing, ADU, and Design Review Reforms Pass Second Chamber first appeared on The Urbanist.

• In This Digest:
• Important Bills At A Glance
• Weekly Focus: Slim, Difficult Housing Bills Continue to Progress

The striker amendments that were stalking many of the housing bills in the Washington Legislature have caught up to their targets. While the amendments themselves have a lot of issues, it is notable that multiple, significant pieces of housing legislation have moved forward in Olympia this year. They are accompanied by progress on a climate action bill that’s been several years in the making.

The next set of deadlines are looming. Bills must make it out of their committees in the second chamber before next Wednesday, April 12. Those remaining without committee votes next week will be kaput for the year. At the moment, most of the bills we have been following are out of the committees, with the exception of the HB 1245 Lot Splitting bill.

Important Bills at a Glance

• HB 1110 – Missing Middle Housing – Increasing middle housing in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family detached housing.
  • Next Move – Passed Housing (March 22) and Ways and Means (April 3). Now moved to Rules to be scheduled for a second reading and floor vote.
  • Notes – More coverage below about the striker amendments required to progress in the Senate.
  • More Coverage – Read about the earlier amendments it took to get out of committee and PSRC’s analysis of the number of potential homes original versions bill would create.
• HB 1181 – GMA Climate Change provisions – Incorporating climate change provisions in municipal and county comprehensive planning.
  • Next Move – Passed Local Government (March 16) and Ways and Means (April 3) (after some moments of confusion). Now move to Rules to be scheduled for a second reading and floor vote.
  • More Coverage – Please see December’s Meetup with Futurewise and Futurewise’s campaign page.
• SB 5466 – Promoting Transit Oriented Development – Permitting increased density in specified areas around high frequency transit.
  • Next Move – Passed Housing (March 28) and Capital Budget (March 31) with amendments by Agriculture and Natural Resources.
  • Notes – More coverage below about the striker amendments required to progress in the House.
  • More Coverage – The Urbanist did a big breakdown of the bill from January and also has done a coverage of transit-oriented development (TOD) in the past. Sightline Institute also has some good info on earlier versions of this TOD bill.

• HB 1245 – Lot Splitting – Requiring jurisdictions to allow recorded properties to be divided for additional buildable lots.
  • Next Move – Executive session of the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use and Tribal Affairs on March 28 took no action on the bill.
  • More Coverage – See the March 1 WALeg Weekly Focus for more information about the bill. 
  • Notes – Floor amendment by Rep. Andrew Barkis (R – LD2 Yelm, Eatonville), who is doing some interesting housing work this year, increased resulting lots to minimum 2,000 square feet and effective date to six months after a city’s comprehensive plan update.
• HB 1337 – Easing Barriers for ADUs – Reduces regulatory and construction barriers for the construction of accessory dwelling units.
  • Next Move – Passed Local Government on March 28. The Senate’s Rules Committee has forwarded the bill for a second reading.
  • More Coverage – See the March 1 WALeg Weekly Focus for more information about the bill.
  • Notes – A newly proposed striker amendment will remove provisions limiting parking, overall density calculations, and technical changes. An earlier striker amendment inserted language about Urban Growth Area compliance and coordination by the Department of Commerce.

• SB 5200 – The Capital Budget
  • Companion Bill – HB 1147 (Now completely lapped by the Senate bill)
  • Next Move – The capital budget passed the Senate 44 to 0 on March 24. The bill moved to the house, where it was read, skipped all the committees, and placed on the calendar for second reading (March 27).
  • More Coverage – The extensive list of proposals in the Capital Budget can be looked at in the Proposed Substitute Senate Bill (PSSB) 5200. We covered the budget process in the Week 11 WALeg Roundup and more in depth numbers in the Week 12 WALeg Roundup.
• SB 5187 – The Operating Budget
  • Companion Bill – HB 1140 (Now completely lapped by the Senate bill)
  • Next Move – The operating budget passed the Senate 40 to 9 on March 29 before passing the House 57 to 40 on April 3. The bill now heads to conference to pound out any differences between the House and Senate versions. Should that pass, it will go to the Governor’s desk for signature.
  • More Coverage – We covered the budget process in the Week 11 WALeg Roundup and more in depth numbers in the Week 12 WALeg Roundup.

