Committee reviews HB 1183 to ease building and development regulations for energy-efficient housing and smaller elevators

The Local Government Committee heard House Bill 1183, a multi-part proposal that would change several local development rules and state building-code standards to encourage affordable, energy-efficient and alternative construction types. Staff briefed the bill and multiple stakeholders, including architects, building-code officials, labor and industries representatives, county planners and advocates, provided technical and policy testimony.

Michelle Rusk, staff to the committee, described the bill's components and their connection to Washington's Growth Management Act and state building code: limits on required unit sizes for low-income or very-low-income affordable housing (for example, preventing a requirement that a studio exceed a specified square footage), prohibitions on requiring off‑street parking for certain projects (including affordable housing and projects meeting Passive House standards) subject to exceptions, removal of facade modulation and upper‑level setback requirements for specified residential projects, allowances for additional insulation that can exceed roof heights by small amounts, and direction that the State Building Code Council…