Your Chamber’s Advocacy Department attends City Council and County Commissioner meetings and provides summaries to give members updates on business and transportation-related conversations happening in local government.
August 28th, 2018
August 28th, 2018
Sustainable Growth & Legislative Priorities for the City of Spokane Valley
The August 28th meeting of the Spokane Valley City Council featured presentations from the Spokane Homebuilders Association (SHBA), Greenstone Homes, Senator Padden, and reps from the firm Gordon Thomas Honeywell, the firm tasked with helping advocate for the City of Spokane Valley in Olympia during the 2019 Legislative Session.
Together, the SHBA, Greenstone, and Senator Padden presented Council with a request to consider adding a fix to the Condo Act, which was signed into law during the 2009 Legislative Session, to the City’s Legislative Agenda. As you may know, there is a scarcity of affordable options for home ownership, especially in price ranges that are more feasible for youth and first-time homebuyers. The argument made by this group for a fix focuses on the difficulty developers have faced since 2009 getting insurance for condo projects. As a result, many developers then opt to build apartments, which does not help add to the supply of housing available for ownership. We will see if Council considers adding a Condo Act fix to their Legislative Agenda as January gets closer.
Gordon Thomas Honeywell, based in Tacoma, sent several reps over to Spokane Valley to present the preliminary Legislative Agenda that currently has 7 priorities identified by Council and City Staff.
The August 28th meeting of the Spokane Valley City Council featured presentations from the Spokane Homebuilders Association (SHBA), Greenstone Homes, Senator Padden, and reps from the firm Gordon Thomas Honeywell, the firm tasked with helping advocate for the City of Spokane Valley in Olympia during the 2019 Legislative Session.
Together, the SHBA, Greenstone, and Senator Padden presented Council with a request to consider adding a fix to the Condo Act, which was signed into law during the 2009 Legislative Session, to the City’s Legislative Agenda. As you may know, there is a scarcity of affordable options for home ownership, especially in price ranges that are more feasible for youth and first-time homebuyers. The argument made by this group for a fix focuses on the difficulty developers have faced since 2009 getting insurance for condo projects. As a result, many developers then opt to build apartments, which does not help add to the supply of housing available for ownership. We will see if Council considers adding a Condo Act fix to their Legislative Agenda as January gets closer.
Gordon Thomas Honeywell, based in Tacoma, sent several reps over to Spokane Valley to present the preliminary Legislative Agenda that currently has 7 priorities identified by Council and City Staff.
Here is the current list of priorities:
- $2.5 million request from the State for the Pines/BNSF grade separation project, for which the City has already set aside $2.4 million of its own dollars.
- A roughly $1 million request from the State for improvements to Browns Park.
- Defend local control
- Reform state regulatory burden to make Washington State a more attractive place to do business.
- Increase the shares for municipalities in the revenue-sharing process with the State from purchases of alcohol and marijuana sales.
- Support the continued prohibition of home-growing marijuana.
- Support key priorities identified in the 2019 Legislative Agenda for the Association of Washington Cities (AWC).