Weekly Focus: Slim, Difficult Housing Bills Continue Progress

In a series of votes this week, the three major pieces of legislation on housing and climate that we’ve been following made significant progress towards passage. We’ll start with the easy one, HB 1181, which adds climate provisions to comprehensive plans, has left the Senate’s budgeting committee (Ways and Means) and now heads to the chamber floor for a vote.

The two housing bills, however, became significantly more complex.

Starting with transit oriented development, SB 5466 passed the Capital Budget committee including a striker amendment. This mass rewrite of the bill includes several difficult losses. The overall concept of SB 5466 remains to increase density — measured by increased floor-area ratio — in specific areas around transit stations. The area of effect for increased density remains one-half mile around high capacity transportation like light rail, but it is reduced to a quarter mile around bus rapid transit and then nothing around frequent bus service or any other bus route. Density bonuses for affordable or permanent supportive housing are removed. Provisions about reducing parking has been maintained, but each jurisdiction is allowed to work with the Department of Commerce to flex that. Except the City of SeaTac, which got a blanket exception as being adjacent to an airport with at least 9 million annual enplanements.

Unfortunately, a true “poison pill” provision may have also been included. For those areas not already permitting transit-oriented development (TOD) density levels, the bill now requires at least 20% of all residential units constructed within a station area to be affordable at or below 60% of area median income. Essentially, those regions of suburbs that are served by fast, regular transit will only see increased density if the development can dedicate a fifth of its units to affordable housing. The affordability requirement, while laudable, may prove to be a debilitatingly expensive requirement on projects that would be constructed on some of the most expensive land in the country.

Leading many of the negotiations in the House was Representative Julia Reed (D – Ballard) who had to fend off a lot of questions about why the chamber was making such major amendments after the Senate passed a relatively unamended bill. In comments to The Seattle Times, Reed cited displacement of at-risk communities and their proximity to transit corridors as major concerns.

The other housing bill, HB 1110, promised significant increases to missing middle housing by allowing multiple units on lots. Unlike the TOD bill, HB 1110 is primarily tied to the size of the jurisdiction, then bonuses for proximity to a transit stop. The bill left the house permitting two units per lot in all cities between 25,000 and 75,000 people, shifting up to four units near transit and amenities. Jurisdictions over 75,000 and all cities within the contiguous growth management area (GMA) of a city over 275,000 people (namely, Seattle) needed to allow four units per lot or six units near transit and amenities.

The most recent striker bill in the house reduces many of these thresholds by creating three tiers of cities. First, all cities between 25,000 and 75,000 people get two units per lot, or four units near transit. There is no differentiation whether these cities are in or out of a contiguous GMA. In cities over 75,000, they still get four and six units, based on transit. Finally, those cities under 25,000 in a contiguous GMA get two units per lot. Looking at you, Medina.

The bill’s original sponsor, Representative Jessica Bateman took to Twitter to applaud HB 1110’s passage from Ways and Means, noting that even with its significant changes, “the policy is still an improvement & will help create more #Homew4WA.” A number of commenters, including Sightline’s Dan Bertolet, observed that getting such bills this far would have been unthinkable a year ago.

Now, here is the hard analysis. It sucks that these are much smaller, more limited bills than they started out. It’s especially difficult, considering they were fairly limited and constrained to begin with. None of the bills proposed forcing the jurisdictions to take their fair share of housing (like New Jersey does) or allowing developers to break zoning in segregationist, intransigent jurisdictions (like California may). The bills were compromises to begin with, and further compromise can feel deeply unsatisfying, if not totally frustrating.

