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With Washington state facing a shortage of a million units, House lawmakers amended a bill Friday to cut statewide parking mandates to make room for the new homes over the next two decades.
Lawmakers backed the proposal across party lines last month, passing it off the Senate floor on a 40-8 vote, with a few Republicans and Democrats dissenting. Praised by urbanists, Senate Bill 5184 would reduce parking mandated by state law to prioritize new development.
Supporters say cutting the mandate could reduce building costs and promote a more multimodal future. Each stall can add tens of thousands of dollars to a project. However, opponents emphasize a need for local control when balancing new construction with available parking.
“We’ve been working really hard over the last few years to try to find ways to make housing more affordable, and this is kind of one of the last critical pieces,” Rep. Davina Duerr, D-Bothell, said. “I think everyone’s clear that housing people is more important than housing cars.”
The House Local Government Committee approved three amendments to SB 5184 on March 21, sending it off to the Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
Friday’s amendments included raising the exemption from cities with 20,000 people or fewer to 30,000 and allowing municipalities to impose limited mandates. Those include allowing localities to require at least one space per single-family home and half a spot for each multifamily unit; two parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of commercial space; additional parking beyond what SB 5184 allows for religious organizations and carpools; and allowing time-restricted parking.
Prior versions of SB 5184 limited the amount of mandated parking to half a space for any residential unit and one spot per 1,000 square feet of commercial space. Rep. Victoria Hunt, D-Issaquah, said her amendment attempts to make the process easier for smaller cities to comply with.
“We need to work on making sure that our families have more options for more housing in our communities where they work,” Hunt said. “At the same time, local elected officials need tools to actually implement these policies, and my amendment tries to find a balance in that.”Hunt’s change included reducing the exemption for commercial spaces from 5,000 square feet and under to 3,000, allowing municipalities to apply for a variance if SB 5184 creates safety concerns, and extending the implementation timeline.
As amended, the bill allows municipalities with 100,000 residents or more at least 18 months to adjust their parking standards, and those under that threshold up to three years.
“Reducing parking minimums doesn’t eliminate parking,” Ryan Donohue, representing Habitat for Humanity, testified on March 14. “It simply allows us to determine when and where how much parking needs to be built based on the actual demand and the community needs.”
Earlier this month, Nicholas Carr, senior policy advisor on housing to Gov. Bob Ferguson, told the committee that each parking stall could cost up to $60,000 to $70,000. He called SB 5184 “a real opportunity for savings.”
Carl Schroeder, representing the Association of Washington Cities, criticized SB 5184 during the March 14 public hearing.
“Who should make decisions about what happens and the impacts thereof,” Schroeder testified. “Do we value the input of impacted citizens through the local democratic process, or do we think that they don’t know what’s best for them?”
Rep. Mark Klicker, R-Walla Walla, attributed his party’s split vote on Friday to concerns across eastern Washington. The committee advanced SB 5184 with a 5-2 vote, citing the auto-centric nature of the region, which is much more spread out than the western half of the state.
According to World Population Review, SB 5184 would apply to 45 of Washington’s 281 cities, with at least nine located in the eastern half of the state. Spokane, the second most populous city in the state after Seattle, eliminated its parking requirements last year.
“Even with cities larger than the 30,000, Eastern Washington is very auto-centric,” Klicker said. “There’s a lot of traveling, and many people have two or three or more cars to get around.”