Issaquah committee asks staff to study parking-minimum changes and EV-capable requirements in climate plan update

Issaquah — At a March 2026 meeting of the Issaquah City Council Planning, Development & Environment Committee, staff presented a set of proposed high-impact policies for the 2026 update to the Issaquah Climate Action Plan (ICAP) and the committee gave direction to refine those options and advance them for broader review.

Stacy Van McKinstry, the city’s sustainability manager, told the committee the update process has included technical committees, outreach events, and reviews of neighboring cities’ policies. She laid out six staff recommendations that would focus on transportation and building-energy actions, including: studying removal of parking minimums for multifamily development; evaluating an EV technical-support and incentive program for multifamily properties; expanding EV charging access through incentives and public–private partnerships; hiring a consultant to identify code barriers to renewables and efficiency; piloting a voluntary energy-benchmarking program for smaller buildings; and expanding the Energy Smart Eastside heat-pump and weatherization program.

“Tonight, that direction that we seek is that, whether or not, council directs us to incorporate high impact actions in the 2026 Issaquah climate action plan update,” Van McKinstry said during the presentation.

Council members pressed staff for details rather than immediate mandates. Council Member Nichols asked for precise definitions — for example, what “frequent transit” would mean in a parking-minimums policy — and proposed applying parking reductions in targeted areas such as the regional growth center or a 0.5-mile buffer around fixed, permanent transit nodes. Nichols also urged that map-based definitions be considered so the policy does not hinge on every bus stop or variable route.

Deputy Council President Jang and others expressed similar caution about relying on Sound Transit stops that can change. Jang said a more durable approach would be to tie parking policy to fixed infrastructure or regional growth center boundaries.

On EV charging, members and staff converged around preferring EV-capable wiring (conduit and basic wiring installed during construction) over requiring full EV service that can force costly transformer upgrades. “My preference would be a 100% (EV-capable) at a level that’s lower than EV capable — basically, just the plumbing, tubes and wires, but without the oversized electrical service,” Deputy Council President Jang said, describing an approach intended to limit upfront costs while avoiding retrofit disruptions.

Van McKinstry emphasized the proposals are conceptual and said staff would study feasibility, costs and equity impacts before proposing concrete code changes. She noted some PPC and TAB feedback: TAB generally supported reducing parking minimums and increasing EV-ready stalls, while PPC flagged spillover-parking, grid-capacity and affordability concerns.

The committee noted building-energy options such as voluntary benchmarking, home-energy scores, and time-of-replacement rules have equity and capacity implications. One council member cited research that benchmarking alone tends to produce modest reductions and urged stronger incentives to reduce natural gas use and speed heat-pump adoption.

Committee members asked staff to incorporate the feedback and bring a full set of revised targets and actions to the Environmental Board for initial review next week. Council leadership and staff discussed schedule options for council-level review; committee members agreed it was appropriate to take the ICAP update to a Committee of the Whole in May for broader council review ahead of a potential June or July decision.

No public commenters spoke at the meeting.

What happens next: Staff will incorporate tonight’s feedback, further analyze feasibility and costs (including a study to propose a recommended percentage for EV-capable parking), present revised actions to the Environmental Board for review, and the committee signaled support for taking the ICAP update to the Committee of the Whole for council-level discussion.