Originally published in The Urbanist

For almost 30 years, Futurewise has worked to encourage sustainable natural and built environments by using the policy, advocacy and legal tools available through Washington State’s Growth Management Act (GMA).  We have great appreciation for the GMA framework, however, we also recognize that Washington is a different place than it was in 1990 when the GMA was adopted.  The work of managing growth needs to evolve and adapt over time, particularly as the impacts of climate change and the disparities between different segments of the population rapidly increase.   

Dear Supporters of Futurewise, I’m writing to inform you that our Executive Director, Chris Wierzbicki, has resigned from Futurewise effective July 30th. Chris was offered a position as the Public Works Director for the City of Bainbridge Island (where he has lived for 12 years), and has decided to accept the offer for both personal and professional reasons.  Chris has been a real asset for Futurewise since he joined in 2015, so it is with great sadness that I share this announcement, but I wish him well in his new endeavors, I know he will do well for the City.

Originally published in The Urbanist

Originally published in The Urbanist

We’re pleased to announce that HB 1923 passed both the House and Senate yesterday – the final version of the bill closely reflects the summary that we offered in our blog post of April 12th. Even though the bill has weaknesses – particularly the optional nature of the increased density provisions – the context and process that led to its passage offer much to be hopeful about.

While we wait for our priority bill, HB 1923 to make it out of the Senate after some minor language changes, here’s an update on the status of some of the other bills we have been supporting in Olympia in the last few weeks:

Originally published in The Urbanist

We have been working hard in Olympia over the last couple of weeks to shape HB 1923 into legislation that aligns our growth strategy goals and values: advancing equitable, affordable in-fill development in cities that offer access to opportunity and frequent transit service.  The current iteration of the bill (which has changed since it’s last posting, available here), sits in the Senate Rules Committee, which we believe will vote to move the bill in the next day or two.

There’s only about five weeks remaining in the legislative session at this point, and we are continuing to track the twists and turns of our priority bills.

The update from Olympia today finds our priority bill, HB1923, in a precarious position.  This past week the bill moved out of the House, and onto the Senate – but with a host of watered-down provisions, including the following: (for an overview of the last iteration of the bill - more or less -  see our blog post from February 8th)

Today we are throwing our support behind two very important bills, 2SHB 1923 and SB 5812, in the hopes they make progress this week.

On Tuesday, March 19th, Futurewise is welcoming activist scholar Dr. Lisa K. Bates, Ph.D. as our Keynote Speaker for the Spring Luncheon and Livable Communities Awards. Dr. Bates will be speaking on the topic “Housing Justice, not for ‘Just Us’”, a timely exploration of the false dichotomies that anchor the affordable housing debate and proposal for how we can advance equitable, effective affordable housing policy. In this month’s Wonkabout Washington, we’re giving you a preview of Dr. Bates’ work. If you’d like to meet her in person, join us at the Spring Luncheon and Livable Communities Awards, where The Urbanist will be receiving the Excellence in Smart Growth and Transportation Award. Tickets are sliding scale and available at Futurewise.org/luncheon.

Our work in Olympia slows just a bit this coming week, as cutoff for policy-focused bills just occurred.  While at this point in time we can’t quite guarantee the status on each of the bills we’ve been tracking, here are some key updates and predictions:

Thanks for tuning in to this week for an update on Futurewise legislative actions.  Next week will be the last week for committee hearings on policy-focused bills, meaning that all bills that aren’t moved out of committee by next Friday will be considered “dead”. The cutoff for bills with a fiscal impact is two weeks later, on March 1st.

Thanks for following us as we engage on the bills this session that resonate with (or against) our organizational values.  Here are the bills up for testimony this coming week:

Thanks for keeping up with us as this fourth week of the 2019 legislative session is almost behind us.  Coming up next week are a host of new bills and issues we will be testifying on:

In addition to the bills we reported on last week, we’re presently keeping our eye on a few more that are coming into focus:

Originally published in The Urbanist

The 2019 Washington State Legislative session opened with a host of land-use and growth management issues that we’re working to weigh in on.  Here is a quick rundown of the issues we are focusing on this week:

Stay in-the-know with Futurewise! Sign up to get regular email updates about our legislative advocacy, legal work and community projects. 

