Washington State Bill Would Allow Greater Parking Flexibility

Washington State Senate chamber. (Source: Wikimedia Commons/Lincolnite.)

Add Washington to the list of states taking legislative action to address a growing housing shortage. A new bill, currently in committee in both the state House and Senate, is intended to spark development in places where parking minimums have hindered housing starts. If House Bill 1351/Senate Bill 5456 were to pass, municipalities would no longer be allowed to impose parking minimums on certain types of projects in close proximity to public transit.  

The bill sets specific guidelines for new residential or commercial developments tied to frequency of, and proximity to, transit service. To be exempt from parking minimums, new developments must be located within one-half mile of a transit stop with service every 12 to 15 minutes, while those within a quarter mile must receive service every 30 minutes.  

In addition, developments with fewer than 20 housing units, or where the project dedicates 20% of its units to low-income, disabled, or elderly households, couldn’t be challenged over parking minimums even if a municipality sought to object. This policy change would allow, for instance, a multiplex apartment in which all residents use transit or human power for transportation, to be built without the costly addition of surface parking. Legislators also hope it provides incentives for infill development of missing-middle housing in transit corridors. 

A recent report from Sightline Institute, which covers public policy in the Pacific Northwest, frames the problem legislators are trying to address: “Even as Washington’s housing shortage doubled in the past 7 years from 64,000 needed homes in 2012 to 140,000 in 2019, most communities have continued to require that every new home have a certain number of parking spots, no matter how many residents will actually use.“ 

Sightline notes that many jurisdictions in Washington, including populous Kings County, still have some form of parking requirements, including some where even a new studio apartment must have a dedicated parking space. To show how these rules play out in practice, it cites the case of an architect—Strong Towns member and Local Conversation leader Cary Westerbeck—who built a four-unit residential building in the town of Bothell, but says he could have placed up to 12 units on the same lot if not for the parking regulations. “You figure out what you can park, then you figure out what you can build,” Cary Westerbeck told Sightline Institute. “It holds us back from building as much housing as we could.” 

Public testimony in support of the House bill echoes this theme. “The space required for parking spots will take up space needed for houses … The state is facing a housing shortage, not a parking shortage.”

The draft legislation allows some exceptions, but it transfers the burden to the jurisdiction seeking to impose a parking minimum:

“Cities and counties planning under the GMA may impose minimum parking requirements on an individual project described above provided that the jurisdiction makes written findings that not imposing or enforcing minimum parking requirements on the development would have a substantially negative impact on existing on-site residential or commercial parking within 0.5 miles of the development project. The findings must be provided within 30 days of the receipt of a completed application and must be supported by a preponderance of the evidence in the record.”  

The rule would also have the effect of retroactively legalizing many properties in the state built before the regulations were put in place. House Bill 1351/Senate Bill 5456 is just one of several housing policy bills being considered by the Washington state legislature. Also in play this session is legislation to make it easier for homeowners to add accessory dwelling units, to allow lot-splitting to build infill housing, a legalization of certain multiplex apartments, and other rule changes intended to address the state’s ongoing housing shortage.   

Visit Strong Towns’ End Parking Mandates and Subsidies hub to learn more about what parking regulations may be doing to your town, and to view a map showing the increasing number of  jurisdictions that are reforming or abolishing parking minimums.

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