ACTION ALERT: Sign in Pro on State Housing Bill

Hello!

Some of you already know about SB 5184, a bill that would reduce or eliminate parking mandates around Washington State. Sponsored by Senators Bateman and Trudeau, it would bring relief to cities of every size, granting people in every community the flexibility they need to build the amount of parking that is right for them and their residents and customers.

This may be one of the biggest housing bills yet.

Research suggests that reform could increase housing production by 40%. It would be difficult to overstate the impact on housing costs, GHG emissions, equity, flexibility, walkability, environmental justice, runoff and tree canopy, to name a few!

I have been working directly on this bill for Sightline. My Sightline colleague, Catie Gould, has written up a great explanation of what the bill does here.

ACTION NEEDED

The bill has been scheduled for its first hearing Friday 1/24 @ 10:30AM in the Senate Housing committee. We need a broad base of support from a diversity of groups to show, and if we do this, it has a good chance of becoming state law.

We need you to:

• Testify in person

• Testify remotely

• Submit a PRO position (super easy!)

• Submit written testimony 

• Share

If you would like talking points for written or other testimony, I suggest looking at the coalition letter we drafted below. I’ve also included the list of signatories to our letter so far. (If any of you are professionals in a related field, or lead an organization that would like to sign, please let me know!).

To: Washington State Legislature Re: Washington needs parking flexibilityJanuary 2025

Dear Honorable Representatives and Senators,

Nowhere in Washington is there a parking space that is more important than a home or a job. Unfortunately, our outdated laws tell a different story. Predetermined parking mandates forbid countless residents from creating a home or a job without spending significant sums to overbuild unnecessary parking, paved-over parts of buildings, lots, and neighborhoods that also compete for valuable space that could be used to house a family or create a business. This makes the things we want – from housing to daycare - more expensive and scarce.

These mandates also make it illegal to build the affordable, walkable main streets and convenient, close-knit neighborhoods that historically formed the cultural and economic hearts of communities across the state. The mandates apply whether or not anyone thinks the space will ever be used.

Costly parking mandates are a poison pill for housing affordability. Unnecessary mandatory parking requirements increase the cost of housing by adding $5,000 to $60,000 per stall, driving up prices for buyers and adding over $200 on average to the cost of monthly rent. The unnecessary expense can push projects into the red, meaning many homes never get built. The building projects that do go forward frequently have fewer homes than they could, because they are constrained by the size of the parking lot. This drives up housing costs and restricts our ability to meet our housing production goals and keep costs under control.

Mandates also raise the price of most everything else. When we require builders to bundle excess parking with new buildings, we hide the cost of all this pavement inside the price of everything we buy, from groceries to childcare and healthcare. This also puts an unfair burden on people without cars, who are disproportionately lower income, elderly, BIPOC, or people living with disabilities.

Parking mandates are also terrible for the environment, locking cities and towns into sprawl and strip-mall style development. Mandates frequently force builders to chop down mature trees that shade our neighborhoods and clean our air. Paving over trees and other green spaces with concrete worsens heat-islands and toxic runoff. The mandates also create sprawl and increase traffic, since parking takes up so much space and it is cheaper to build on the edge of cities where land costs are lower.

Reforming our outdated system of parking mandates does not ban parking. Owners and builders still build parking, often choosing to build more than what is required, because most people rely on personal vehicles. Rather than a one-size-fits-all mandate that forces expensive overparking, parking reform provides flexibility to decide the right amount of parking to attract tenants or customers tailored to the specific context of the building and neighborhood.

Some parts of Washington, like Spokane and Port Townsend have already made parking fully flexible, returning decisions to homeowners, local builders, and small business owners. Shoreline and Bellingham are following suit. Full parking flexibility makes sense in every community. Please pass the Parking Reform and Modernization Act, sponsored by Senator Jessica Bateman, so that we may create more diverse and affordable housing options and create livable, walkable communities in Washington.

We, the undersigned, urge you to support this critical solution.

Housing Development ConsortiumFuturewiseCity of Vancouver and Vancouver City CouncilSightlineHabitat For Humanity, Seattle/King CountySierra Club Washington StateFuse WashingtonPuget Sound SageMove RedmondMaster Builders Association of King and Snohomish CountiesSEIU 925American Farmland TrustNAIOP Washington StateTransportation Choices CoalitionBlack Home Initiative NetworkPlymouth HousingLISC Puget SoundComplete Streets BellevueWashington RealtorsSpokane RisingLarch LabsClimate SolutionsWe Build Back Black Alliance (WBBA)Spokane Low Income Housing AllianceWashington Community AllianceWhatcom Housing AllianceUFCW 3000NW Progressive InstituteSeattle YIMBY

Deputy Mayor Amy Howard, City of Port TownsendMayor Linda Redmon, City of SnohomishCouncilmember Paul Dillon, City of SpokaneMayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle, City of VancouverMike Eliason, Founder, Larch LabsAnthony Gill, Spokane RisingJesse Piedfort, Deputy Director, Sierra Club Clean Transportation for All CampaignScott Bonjukian, Urban Designer