Questions abound as cities implement recent housing legislation

As the dust settles and the bills that past last session go into effect, questions swirl as cities begin to dig into the details and attempt to implement the various changes. Here, we try to provide some answers and resources to help your city navigate the pages of bills and overlapping laws. As always, check with your city’s legal counsel before you get too far down this road.

Before we get into the FAQs, let’s start out with a common pitfall in statutory interpretation – divining legislative intent. What did the Legislature mean when they drafted [fill in the blank provision] that is now law? The short answer is the language of the law is the Legislature’s intent. This is known as the plain meaning rule. What does the language say? That is the intent. That’s how courts view it. But, wait, what if the language is not clear? Without establishing that the language is ambiguous, courts won’t dig into “legislative intent” to decipher what the Legislature really meant. Courts “presume the legislature means what it says and says what it means.” (State v. Costich, 152 Wn.2d 463 (2004)).

A best practice in working through any of these questions is relying on the bill language itself (all of the words and only the words – do not add words and do not leave words out), the dictionary, the statutory context as a whole, and your best guess at a reasonable interpretation. That, and frequent visits with your attorney, and you will be on solid footing.

As soon as session ended, AWC has been working closely with Commerce on the housing legislation. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with questions, as you are not alone in wondering what “contiguous UGA” or any other provision means. We’ll update the FAQ’s listed below as questions come in.

Implementation resources

• Commerce’s middle housing website including grants and model ordinance process
• Commerce’s fact sheet on HB 1110 with FAQ’s (July 2023)
• AWC’s FAQs on HB 1110
• AWC’s housing bills comparison document
• MRSC’s overview of major changes to Washington's housing laws