The 2023 Legislative Session is now in its second month of the 105-day long session with cut-off dates noted on the 2023 Session Cut Off Calendar. The first round of cutoffs for policy bills is February 17, 2023, which is the last day legislators have to pass bills out of the committee and read them into the record on the floor in the house of origin, except House fiscal committees and Senate Ways & Means and Transportation committees.

Your Legislative Committee (LC) has discussed approximately 25 bills relevant to the chapter’s current Legislative Priorities and of interest to planners. LC members review bills alongside the current Legislative Priorities and APA Policy Guides (which include climate change policy, housing, and homelessness guides). In addition, APA national organization has identified guidance that zoning reform, climate action, and infrastructure are the issues where community planners can have the greatest impact in 2023. The LC reviews bills for legislative changes that are in alignment with the chapter’s legislative priorities and national APA policy guides, then provides comments regarding what the chapter supports in the bill. We also provide additional suggestions to improve implementation and/or bring the the bill closer in line with the chapter and national priorities.

Based on the LC members’ reviews of bills, we have arrived at the following positions and sent comment letters to the committees hearing the bills, as noted below.  All comment letters sent by the chapter are available on the chapter website.

The following is the status as of February 8, 2023, on some of the bills the LC discussed and reviewed and which are still moving:

As always, if you’d like to participate in these discussions, on the Friday weekly Zoom meetings or if you have comments on the chapter’s legislative advocacy that you’d like us to consider, please drop us a line at [email protected]. 

American Planning Association, Washington Chapter

[email protected] | (206) 682-7436 | www.washington-apa.org