Seattle News Draft Comprehensive Plan Released After months of anticipation, the draft One Seattle Comprehensive Plan has finally arrived! This Comprehensive Plan update for Seattle marks a critical milestone in shaping the city’s future growth over the next 20 years, addressing key questions…
AIA Seattle’s Committee on Homelessness (COHO) advocated for adding housing capacity, speeding up housing production and lessening code requirements in a letter addressing the City’s recent position put forward in the Amicus Curiae brief to the Supreme Court of the…
Photo: The 2024 Washington state legislative session gets underway in the House of Representatives on Jan. 8, 2024. (Laurel Demkovich/Washington State Standard) 2024 Legislative Session Begins The 2024 legislative session kicked off on January 8 with a flurry of activities,…
AIA Washington Register for Capitol Connections Registration is open for Capitol Connections on January 23, 2024, where AIA Washington will be discussing the rolling clock bill. This event will be a great opportunity to connect with your legislators and share…
Photo: Judkins Junction, an affordable housing project at Jackson Street and 23rd Avenue South in Seattle. (Ellen M. Banner / The Seattle Times, 2020) LOCAL NEWS Passage of the 2023 Seattle Housing Levy We are thrilled to announce a historic…
Photo: Doug Walker LOCAL NEWS Public Hearing on Proposed Transportation Impact Fees Last week, the Seattle City Council voted to expedite an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan concerning transportation impact fees. The proposal has been sent to the full Council…
Photo: Jared Wenzelburger, The Chronicle SBCC Advances Energy Code Amendments with Revised Effective Date In a recent meeting, the State Building Code Council (SBCC) made significant strides in advancing energy code amendments that promise to shape the future of construction…
Photo: MyNorthwest AIA National Revised Federal Research & Development Tax Credit Update AIA National has shared an important update regarding the revised federal research and development (R&D) tax credit, which came into effect on January 1, 2023. Due to the…
Call for Feedback: Updates to Architects are Environmentally Responsible Policy We are excited to announce that AIA National is undertaking an important initiative to update the Architects are Environmentally Responsible section of the AIA Public Policy statements and accept feedback from…
Seattle City Council Passes Tree Ordinance Latest Housing Taskforce advocacy efforts: We are thrilled to announce that the Seattle City Council has passed the long-awaited tree ordinance, marking a significant milestone in our mission to strike a balance between housing…
STATE NEWS 2023 Legislative Session We have reached the final weeks of the 105-day state legislative session. Tuesday, April 4, was the opposite house fiscal committee cut-off, where all bills that passed the House needed to be out of their…
STATE NEWS State Legislative Session Update Washington’s State Legislature is back in person and moving through the long 105 day session at an effective pace. This year there have been well over 1,500 bills introduced so far. While the legislation…
STATE NEWS State Legislative Session Update The state legislature adjourned for the year on March 10. Thank to you all of you who supported AIA’s efforts in Olympia. Here is a list of AIA’s highlights from the session (you can…
In February, the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) and the Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) released a draft SEPA ordinance on tree protections. The ordinance would expand the types and sizes of trees that are regulated, require…
NATIONAL NEWS National Building Performance Standard Effort At the United States Conference of Mayors winter meeting in January, President Biden announced a new partnership with state and local governments to reduce carbon emissions from the built environment. Known as the…
AIA Seattle believes the vision for City of Seattle should be a livable city with a variety of housing near many types of amenities, retail cores, and transit that appeals to and is accessible to everyone, where everything residents need…
STATE NEWS State Building Code Council Releases 2021 Commercial Energy Code The 2021 commercial energy code amendments have been released by the State Building Code Council; you can view the proposed rule here. Public comments can be emailed to sbcc@des.wa.gov…
STATE NEWS Washington’s Redistricting Process Ends Washington’s redistricting saga has ended, with the state Supreme Court declining to develop its own district maps and allowing the maps approved after the deadline by the state’s redistricting commission to take effect. You…