But there is a solid chance that two massive housing bills are going to pass the Washington Legislature this year. That is precisely two more bills than have passed the legislature in most of the last decade, as rents have skyrocketed and traffic has gotten worse. The bills are not perfect, but perfect is the enemy of the done. These bills will result in new housing units, and those units will be in places that are currently resistant, if not outright antagonistic to new development. Again, looking at you Medina.

The post Legislature Advances Narrower TOD and Missing Middle Bills first appeared on The Urbanist.

• In This Digest:
• Striker Amendments Threaten 75% to 94% of TOD
• Important Bills At A Glance
• Weekly Focus: Washington’s Operating Budget Starts to Take Shape

Striker amendments threaten 75% to 94% of potential TOD.

Several striker amendments were introduced to rewrite the HB 1110 Missing Middle bill and the SB 5466 Transit Oriented Development bill as they moved through committees this week. Both of the bills look to increase density near frequent transit stations, and define “near” as a circle drawn from the location of the station. Early drafts set this distance at a half-mile, but amendments have attempted to winnow that to one-quarter mile or one-eighth. The proposed amendments reduce their areas of impact by cutting the distance the law applies around a station.

This is a bigger impact than it first appears, and to show why, we will do a little math. Area is length times width. So look at your nearest tile floor, and start counting squares. If you take one tile edge wide and another tile edge wide, you get an area of…wait for it… one tile. Two tile edges wide and two high — doubling the edges — turns into four tiles. Doubling it again — four tile edges on a side — quadruples the number to 16 tiles. Same applies to circles (with that mysterious pi thrown in). Doubling the radius quadruples the area. It’s the reason why a 9-inch pizza is a personal pan, an 18-inch pizza is an XL-family sized, and a 36-inch pizza is a dare.

If doubling the sides quadruples the area, the same is true in reverse. Halving the distance quarters the area. So the simple act of decreasing the area of effect from a half-mile to a quarter-mile doesn’t just half the number of homes possible, it removes an eye watering 75% of the possible developable area. Then there is another 75% reduction when the area of impact is again halved to one-eighth of a mile, as some amendments do. An eighth-mile area is 94% smaller than a half-mile area.

The concern that many are having is that these changes in distance sound small, but the impacts are significant. Reducing the area affected by these bills by 75% or 95% guts the purpose of expanding affordable, walkable housing. When one takes into account streets and the stations themselves, 31 acres really whittles down to a couple of additional units. Not the density that can really hit a tipping point to bring services and amenities into a walkable area.

For context, Green Lake (including the lake) and Woodland Park together are about 500 acres. Just Woodland Park is about 100 acres. And Woodland Park Zoo, without many of the parking lots, is around 30 acres. An argument could be made that a half-mile circle is too big because 500 acres exceeds the size of several municipalities in the Seattle area, specifically Yarrow Point, Hunts Point, and Beaux Arts Village. A counter argument is that there is no reason for jurisdictions of that size with zoning authority to exist within a Growth Management Area (GMA) during a climate and housing crisis.

Important Bills At A Glance.

