by Steve Erickson, WEAN founder

Contact Your state legislators & senator today. Tell them to oppose HB 2126 and SB 6029.

These bills:

• Allow construction of an entirely new separate structure on every rural parcel in the entire state
• Prohibit counties from planning for that doubled density
• Will result in drastic increase of the property tax burden on rural land owners
• Will allow road building through wetlands and buffers to access the new houses
• Don't deliver affordable housing

These bills are being pushed by builders' and real estate associations. They misleadingly say they are for Accessory Dwelling Units to provide affordable housing, but there is nothing accessory or affordable about them. These new houses can be placed anywhere on a parcel, as long as they share the same driveway off the county road. There is no requirement that they be rented at below-market affordable rates and they can be used for Airbnbs and other short term rentals. They can be located so roadbuilding through wetlands and across streams and their buffers is needed for access. Counties won't even be allowed to plan for the increased traffic and other impacts—and because they double the allowable development on every rural parcel, property taxes will rise accordingly. Since they can be built as speculative development, even rural property owners who don't build these additional houses will see their taxes sky rocket. For that reason, these bills will actually make rural housing less affordable. The only real limitation is that the new houses can't be more than 1296 square feet.

Contact:

In the 10th Legislative District:

Rep. Dave Paul  https://housedemocrats.wa.gov/paul/contact/

Rep. Clyde Shavers https://housedemocrats.wa.gov/shavers/contact/

Sen. Ron Muzzall https://ronmuzzall.src.wastateleg.org/contact-me/

In other Legislative Districts:

https://leg.wa.gov/LIC/Pages/hotline.aspx

Tell them to oppose these rural sprawl bills masquerading as housing solutions.