CONTACT: Dan Bertolet, Senior Director of Housing + Urbanism, Sightline Institute, dan@sightline.org
SEATTLE, WA – Governor Bob Ferguson will approve legislation to unblock new homes and lower home costs and rents for Washingtonians today, May 7, at 1:00 p.m., at Plymouth Housing’s Blake House in Seattle.
A nation-leading bill on parking reform—along with half a dozen other bills to boost homebuilding in various ways—have already passed both chambers of the state legislature.
“These are big wins for Washingtonians,” said Dan Bertolet, Senior Director of Housing and Cities at the regional, nonpartisan think tank Sightline Institute. “Red tape and bad policies have choked off homebuilding for decades and sent the state spiraling into an affordability crisis. Leaders in Olympia passed a smart package of upgrades this year that empower communities large and small.”
Bertolet can speak to the policy impacts of housing bills on the Governor’s docket, including:
- Parking reform: One of the strongest parking reform packages ever passed in the United States, SB 5184 caps the minimum number of parking spots local governments can mandate for new homes and businesses. The bill will curb housing costs, sprawling development, and unneeded pavement.
- Small condo liability: Construction defect liability laws can be prohibitive for small-scale condos projects whose builders don’t have deep pockets to pay exorbitant legal and insurance costs. HB 1403 patches up the problematic implied warranty in current state law to better balance liability and risk.
- Production accountability: SB 5148 ensures cities and towns are doing their part to build the homes Washington needs. It grants the Department of Commerce new authority to review and approve the local housing plans required by state law.
- Energy code: HB 1757 would make it easier to add housing to existing buildings by sparing the new units from having to comply with the latest energy code, which can incur exorbitant expenses that end up sinking a conversion project altogether.
Major bills expected to be signed at a later date include transit-oriented development, lot splitting, and historic landmarking. See our full list of what passed the legislature here: Washington Housing Bills to Watch in 2025.
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Sightline Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank providing leading original analysis of housing, democracy, energy, and forests policy in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, British Columbia, and beyond.