• HB 1110 – Missing Middle Housing – Increasing middle housing in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family detached housing.
  • Next Move – The Senate Committee on Housing passed with amendments. Sent to Ways and Means.
  • March 31 – Scheduled for public hearing in Ways and Means at 12:30pm.
  • Notes – New amendments in the Senate made changes including sucking in the area required to permit missing middle around transit stops to one-quarter mile instead of one-half mile, and exempting areas around 100,000+ square foot shopping centers.
    These are on top of the amendments, noted previously, the bill gained while passing the House with a striker amendment.
  • More Coverage – Read about the earlier amendments it took to get out of committee and PSRC’s analysis of the number of potential homes original versions bill would create.
• HB 1181 – GMA Climate Change provisions – Incorporating climate change provisions in municipal and county comprehensive planning.
  • Next Move – Passed out of the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use and Tribal Affairs on March 16. Referred to Ways and Means for a public meeting on March 23. No action since.
  • More Coverage – Please see December’s Meetup with Futurewise and Futurewise’s campaign page.
• SB 5466 – Promoting Transit Oriented Development – Permitting increased density in specified areas around high frequency transit.
  • Next Move – Mar 28 – Executive action taken in the House Committee on Housing at 4pm.
  • Mar 30 – Scheduled for public hearing in the House Committee on Capital Budget at 9am in anticipation of other legislative action.
  • Mar 31 – Scheduled for executive session in the House Committee on Capital Budget at 9am in anticipation of other legislative action.
  • Notes – A proposed striker amendment guts a number of provisions of the bill, including reducing the area around stations to 1/4-mile around frequent transit, and 1/8-mile around bus routes. The 1/8-mile appeared then disappeared from the House bill.
  • More Coverage – The Urbanist did a big breakdown of the bill from January and also has done a little coverage of transit-oriented development (TOD) in the past. Sightline Institute also has some good info on this TOD bill.

• HB 1245 – Lot Splitting – Requiring jurisdictions to allow recorded properties to be divided for additional buildable lots.
  • Next Move – Executive session of the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use and Tribal Affairs on March 28 took no action on the bill.
  • More Coverage – See the March 1 WALeg Weekly Focus for more information about the bill. 
  • Notes – Floor amendment by Rep. Andrew Barkis (R – LD2 Yelm, Eatonville), who is doing some interesting housing work this year, increased resulting lots to minimum 2,000 square feet and effective date to six months after a city’s comp plan update.
• HB 1337 – Easing Barriers for ADUs – Reduces regulatory and construction barriers for the construction of accessory dwelling units.
  • Next Move – After a March 16 public hearing in the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use & Tribal Affairs, the committee passed the bill at an executive session on March 28. It is now in the Senate’s Rules Committee for a second reading.
  • More Coverage – See the March 1 WALeg Weekly Focus for more information about the bill.
  • Notes – Striker amendment inserted language about Urban Growth Area compliance and coordination by the Department of Commerce.

• SB 5200 – The Capital Budget
  • Companion Bill – HB 1147
  • Next Move – The Senate passed an amended bill on March 24. See below for details.
  • More Coverage – The extensive list of proposals in the Capital Budget can be looked at in the Proposed Substitute Senate Bill (PSSB) 5200. We covered a little about the process in the Week 11 WALeg Roundup. 
• SB 5187 – The Operating Budget
• Companion Bill – HB 1140
  • Next Move – After a public hearing on March 24, the Senate Committee on Ways & Means passed the bill in Executive Session on March 27. The bill is currently in the Rules Committee waiting to be placed on the floor calendar.
  • More Coverage – More about the current budget below. We covered a little about the process in the Week 11 WALeg Roundup. 

Weekly Focus: Operating and Transportation Complete Budget Picture

On Monday, Democrats in Washington’s House of Representatives released their operating budget plan that they’ve titled “Resilient Washington.” This comes on the heels of the Senate Democrats releasing their budget last week. Now, the legislators begin the painstaking process of horse trading with Governor Jay Inslee, and his budget priorities set out back in December. The budgets are a billion dollars apart, with the House’s $69.5 proposal falling between the Senate’s $69.2 billion and the governor’s $70.3 billion.

The House Dems headlined their budget release hitting on topics like education, housing, and public health. “This budget reflects the values of our House Democratic Caucus and what we have heard from the people of Washington. It is a $69.5 billion biennial budget that is both responsible and sustainable,” said Rep. Timm Ormsby (D-Spokane), chair of the Appropriations Committee in a statement announcing the budget release. 

