Washington Policy Center: It’s time to reform the Growth Management Act to benefit rural and urban communities alike

When Gov. Jay Inslee released his budget proposal in December, it became clear that housing and homelessness were going to be a major focus of Olympia’s legislative session this year. Unfortunately, his proposal to slap a staggeringly expensive Band-Aid on our housing affordability crisis – to the tune of $4 billion – does little to address the root causes of the issue.

A key factor in the current housing affordability and availability crisis is the legacy – and the continued harm – the Growth Management Act poses on regional planning. Originally passed in 1990, the intent behind the GMA was to address the effects of population and economic growth and their impacts on the environment. Despite claims that the GMA would be locally-driven and would provide deference for rural communities, the behemoth law quickly moved to centralized, state-driven permitting and zoning requirements that supersede local planning.

State and local laws, permitting requirements, and building restrictions and regulations add an average of $144,000 to the cost of construction to a new, median-priced home in Washington. As much as 24% of housing-price increases at the county level may be attributed to the GMA which also slowed progress in increased housing affordability statewide by as much as 5.1%.

Today, the GMA is not benefiting Washington’s communities – be it rural Pend Oreille County, suburban Yakima communities adjacent to agricultural lands, or urban Spokane neighborhoods in the downtown core.

In fact, the harm being placed on Washingtonians can be directly attributed to the state-driven regulatory minefield that is dictating our homebuilding processes.

According to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the increase in regulations in Washington since 1997 is associated with 93,991 more people living in poverty and a 2.95% increase in income inequality. The Building Industry of Washington factors that every $1,000 increase in the cost of building a new home now prices more than 2,182 people out of the market in Washington.

There are simple, straightforward reforms that would immediately strike at the core drivers of housing costs without reducing accountability in the building process. For example, we should add a 30-day deadline to permit processing times (if the request deadline is passed, the fee would be canceled) and allow permits for simple projects to be processed online and approved electronically.

Perhaps most fundamentally important is the recommendation that the Growth Management Act adopt “create affordable housing” as its top priority, rather than the list of 14 priorities – which themselves conflict with one another – that are in the statute.

Our housing challenges are not confined to east or west, rural or urban; the GMA, our centralized planning law, is dictating too many regional and local building decisions. Reforms must be made to benefit all Washingtonians.

The Buiding Industry of Washington has estimated the state is experiencing a housing deficit of almost 269,000 units, and that this will rise to 323,300 units by 2040 if no serious policy changes are implemented.

The Legislature has an opportunity to address the root causes of the housing crisis and take substantive steps to create an environment that encourages building affordable housing for Washingtonians in all corners of our state – or we can continue to simply throw money at the problem only benefiting a targeted and select few, while leaving the broader problem with little to no measurable progress.

Sean V. O’Brien is the Eastern Washington director for the Washington Policy Center. He is the former executive director of the Congressional Western Caucus and is based in the Tri-Cities. You can read WPC’s recent study on housing at washingtonpolicycenter.org.