Growing Together: Legislative Update Week 5
Week of February 10 Legislative Update
We’re more than a month into the legislative session! I love this time of year. I’m energized by our successful lobby day from last week and looking forward to the upcoming first round of cut offs, where bills have to pass certain hurdles, like passing out of their policy committee, to keep moving forward. Lobby day (read the recap below!) gives me a few reminders. First, I’m reminded just how much each of you care about these issues and for such different and important reasons. And second, that our organizing is vital because even with the work we’ve been doing for years, there’s still folks at the Capitol that aren’t familiar with these bills. We’ve still got a ways to go this session, but if we can keep up the hard work, we can make spectacular changes for our state.
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Rent Stabilization, which will help renters have predictability and the ability to plan to stay in their home by setting a 7% rent cap on rent increases, is scheduled for a vote. I’ve been thinking about this bill more while my partner and I wait for our lease renewal offer in our new apartment. We just moved at the end of summer and have no idea how much our rent will be raised, and the uncertainty is stressful. As I’m writing this I’m looking at some picture frames we haven’t gotten around to yet. Is it worth hanging them up if we’re forced to move in a few months? This bill is personal for me and many, many Washingtonians across the state.
HB 1217 is scheduled for an executive session in the House Committee on Appropriations on February 10 at 4 PM. While we’re feeling confident about this vote, we want to make sure that the committee is seeing the love for this bill, so click the link below to send an email to the committee to VOTE YES! |
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Transit-Oriented Development – HB 1491
HB 1491 is a Futurewise fan favorite that would allow more homes to be built near transit. In an era where there is a lack of federal leadership on climate action, land use changes give us an opportunity to pave the way for designing our cities with lower carbon emissions. Transit-oriented development makes it easier for people to get around without being dependent on cars. Let’s make sure this bill keeps moving!
HB 1491 is scheduled for an executive session in the House Committee on Housing on February 11 at 4 PM. The executive session was pushed back, but we’re not concerned about the timing. Even so, we want to keep a spotlight on this bill, and we can make that happen if you email the committee to VOTE YES. |
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Rural Housing Solutions
Rural places across Washington have housing needs and affordability concerns just like anywhere else in the state. But the supply-side strategies that we need to adopt in our urban and suburban cities and towns don’t work for Washington’s rural communities. We can’t build urban or suburban levels of density in our rural areas without destroying what defines these communities as rural. That’s why we’re highlighting and working on a series of bills that can balance affordability and protecting our farms and natural resources. |
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Wildfire Protections – HB 1254
HB 1254, which would help protect homes and rural communities from wildfires by setting new guidelines, like specific building materials and vegetation setbacks for new homes. This bill also helps conserve trees and green spaces by keeping new development too close to forests and other places prone to wildfires. HB 1254 is rescheduled for executive session in the House Committee on Local Government on Valentine’s Day (February 14) at 10:30 AM. No action needed at this time. |
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HB 1345 would allow detached accessory dwelling units (DADUs) in rural areas with restrictions and accountability in place. Because of your hard work last year, legislators are working with us to address concerns about this bill. However, we are still signed in OTHER on HB 1345. We are excited to support rural affordability solutions, but this bill still does not have enough protections for our farms, natural resources like water, and greenspaces. HB 1345 was passed out of its policy committee last week, but we have no further updates or actions. |
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GMA Compliance – HB 1135
This bill closes a legal loophole that could prevent our legal team from making sure cities and counties are in compliance with new updates to the Growth Management Act. HB 1135 is scheduled for an executive session in the House Committee on Local Government at 10:30 AM on February 14 (same time as TOD, but a different committee). You may have noticed it’s been pushed back again but we are still not concerned about the timing. We’ve needed time to have conversations about technical language. However, if it gets delayed again as we get closer to the first policy cutoff… you may need to ready those fingers for some actions.
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Growing Together Lobby Day Recap
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| Last Wednesday was our Growing Together Lobby Day and was a huge success! Shout out to all the folks that braved the weather to come to Olympia, and my heart goes out to the folks that had to cancel the day of because of the wintry conditions. Our smaller team of roughly 30 met with 41 legislators and offices in less than 6 hours. We got some great insight on our bills, made some new friends, and got to see democracy in action (in the snow!). From land use champions to housing skeptics, we shared our stories of how rent stabilization would improve our lives, what transit-oriented development could do for our communities, and more. Stay tuned for a longer recap blog post coming soon!
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Join our Rural Housing Roundtable
For over thirty years, Futurewise has been your voice in Olympia to protect rural lands from development and sprawl. This year is no different, and there are a number of bills we’re tracking that impact rural communities.
To help you understand this legislation, where Futurewise stands on the issues, and how you can make your voice heard, Futurewise is hosting a live Rural Housing Roundtable in a few weeks on our YouTube channel! Tune in to hear from Futurewise Executive Director Alex Brennan, Director of Planning & Law Tim Trohimovich, and yours truly, about what’s on the rural housing agenda in 2025. We’ll dig into the details of these proposed bills and what they mean for rural communities in Washington.
Join us on Wednesday February 12th at 12 PM. Tune in via the Futurewise YouTube channel. |
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