Land Use & Housing

AWC staff is working on final details of a number of bills we will introduce to address key land use and housing issues this session. Following consultations with other interests and key legislators, our bills will be ready for public hearings. In the meantime, we’ll be following with interest this week:

Affordable Housing Bills (HB1115, HB1116, HB1117)

There are a number of affordable housing bills before the House Housing Committee next week. These ambitious and detailed bills are aimed at ending homelessness (HB 1115), increasing homeownership to 75% of all households by 2020 (HB 1116), and modifying statues governing homeless families (HB 1117). The last two bills are scheduled for hearing on Monday, January 15, at 1:30 pm, and HB 1115 will be heard on Thursday January 18, at 10 am. AWC staff is scheduled to meet with the prime sponsor and Committee chair, Rep. Mark Miloscia (D-Federal Way), to discuss how cities can be partners in helping him achieve his objectives.

Eminent Domain Issues Resurface

A ruling in 2005 by the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the authority of the city of New London, Connecticut to use eminent domain procedures to condemn/purchase a property for the purposes of economic redevelopment. Following that ruling, there has been considerable attention paid nationwide to the issues surrounding this infrequently used authority by cities.

Washington State’s eminent domain authorities are more limited than those in states impacted by the Kelo decision and that ruling has been interpreted to not impact Washington cities (see an article written by Hugh Spitzer for AWC regarding this ruling, at www.awcnet.org/condemnationruling).

That said, there have been a number of high profile cases of late dealing with how eminent domain authorities work or do not work. The Governor and Attorney General are co-sponsoring a bill that would expand public notice requirements for public or private entities that propose use of eminent domain.

It appears a hearing will be held on that or some version of the bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, January 16 at 10:00 am. AWC will indicate our support for enhanced notice. Other bills are likely to be introduced on this topic. As we learn more, we will report on this issue in upcoming Bulletins.

In the meantime, AWC is recreating an Eminent Domain Discussion Group among interested and informed attorneys and community development staff. If interested in being a part of it, please contact Sheila Gall at sheilag@awcnet.org.

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