Washington State Gives Bainbridge Island Marching Orders on Housing Changes
The clock is officially ticking for the City of Bainbridge Island's long overdue growth plan, after the Washington Department of Commerce sent the city a letter last week containing a laundry list of items where the city is falling short of requirements to plan for housing under the Growth Management Act. Commerce sent the letter as part of its first wave of reviews of select local growth plans under the 2025 Housing Accountability Act, giving Bainbridge 120 days to make updates and adopt a compliant plan.
If Bainbridge's Comprehensive Plan still isn't aligned with state requirements when that clock runs out, the Commerce Department now has the ability to find the city out of compliance, a power that had previously been confined to the independent Growth Management Hearings Board.
Continued noncompliance could result in the withholding of state funding, along with a brand new provision in state law: the so-called "builder's remedy." If triggered, Bainbridge Island would not be able to deny any permit for a housing project of any size as long as a certain percentage of the units are targeted at low- or middle-income households. The builder's remedy has yet to be triggered in Washington State.
Thanks to the Housing Accountability Act, other Washington cities and towns could also see a builder's remedy unlocked over the coming months, including Beaux Arts Village, Brier, Carnation, Darrington, DuPont, Gold Bar, and Woodway. But Bainbridge Island is by far the largest, with more residents than all other seven jurisdictions combined.
https://www.theurbanist.org/washington-state-gives-bainbridge-island-marching-orders-on-housing/