News and Pressroom

Washington has adopted numerous laws intended to increase housing production,
expand housing choices, and address the state’s growing affordability crisis. But
passing housing legislation is only one part of the equation. Those laws must also be
incorporated into local comprehensive plans and development regulations before they
can meaningfully affect housing production.

As communities struggle with rising housing costs, local governments are considering a variety of policies intended to produce more affordable homes. One increasingly common approach is mandatory inclusionary zoning.

A unit lot subdivision is a land division that allows individual homes within a larger development to sit on their own small lots. This makes it possible for homes such as townhouses, cottage housing, or other attached and detached units to be separately owned and sold.

On August 25, the Kitsap County Board of Commissioners voted to reduce transportation impact fees for early learning facilities by 80 percent, a significant step toward making it easier to open and expand childcare facilities in our community. This represents a savings of over $100k for the average size early learning facility.

Bainbridge Island has taken an important step toward completing a comprehensive plan that meets Washington’s housing requirements.

Kitsap County voters will decide this November whether to authorize the Kitsap Public Utility District (KPUD) to enter the electric utility business, potentially creating a publicly owned alternative to Puget Sound Energy (PSE).

The Washington State Legislative Ethics Board has fined State Representative Tarra Simmons $15,000 after concluding that she committed three violations of Washington’s conflict-of-interest and special-privileges laws.