Legislative Committee: 2023 Wrap-Up and Opportunities for 2024

The 2023 Legislative Session, a long session of one hundred and five (105) days, ended on April 23, 2023. This session resulted in some of the most dramatic changes to the Growth Management Act (GMA) since its adoption. Your APA Washington Legislative Committee (LC) was relentless in keeping up with the fast-moving session. LC members participated in weekly Zoom meetings throughout the session, tracking legislative initiatives, reviewing proposed changes to Washington law, and providing comments and testimony to the Legislature’s committee members during workshops and meetings.

The Chapter’s contract lobbyist, Michael Shaw, provided weekly bill tracking lists setting forth upcoming hearings and meetings as well as the status of the bills of interest to APA Washington. Bills are chosen based on the Chapter’s current Legislative Priorities, National APA Policy Guides and other resources and positions set forth by APA Washington on the Chapter website. The weekly meetings usually began with Michael’s update on general information about the Legislature’s activities during the past week; moved into a review of the past week’s legislative hearings, the testimony and other input provided by him as well as LC members and others testifying; and continued through a review of the current bill tracking list that provided the most recent status of each bill.

The discussion then continued and reached consensus regarding next steps by the LC pertaining to reviews of bills, drafting comments letters on bills of interest, volunteering to testify at hearings and decisions on which bills Michael would sign in the Chapter’s position and/or testify. In total, the Chapter submitted eight letters to the Legislature. This session produced several big wins in support of the Chapter’s Legislative Priorities. Specifically, after three years in the Legislature, the passage of E2SHB 1181 integrates climate planning into GMA and implements the Chapter’s top legislative priority. Also, with the passage of 2SHB 1728 the Legislature created a disaster resiliency program, framework and processes, also supporting jurisdictional planning for climate change. It is also worthy to note that while SB 5651, which would have added an equity goal to the GMA, did not pass, environmental justice language from it was incorporated into the final version of E2SHB 1181, also implementing a 2023 APA legislative priority. Additionally, after several prior unsuccessful attempts, the Legislature provided a statewide pathway for middle housing with the passage E2SHB 1110. Finally, it delivered policy direction and financial support to the Department of Commerce in several passed bills.