Perhaps the underdog for best housing bill of the year will come out on top after all, as SB 5818 was sent to the Governor for signature.
The bill focuses on one of the costlier and more time intensive aspect of planning for growth—appeals under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA). The bill does the following:
- SEPA appeal protection for adopted HB 1923 actions. Repeals current deadline of April 2023;
- SEPA appeal protection for adoption of development regulations, ordinances, or amendments that increase housing capacity, affordability, and mitigate displacement as required (see HB 1220 from 2021) and that are outside critical
areas and have not been found to have probable significant impacts to fish habitat;
- Expands SEPA categorical exemptions to include project actions that pertain to residential, multifamily, and mixed-use development and related to aesthetics and light and glare elements of the environment if they are consistent with locally adopted
transportation plans or were subject to local adopted design review requirements;
- Directs the Department of Ecology to modify rule-based SEPA categorical exemptions to include attached fourplexes and amend maximum exemption levels for smaller single family and multifamily housing; and
- Prohibits cities from requiring applicants to fill out the SEPA checklist to prove a categorical exemption if other data can establish eligibility.