Panelists urge state steps on land, financing and new prefab housing to boost supply

Panelists at a Seattle housing forum pushed for a mix of state action and regulatory changes to expand housing supply, emphasizing both land access under the Growth Management Act and faster deployment of factory-built homes.

Sen. Jessica Bateman, state senator for the 22nd Legislative District and chair of the Senate housing committee, said the state must make diverse housing types legal and easier to build. "We have this opportunity for construction of housing in factories that can be more cost effective, be quicker, and be preapproved," she said, describing visits to factories in Tacoma and Wolf Industries in Battleground and noting example prices around $175,000 before land costs.

Advocates and industry representatives debated whether the Growth Management Act (GMA) should do more than manage growth. Tim Groover, the event moderator, framed the question by citing a Department of Commerce estimate that Washington needs roughly 1,100,000 more homes by 2040. Jan Heimbaugh, vice president of external affairs at the Building Industry Association of Washington, said the state has limited land inside urban growth areas (UGAs) — he reported that 3.74% of Washington's land is in UGAs, with King County about 26% and Kitsap about 36% — and argued that current UGA lines constrain housing at all price points.

Michelle Thomas of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance pressed for prioritizing subsidized, deeply affordable housing. "The vast majority of those homes that are needed across the state are for people earning 80% and less of area median income," she said, urging capital-budget investments to preserve manufactured-home communities and build permanently affordable units.

Panelists outlined policy tools under consideration: a bill by Rep. Abel Connors (House Bill 1164) to adjust urban growth boundaries in some circumstances, commercial-to-residential conversion incentives, a proposed sales-and-use tax deferral for redevelopment of parking lots, and a workforce-construction loan fund proposal to provide low-cost revolving financing for affordable and workforce housing.

Speakers also favored creating a statewide catalog of preapproved modular housing plans so builders across cities could use consistent designs and speed approvals. Karl Strader, deputy government relations director for the Association of Washington Cities, said municipalities need to ensure site work, grading and infrastructure hookups meet local standards but acknowledged a menu of plans could reduce local concerns.

Panelists cautioned that local conditions and fees can erode the cost advantages of new housing types. Heimbaugh warned that energy-code and other regulatory upgrades have raised construction costs (he cited an estimate of about $42,000 added to a single-family house for recent energy-code changes) and urged attention to impact fees and other inputs that increase per-unit prices.

The discussion closed with panelists noting that no single policy is a silver bullet and that successful outcomes will require coordinated financing, state standards to reduce process friction, and targeted capital investments for deeply affordable units. The panel identified bills expected to reappear in the coming legislative session but emphasized that some reforms may require more than one session to complete.