Monday is the first day of the 2019 Washington State legislative session, and Futurewise is preparing to engage on a host of important issues related to land-use and transportation. We have been carefully developing our priorities this year, as Democrats will be entering the 2019 session holding their strongest majority in recent years with a 16-vote margin (57-41) in the House and a 7-vote margin (28-21) in the Senate.

In 2018, Futurewise continued our work across Washington to advance livable communities while protecting our state’s most valuable natural resources. Here’s just a few of our top victories from the past year:

To our supporters,

Futurewise has worked with City of Seattle staff for several years, providing input on policy regarding Accessory Dwelling Units. We're excited to

Last week, Outreach Coordinator Angela Compton traveled to Yakima with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance (WLIHA) to facilitate a workshop on Storytelling for Advocacy at the 2018 Conference for Ending Homelessness.

It was a short session this year, but a rather productive one.  See some highlights below on the bills we worked to support and prevent this year.

With policy committee cutoff soon approaching on February 23rd, today it appears that we're achieving success with our legislative agenda.

These are the bills we see coming forward next week in Olympia:

This was the first week of the 2018 Legislative Session, and we were hard at work reviewing and testifying on a number of bills.  Here is a brief summary of some of the highlights:

We’re getting a new database at Futurewise specifically designed to help organizations like ours “engage and change the world.” And while we couldn’t be happier, it is an exacting and complicated process to convert our files to the new format. While this is happening, we’ve had to slow down some of our donor communications to be sure that our record-keeping doesn’t get confused between systems.  If you’ve made a gift to Futurewise recently, we want to thank you for your contribution and your patience.

This week kicks off the 2018 Washington State Legislative Session, and Futurewise will be present in Olympia working to serve the people of our state by advocating for important land-use and environmental issues.

In spite of many challenges, 2017 has been a year of wins and progress for growth management across Washington.  Take a a look at some of what your support has made happen:

Futurewise lost a great friend and supporter in September. We were saddened to learn from our Spokane office of the passing of Elizabeth Cocchiarella due to pancreatic cancer. She lived life fully, gave generously and anonymously – and in this season of thanksgiving, we celebrate her life with gratitude.

It was but a year ago that I sent a message out to all of you, lamenting what had transpired the night before on election day 2016.  We were eating doughnuts in the conference room - comforting one another, and suggesting that maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked.  Looking back, it seems we were quite naïve.

This October, Futurewise will be hosting a convening on innovative financing tools such as pay for success, credit trading, environmental impact bonds, and community-based public private partnerships - with the hopes of inspiring local governments and agencies to start thinking creatively about how to solve some of our region's most pressing environmental and infrastructure challenges.

Futurewise Executive Director, Chris Wierzbicki, and Darcy Nonemacher, Government Affairs Director for the Washington Environmental Council talk with Diane Horn of KEXP about the wrap up of the 2017 legislative session on this "Sustainability Segment."  Click hereto listen.

With the closing of the 2017 legislative session on July 20th - after three overtime sessions - it's clear  that the people of Washington lost out to the power of special interests on a number of fronts. 

On June 21, 2017, Okanogan County Superior Court Judge Christopher Culp denied motions by Okanogan County to dismiss Futurewise and the Methow Valley Citizens Council appeals of the Okanogan County comprehensive plan and zoning regulations. If granted, these motions would have ended the appeals.

If someone tells you the Growth Management Act is responsible for a housing shortage, do not believe them. According to just issued Census data, Washington State ranked sixth in the number of total building permits issued in 2016 -  see a very short article from Planetizen here.

Believe it or not, I started out my career by determining how to best pave over farmland to make room for new big box retail stores.  This was New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the late 1990’s, and the “birthplace of the mall” was riding a wave of commercial sprawl that was eating up soybean and corn fields far outside the urban core.  I was an engineer-in-training, tasked with figuring out how big of a hole needed to be dug in the ground in order to contain all the runoff generated from the endless acres of asphalt parking.

Each year, Futurewise presents its Livable Communities Awards to programs and projects that are helping to make Washington State a better place for all. This year's awards will be given out at our Spring Breakfast this Thursday, March 2 (register here), but here's a sneak peak of our dedicated and diverse group of awardees!