Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Development Code Update topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
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 buckets (required by June 2026, required eventually but not by June, and city‑sponsored amendments).
Impact fees and documentation: Staff described a referenced Senate bill (spoken as "52 58") that requires jurisdictions to adjust impact fees for smaller/middle housing so fees are proportionate and to document the methodology and calculations for those reductions. Erica said traffic-impact and park-impact methodologies will be analyzed with consultants and that state rules are prescriptive on how proportionality may be calculated.
Other topics: The update will address SEPA categorical exemptions (Department of Ecology updated thresholds in 2023), unit-lot subdivisions (allowing parent parcels to be divided into individually owned unit lots), a requirement to treat certain behavioral-health and harm-reduction programs as essential public facilities (described from a bill read as "55 36"), and a mandate to allow childcare centers as permitted uses in most zones (read as Senate bill "55 09"). Staff also raised city-sponsored topics including updating design guidelines, adding a boat-storage permitting process, an impact-fee study for multimodal transportation, and code language to address data centers and battery-energy-storage systems.
Commissioner concerns and context: Commissioners asked whether the city would identify candidate buildings for conversion; Erica said the city is not a developer but can assist with site feasibility and cited two local parcels of interest (a site off Capitol Boulevard and an old brewery site). Commissioners also raised operational questions about infrastructure capacity, homeowner association governance of common areas, and potential neighborhood impacts from increased density. Staff repeatedly noted limitations on what the city may require under state law (for example, limits on requiring additional parking or design changes for conversions).
Next steps: Staff will form a work group January–March, perform internal review in April and publish a public-draft review likely in May, then proceed through public hearings and council adoption to meet state deadlines. Erica asked commissioners to provide feedback and to serve as a sounding board as staff refine the draft code and methodologies.
The Jan. 13 meeting recorded questions and input but no formal votes on code changes.
