Senate Bill 5190, Increasing middle housing in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family
detached housing. It’s companion House bill is HB 1110

Please Vote

I am against this bill. Please vote against it this morning using the link above. Bill 5190 would allow the circumvention of all the local Growth Management safeguards put in place to preserve single-family lifestyles. It removes any voice an existing community would have in protesting against the increased development.

Not requiring a provision for parking for the multi-units will automatically create all kinds of stress. I have lived in apartments, stacked on top of noisy neighbors. Parking my car on the street after work was a nightly feat of ingenuity and timing.

This bill is bad news. Taking away any input from the community it will crowd by ignoring planning steps before allowing an increased population in an area. It is idiotic to not make sure that the utilities, sewage, drainage, and transportation could handle the extra load before commencing the project.

Yes, we have a housing shortage in Washington state.

Honestly, we need to respond to it quickly, but, not without thinking about what the repercussions will be. In preparing to house the mass migration into our state, we should not destroy it for the residents that are already here. This would greatly change an existing quiet community into an overcrowded and negative place to raise kids without allowing any voice of dissent for the residents living in the proposed area of development.

Developers, contractors, and real estate agents will love this bill. It gives them free rein to do whatever they deem necessary to put the units up. No requirements to jump through local planning “hoops of fire” makes their job so much easier.

I can see that an established single-family area of town, with scattered vacant lots, would very easily be overrun. With the addition of 6 times more habitation per lot that would very quickly happen. We rush to put up cracker jack boxes “plexes”, replacing neighborhoods, as the sky is falling all around us.