STATE NEWS Washington Redistricting Washington’s redistricting commission, charged with determining new state and Congressional legislative districts after the 2020 census, failed to meet its Nov. 15 deadline to agree on new district maps. The failure of the panel, made up…
STATE NEWS Washington’s Tax System Overhaul Committee Would Like Your Feedback Are you fed up with Washington’s tax system? This is your opportunity to let legislators know what you’d like to see instead. The state’s Tax Structure Work Group, led…
STATE NEWS Washington’s Tax System Overhaul Under Discussion Washington has a multi-year Tax Structure Work Group led by a bipartisan group of legislators and charged with researching, evaluating, and conducting public outreach around developing a new state taxation system that…
Background Earlier this year, in compliance with state legislation (HB 1377) passed in 2019, the Seattle City Council passed and Mayor Jenny Durkan signed legislation to allow religious institutions to access additional development capacity when they redevelop their property for…
Legislation to rename Seattle’s single family zoning category from “Single Family” to “Neighborhood Residential” will be voted on at a Sept. 24th Land Use & Neighborhoods City Council Committee meeting. This legislation does not make actual changes to the existing…
LOCAL NEWS 2020 MHA Report Released Seattle’s Office of Housing released its first annual report on the city’s Mandatory Housing Affordability and Incentive Zoning program, including long-anticipated data on housing projects’ use of payment versus performance under the program. While…
NATIONAL NEWS California Gas Ban Lawsuit Dismissed A federal court in San Francisco dismissed a preemption challenge to the ban on gas hookups in new construction in Berkeley, California. California has more than 40 cities that have implemented gas bans…
STATE NEWS State Legislative Session Adjourns Washington’s Legislature adjourned on April 25, ending a historic, nearly all-virtual session in which Democratic leadership focused on four key areas: COVID relief, economic recovery, racial equity, and climate change. Gov. Inslee is still…
NATIONAL NEWS Housing Supply & Affordability Act In Congress, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota introduced the Housing Supply and Affordability Act to encourage cities and rural communities to lift barriers to new housing construction. The bipartisan bill would authorize…
NATIONAL NEWS Biden Reverses Trump’s Classical Architecture Order In February, President Joe Biden reversed Former President Donald Trump’s move to preference classical architecture in federal buildings as part of the new administration’s review of Trump-era executive orders. Under former President…
NATIONAL NEWS Green Infrastructure Investments During AIA National’s virtual Grassroots conference this week, AIA members from across the country met with their U.S. senators and representatives to discuss Congressional investments in green building infrastructure that can address public health and…
STATE NEWS State Code Returned to Feb. 1 Implementation Date On Jan. 12, Governor Inslee reversed a Jan. 8 decision by the State Building Code Council which delayed the implementation date of the 2018 building codes from Feb. 1…
Local We endorsed the Seattle Planning Commission’s Growth Strategy White Paper, Evolving Seattle’s Growth Strategy. We provided feedback to SDCI on the Seattle Services Portal. We organized architect focus groups for Seattle Public Utilities’ update on solid waste planning and…
NATIONAL NEWS AIA National Approves Rule on Justice Facility Spaces In December, AIA National’s Board of Directors approved new rules to the AIA’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct prohibiting members from knowingly designing spaces intended for execution and torture,…
STATE NEWS State Energy Strategy Draft Released Washington’s draft State Energy Strategy has been released for public comment. Section D focuses on energy consumption and emissions from the built environment and can be found on pages 63-90. The State Energy…
VOTE! Don’t forget to submit your ballot by Nov. 3. If you are not registered, the deadline is Oct. 26 for mail or online registrations, but you can register to vote up to Nov. 3 if you show up…
FEDERAL NEWS AIA National Policy Platform AIA National has released a federal policy platform in advance of this year’s presidential elections. General categories include: A future economy Climate action Healthy and equitable communities STATE NEWS Clean Energy Transformation Act The…
BLACK LIVES MATTER AIA Seattle joins powerful community voices raised to condemn the murder of George Floyd and the broader system of racism, violence, injustice, and inequity that it represents. In the coming weeks, you will hear more about our…
