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Tumwater staff outline 2026 development-code updates mandated by state law, including reuse of existing buildings and impact-fee revisions
Summary
City planner Erica presented the 2026 periodic development-code update required by state legislation: staff summarized bills affecting reuse of existing commercial/institutional buildings for housing, proportional impact-fee rules for smaller units, SEPA exemption thresholds, unit-lot subdivisions and childcare/essential-facility definitions, and announced a compressed review schedule to meet state deadlines.
Erica (staff) presented the Planning Commission with the city’s plan to implement the second round of state-required development-code amendments, saying the city must complete the updates by June 30, 2026 for a subset of state-mandated topics.
Key changes staff highlighted include provisions (read during the meeting as House Bill "10 42" and House Bill "11 83") that make it easier to convert commercial, industrial and institutional buildings to housing, allow up to a 50% density increase in qualifying multifamily zones, and restrict cities' ability to require extensive façade or additional parking for such conversions. Erica told commissioners "we are required by 06/30/2026 to complete our second round of code updates," and said staff grouped amendments into three…
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