The biggest single numbers were attached to three salary boosting items: $570 million for teacher salaries, $344 million for behavioral health providers, and $762 million to increase worker rates for individual homecare providers. The amounts reflect the double sides of underpaid workers in education and health care, as well as the increasing bite that inflation has taken from paychecks.

The operating budget also makes climate investments, including $316 million to continue Climate Commitment Act spending. “Washington has led the nation in fighting climate change. Our passage of the Climate Commitment Act was a prime example of this leadership, and with this budget we arrive at a new milestone on our path to a clean energy future. We’re also investing in natural resource protection and projects to protect our environment for future generations,” said Joe Fitzgibbon (D – West Seattle). Some of the CCA line items include clean energy siting and permitting and local government planning, as well as grants for green house gas reductions, environmental health, and improving air quality in overburdened communities.

Today, the Senate also released its transportation budget for the next two years. Coming in at $12.9 billion dollars, the transportation budget funds transportation projects and the operations of transit related agencies. The announcement did touch on the ongoing road safety crisis, as transportation committee chair Senator Mirko Liias (D-Everett) pointed out. “Traffic safety deaths are even more tragic because they are preventable,” Liias said. “It is unacceptable for our state to continue to see an increase in this trend, and my hope and belief is that with the steps we’re taking in this budget, and with the policies we’re working on this year, we can begin to make our roads safer for bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists.” 

Being a transportation budget, the lion’s share of funds are pointed at highway expansion, including the Columbia River Bridge and Puget Sound Gateway. It is noted that a bill to expand the bonding capacity of Connect Washington was also introduced as part of the transportation package. Connect Washington is the $16.1 billion plan from 2015 to expand highways like SR 509, SR 520, I-5 at JBLM and I-405 from Lynnwood to Tukwila.

With operating, capital, and transportation budget proposals now clicking into place, the bulk of the hard negotiations during this 105 day legislative session seem to have passed. Now it is just fine tuning. Unfortunately, many of those early negotiations wiped out a number of promising bills, or as mentioned above, threaten to gut them deeply. It would be interesting to consider how many of these highway expansions would be necessary moving forward had the legislature seized the full opportunity of TOD and missing middle development.

The post Striker Amendments Stalk Housing Bills in the Washington Legislature first appeared on The Urbanist.

• In This Digest:
• Important Bills At A Glance
• Weekly Focus: A First Look at Washington’s Budget

Five of the bills that we have been following continue moving forward, with a few making their committee debuts in after switching chambers. The real action is the addition of the two budget bills at the end. Let’s jump in.

Important Bills At A Glance.

• HB 1110 – Missing Middle Housing  
  • Next Move – Senate Housing Committee had a public hearing on March 17, followed by an executive session today (March 22).
  • More Coverage – Read about the most recent amendments it took to get out of committee and PSRC’s analysis of the number of potential homes the bill would create.
  • Notes – As noted previously, the bill passed the House with a striker amendment that made a few changes.
• HB 1181 – GMA Climate Change provisions 
  • Next Move – Passed out of the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use & Tribal Affairs on March 16. Referred to Ways & Means for a public meeting on March 23.
  • More Coverage – Please see December’s Meetup with Futurewise and Futurewise’s campaign page.
• SB 5466 – Promoting Transit Oriented Development
  • Next Move – The House Committee on Housing held a public meeting on March 16. No further hearings have been scheduled.
  • More Coverage – The Urbanist did a big breakdown of the bill from January and also has done a little coverage of transit-oriented development (TOD) in the past. Sightline Institute also has some good info on this TOD bill.

• HB 1245 – Lot Splitting
  • Next Move – After a March 14 public hearing, the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use and Tribal Affairs will hold an executive session on the bill on March 23.
  • More Coverage – See the March 1 WALeg Weekly Focus for more information about the bill. 
  • Notes – Floor amendment by Rep. Andrew Barkis (R – LD2 Yelm, Eatonville), who is doing some interesting housing work this year, increased resulting lots to minimum 2,000 square feet and effective date to six months after a city’s comp plan update.
• HB 1337 – Easing Barriers for ADUs
  • Next Move – After a March 16 public hearing, the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use and Tribal Affairs will hold an executive session on the bill on March 23.
  • More Coverage – See the March 1 WALeg Weekly Focus for more information about the bill.
  • Notes – Striker amendment inserted language about Urban Growth Area compliance and coordination by the Department of Commerce.

