Good housing bills advance, preemption bills lose momentum, but MFTE bill appears dead

As is common as the Legislature passes one of their major cutoffs, we have had some positive progress on some of the affordable housing bills, as well as some disappointing results.

On the positive side

• HB 1590, a major bill to provide for new councilmanic authority to establish a 1/10^th of one cent sales tax for affordable housing and behavioral health, also moved to the Senate. That bill will be heard this week.
• HB 2343, the voluntary and incentive-based urban density bill, is still moving forward and scheduled for a Senate hearing.
• SB 6212, a proposal to broaden the types of housing that can be invested in through one of the optional affordable housing property tax levies, also advanced and is scheduled to be heard. That bill also expands the eligibility of users from 50% AMI and below to 80%.
• SB 6536, the mandatory rezone of single-family neighborhoods bill, did not advance from the Senate.

On the disappointing side

HB 2620/SB 6411 have unfortunately failed to advance. The bills extend the Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) program to smaller cities and allow all cities the ability to extend the exemption in exchange for maintaining or extending the rent-restricted units. The bills enjoyed significant support across local government, affordable housing providers, community groups, the broad business community, and the development community, more specifically. On the other side, the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance (Housing Alliance) fought vigorously for changes to the program to make it focus on deeper affordability and tenant protections. While there were good faith efforts to find a path forward, what the Housing Alliance wanted would have made the program a less effective tool. The MFTE only works when the incentive is enough to entice voluntary participation by developers; but the value of extending this program to more cities and for a longer time period was being outweighed by the requested changes to the program. The bills may still come back up this year, but the path forward is unclear.

Similarly disappointing, the Senate did choose to move forward with an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) preemption bill, SB 6617. However, through the course of the bill’s passage in the Senate, several of the mandatory elements of the bill were dropped. What remains is a mandate that cities may not require off-street parking for ADUs if they are within one-half mile of a major transit stop, defined as a stop on a high-capacity transportation service funded or expanded under the provisions of RCW 81.104:

• Commuter rail stops;
• Stops on rail or fixed guideway systems, including transitways;
• Stops on bus rapid transit routes or routes that run on high occupancy vehicle lanes; or
• Stops for a bus or other transit mode providing fixed route service at intervals of at least 30 minutes during the peak hours of operation.

The ADU bill will be heard on February 25. If you remain opposed to this preemption it is important that you communicate that with your House delegation.

Dates to remember

HB 1590 is scheduled for public hearing on Thursday, February 27 at 8 am in the Senate Local Government Committee.

HB 2343 is scheduled to be heard on Monday, February 24 at 1:30 pm in the Senate Housing Stability & Affordability Committee.

SB 6212 is scheduled for public hearing on Tuesday, February 25 at 8 am in the House Finance Committee.

SB 6617 is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday, February 25 at 3:30 pm in the House Environment & Energy Committee.