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The 2026 Washington State legislative session was a short session, which occurs in even-numbered years and typically focuses on targeted policy changes, budget adjustments, and follow-up legislation rather than the broader policy volume usually seen in long sessions. Even in a shorter session, the Legislature adopted several measures that could affect local planning, housing regulation, permitting, and implementation responsibilities for cities.
For PED, the most relevant 2026 actions continue the state’s broader push toward increasing housing supply, reducing regulatory barriers, expanding housing types, and streamlining local permit review. Several of these bills do not necessarily require immediate code amendments, but they do affect how the City should think about future code updates, permitting procedures, and housing policy implementation.
Summary of 2026 Bills:
HB 1974 — Coordinated Land Banking
This bill supports the use of coordinated land banking as a tool to help move vacant, abandoned, underutilized, or deteriorated land into productive use for housing, especially affordable housing. The bill reflects a growing state interest in land assembly and long-term site control as a strategy for increasing housing opportunities.
HB 1859 — Mixed-Income Housing on Faith-Owned Land
This bill requires jurisdictions to provide a density bonus for qualifying housing development proposals on land owned by religious organizations when affordability thresholds are met. Specifically, qualifying projects must include either at least 50 percent of the homes affordable at 80 percent of AMI or at least 20 percent of the homes affordable at 50 percent of AMI, for at least 50 years.
SHB 2151 — Factory-Built Housing Standards
This bill updates Washington’s approach to factory-built housing by aligning state regulations more closely with national ICC standards for off-site construction. It directs the Department of Labor and Industries to consider national standards related to planning, design, fabrication, assembly, and regulatory compliance for these housing types. It also allows factory inspections to be conducted by qualified inspection agencies, not just agencies under contract with L&I.
SB 6023 — Commercial Corridors
This bill would require cities and counties over a certain population threshold to allow by-right residential uses in areas zoned for commercial or mixed-use development, while also limiting when ground-floor commercial can be required, particularly for publicly subsidized affordable housing. Due to our size, this bill is not applicable to Poulsbo.
HB 2304 — Stacked Flats Condo Reform
This bill expands prior condominium liability reform by extending the alternative 2-10 express warranty framework to include stacked flats up to four residential floors. The goal is to reduce barriers to developing this form of ownership housing, which has often been constrained by condominium liability rules.
HB 2266 — STEP Housing
This bill requires cities and counties to allow transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, indoor emergency shelters, and indoor emergency housing in any zone within an urban growth area that is not zoned industrial. It also prohibits local governments from applying standards or permit review processes that are more restrictive than those used for other residential development.
HB 2418 — Permitting Reform
This bill amends the Local Project Review Act to streamline permit review by establishing new review timelines for government entities and utility districts. The overall purpose is to make project review more predictable and efficient.
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