• SB 5200 – The Capital Budget
  • Companion Bill – HB 1147
  • Next Move – Mar 20 – Public hearing in the Senate Committee on Ways & Means.
  • Mar 22 – Scheduled for executive session in the Senate Committee on Ways & Means.
  • More Coverage – Here are the details of the Proposed Substitute Senate Bill (PSSB) 5200. See below for more information about the budget process. 
• SB 5187 – The Operating Budget
• Companion Bill – HB 1140
  • Next Move – Mar 24 – Scheduled for public hearing in the Senate Committee on Ways & Means at 2:00pm.
  • More Coverage – See below for more information about the budget process. 

Weekly Focus: A First Look At Washington’s Budget

Part of the reason Washington has legislative sessions that are long (105 days) on odd years and short (60 days) on even years is that the state writes a biennial — two year — budget. This is an odd year and a long session, so we are getting ready for budget season.

The state’s budget has two parts: an operating budget and a capital budget. An operating budget is the money that goes towards the salaries and expenses of running state government, plus all the education, public safety, and health department support the state gives to local jurisdictions. Estimated at $70 billion for the coming biennium, the operating budget is funded through taxes, fees, and federal grants. The capital budget builds stuff, and is mostly funded through debt in the form of bonds.

In December, Governor Jay Inslee unveiled his proposal for the biennial budget. The lion’s share goes to K-12 schools, followed at some distance by healthcare and higher ed. This is an increase of $8 billion over the 2021-2023 budget which was thrown for a complete loop by the pandemic. The increased expenditures were justified by emphasizing the fast recovery from the pandemic recession. A “public health crisis with serious economic consequences — as opposed to the more typical economic crisis with public health consequences,” in the executive office’s words.

The capital budget is a little more complex since the debt that is being financed runs over multiple budget cycles. The state expects to continue paying – reappropriating – about $5 billion in capital projects that were already approved. The governor proposes $8.3 billion on top of that, a significant leap. Half of the new capital budget, some $4 billion, is intended to build 5,300 new housing units this biennium, with 19,000 more over the following six years. “Go big so people can go home,” as the governor recently told The Urbanist Podcast about the plan. The jump exceeds the state’s debt limit, so it will require a treferendum.

However, the actual work of pounding out the numbers remains a prerogative of the legislature. We got a glimpse of where the tension will be this year as the Senate Ways and Means committee rolled out its first swing at the capital budget. Proposing broadly similar initiatives on housing, the Senate committee brought the overall figure in about a billion dollars lower. Without exceeding the current debt limit, the committee suggested the figure would preserve the state’s AAA bond rating and a referendum would be unnecessary.

The governor, in a press release, was less than enthused: “It’s less than what we approved last biennium. In the middle of a housing crisis, less is unacceptable.”

This dustup outlines the concerns at the state for this budget cycle. Legislators are looking towards managing fiscal difficulties in the near future. “This is a strong budget that steps up to the scale of the challenges facing our state, and does so in a fiscally responsible way that we can sustain into the future,” said Sen. Mark Mullet (D-Issaquah), Vice Chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee when releasing the capital budget.

Those concerns are valid given the Office of Financial Management’s most recent projection of a $483 million decrease in forecasted state revenue. Progress on raising new progressive revenue, such as via a wealth tax, could allay those concerns, but hardly seems a done deal — in part because folks like Sen. Mullet have opposed such measures.

The post The Legislative Budget Season Begins in Olympia first appeared on The Urbanist.