2w ago

Washington Governor has a packet of anti-car, pro-housing legislation on his desk.

There's plenty of bad news out there, so here's some good news.

I was looking through recent legislation and noticed that Washington's legislators have passed several bills that are anti-car and pro-housing! These bills target removing minimum parking and building housing that doesn't force suburban sprawl.

SB 5184 - Concerning minimum parking requirements.

HB 1491 - Promoting transit-oriented housing development.

SB 5471 - Authorizing middle housing in unincorporated growth areas and unincorporated urban growth areas, certain limited areas of more intensive rural development, and fully contained communities.

HB 1096 - Increasing housing options through lot splitting.

Here's some news articles about them if reading legislation isn't your jam:

WA legislature passes nation-leading parking reform bill

Washington Legislature Sets it Sights on Transit-Oriented Development…Again

Sen. Goehner gains bipartisan support for ‘middle-housing’ proposal to boost new construction and improve affordability

Housing bills to watch as the Washington legislative session enters its final weeks

6 comments

Conflicted on the lot splitting. It was cool that 4 unattached houses could fit into the footprint of one victorian, but... Nobody has a yard.
Whatever, it's needed.
- What's the point of having your house be unattached if you're not going to have a green space? Even a shared one.
  
  I dunno. I think some houses have roof gardens, but that doesn't seem like enough. Luckily Seattle has a lot of parks and is surrounded by real, lush wilderness.
- They can have a community garden instead

I wouldn't say that those bills are anti-car, or anti- at all, since they authorize and promote new things instead of banning anything. I'd say that they're "pro-people".

Sorry, but these bills are basically useless. The parking "reform" doesn't eliminate parking mandates, just puts a very large cap on how much cities can still require. Calling SB5184 a "nation-leading" bill is ridiculous when other cities, such as San Jose and Austin, did away with parking minimums altogether. And the TOD bill merely requires some very minor upzoning in the next general plan update -- which will not be for decades for many cities.