To our Edmonds neighbors and friends,
In 2023, there are now four major housing bills coming out of Olympia targeting single-family neighborhoods in Edmonds and across the state. Two are open for public hearing input now, so please take action today.
1. House Bill 1245 will mandate all single-family lots, no matter where located in Edmonds and Woodway, to be allowed to be split in two. It has been voted out of the House and will be heard at a public hearing in the Senate Committee on Local Government, Land Use & Tribal Affairs at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, March 14.
Please take a few moments to show your opposition to House Bill 1245 by signing in con by 7 a.m. on Tuesday, March 14.
HB 1245 would mandate all cities planning under the GMA (Growth Management Act) in Washington state, no matter the population or infrastructure available, to allow the splitting of a single residential lot into two residential lots. No more than one off-street parking spot can be required for each new lot created, no matter if close to transit or miles away. This bill will supersede, preempt and invalidate any conflicting local development regulations. Read the three-page bill here.
2. A second housing bill, Senate Bill 5235, would supersede cities planning under the GMA to allow two additional housing units — an ADU (accessory dwelling unit)and DADU (detached accessory dwelling unit) — for each single-family lot without a restrictive covenant in Edmonds and Woodway with few exceptions. Options for diversity of housing zoning is a local planning decision that currently requires local engagement. This bill removes local involvement. Edmonds currently allows attached ADUs and Woodway does not allow any. This blankets them to all single-family lots. Read this bill here.
It has passed the Senate and will have a public hearing in the House Housing Committee at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, March 13.
Please take a few moments to show your opposition to Senate Bill 5235 by signing in con by 12:30 p.m. on Monday, March 13.
At the Washington State Department of Commerce presentation on housing need and capacity on Feb. 15, 2023, the City of Kirkland showed as being “affordable,” new middle housing market-rate two- to four- “cottage housing” clusters selling for $1.3 million to $2.5 million each. HB 5235 would allow a DADU to be sold as a condos. This is happening already in Seattle and 2022 King County sales show an 840-square-foot DADU at $710,000 and many go up from there as square footage increases. SB 5235 does not have any minimum square footage limit so no affordability required in this bill either.
HB 1245 is sneaky as it will first allow at least double the density in all single-family neighborhoods. Then, if HB 1110 passes, up to an additional quadrupling of density, again with mostly high-priced, market-rate housing at the expense of knocking down more affordable modest homes, causing displacement of many of our neighbors.
HB 1110 will be scheduled for a public hearing in the Senate Housing Committee, separate from these ones — also very sneaky. We will let you know when that happens to be able to take action then too. Each of these housing bills stack upon the others so all require you and everyone you know in Edmonds, Woodway and other Washington cities to seize these opportunities to participate and comment.
When you sign in con for either bill, enter information to complete sign in:
· Enter your position on HB 1245 and SB 5235: Con
· Fill in your information
· Check “I’m not a robot” and click “Submit Registration”
· If you want to include written testimony on HB 1245 Lot Splitting, click here to participate further. For SB 5235 ADU/DADU, click here.
Forward this to as many people as you know to comment oppose to these bills taking away local planning control of all single-family zoning. Please act now.
Thank you for advocating on behalf of our cities to keep local control of land use decisions and for preserving our single-family neighborhoods!
— By Dr. Michelle Dotsch
Michelle Dostsch is the president of the Alliance of Citizens for Edmonds (ACE).
Edmonds can not afford any more housing it’s small enough and we don’t have partaking space for his kind of situation we are already fighting homeless people who choose to k or in their cars have 6 cars they park and alternate knowing how to subvert the system we do not want Edmonds to turn into Seattle we don’t need any more building Edmonds has very little room as it is stop being idiots !
Thank you Michelle.
Your knowledge and leadership in this charge is much appreciated- I will be actioning immediately!
Overreach and power-grabbing seems to be the current trend in Government at all levels these days.
Edmonds has a City Council that we elect to make these important and environmentally complex decisions for Edmonds and it needs to stay that way.
Personally, I say no thanks to this “cookie-cutter legislation” maneuvering by Olympia.
Unfortunately folks, this is exactly what the WEF’s (World Economic Forum) is creating. A new world for us all and WE have no say. This is being driven by the world leaders. They are all in it and it reaches into into the state levels as well.
We all need to prepare ourselves The Great Reset. The life and lifestyles we enjoy now will be gone in 20 years.
Michele, Edmonds has lots of space for more (affordable) housing, while improving greatly upon what currently exists in those areas. Examples include the Edmonds Way corridor (already happening), the Highway 99 area (starting to happen), and around the LRT station near 220th and I-5 (will happen). These are areas where we could build comprehensive mixes of high density housing, with focused/dedicated services such as parks, transit, community centers, shopping, schools, etc. for those increased population “clusters”. That would work, and we could plan it locally to work, without major upheaval to our existing neighborhoods through the interference of the Central Kommittee in Olympia.
Just a plain common sense reading of these proposed “solutions” to our housing situation, without the need for sppefic and enumerated faults, defects, and enumerated adverse consequences, shows the lack of wisdom evidenced by the proponents of this legislative disaster. KILL THE BILL!!!!
Michelle,
Thank you for your leadership on this and keeping everyone informed. Providing the links to how we can make our voices heard is vitally important. I hope everyone takes the couple of minutes to voice their concerns about this proposed draconian legislation.
We need more leaders like you.
I have gone con on every one of these I can find. I have written I have tried to reason. I don’t know if anything will stop this but I do know if people refuse to sell and this includes people who do not live on properties they own and instead have either rented or let them fall to disarray, now wanting to sell to developers should stop too if they live here. Maybe those with major money could buy them out and fix them up and then sell or rent these homes with good foundations and bountiful tree coverage. They can’t take our land if we don’t let them. You can’t build a monstrosity without the ground. Stay true Edmonds. Its not all about money here. It is about unity for all citizens of Edmonds.
Michelle, Thanks for alerting everyone about the bills. HB1245 will double the density created by other bills up for approval. So if HB1110 becomes law one single family lot can have a fourplex. Then HB1245 allows a lot split making two fourplexes on a single family lot possible. That makes eight units anywhere single family homes sit now. Wow! The infrastructure for the pending swell in development is not in place. It will take years and massive amounts of money to create. Cities will be left scrambling to improve infrastructure for an unknown and unproven methodology of State mandated density. Follow the links. Vote CON. Also please come down to the Waterfront Center on Saturday March 18th 10am-noon and tell Reps. Marco Liias, Strom Peterson and Lillian Ortiz-Self exactly how you feel about all these extreme up-zone measures. These representatives have no experience in urban planning and, frankly, I don’t think they care about the consequences of these radical measures.
Thanks for posting the links all in one place. Makes it easier to find them all for those of us voting PRO, too.