
Your legislators need to hear from you to oppose state mandates of local land use decisions Three bills this session intend to remove your ability to craft missing middle housing land use ordinances that are tailored to your community’s needs. SB 6536, HB 2570, and SB 6617 create specific preemptions requiring housing such as duplexes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in single-family zoning districts. We need you to add your voice directly to the legislative process. Contact your legislators immediately and ask them to oppose these unnecessary preemptions and instead support collaborative approaches. AWC has worked hard to oppose strict preemptions of local zoning authority, and instead promote voluntary and incentive-based approaches. A position that was again affirmed by the AWC Board of Directors last week. Now is the time when your legislators need to hear that message directly from the source—you! The three bills that we are concerned about—preempting cities SB 6536 – Mandatory rezone of single-family neighborhoods: The bill mandates cities to eliminate single-family zoning. The bill requires all GMA cities with a population of 15,000 or more to allow duplexes through sixplexes, stacked flats, townhouses, and courtyard apartments in areas of single-family zones that are within half a mile of a major transit stop, including medium-frequency bus stops. Cities with 10,000 or more people must allow duplexes in all single-family zones. It also prohibits (without clear definitions) any regulations that discourage the development of such housing, including unreasonable costs, fees, or delays. HB 2570 – ADUs: The bill requires that all GMA planning cities with a population of 2,500 or more adopt ordinances and development regulations allowing at least one ADU on all single-family lots. Most troubling, the bill outlines prescriptive dos and don’ts on how cities write their ADU development regulations and set fees. SB 6617 – ADUs: The bill requires all cities to create or update their ADU ordinances. The proposal prohibits cities from requiring off-street parking for ADUs within a half a mile of a major transit stop. Owner occupancy requirements are also prohibited unless the ADU is used as a short-term rental or the owner has five or more ADU properties. Last session, legislators supported the premise that these are complex issues and that local decision-making needs to be preserved. The resulting collaborative approach is already working. We need your help to voice your support for that position again. Cities across the state have been evaluating their local zoning laws and crafting solutions through months and years of hard work and community input. *Tell your legislators that you, as a mayor or councilmember, are the one elected to lead your community and are taking action* on these issues. The two bills we support instead—collaborative approaches Thank legislators for passing bills like HB 1923 in 2019 that encourage and fund city efforts to increase building capacity at the local level. Emphasize that cities are responding but that changing the game after the ink has barely dried doesn’t make sense. Instead of preemptive approaches, encourage them to support the following new companion bills that expand on last year’s good work: HB 2343/SB 6334. Contact your legislators today!** Ask them to give your city a chance to implement the good work done last session and build on it this session. Carl Schroeder Government Relations Advocate, AWC carls@awcnet.org
Association of Washington Cities • 1076 Franklin St SE • Olympia, WA 98501
Unsubscribe