March 25, 2024

Increasing Washington State’s Residential Development Capacity

In recent years, the Washington legislature has enacted significant legislation intended to increase capacity for residential development in urban areas and thereby make housing more affordable. It is well understood that unnecessarily restrictive regulatory constraints are among the key factors leading to the inadequate supply and high cost of housing. The recent legislation directly targets these kinds of constraints.

This report focuses on the possible impacts of two key pieces of legislation: HB 1923 and HB 2343, enacted in 2019 and 2020, respectively. These provided planning grants to help municipalities develop and implement housing action plans intended to identify potential actions, including code changes, to enhance residential building capacity.

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