Another month has come and gone, and as someone who loves data, I always looked forward to regularly scheduled data releases in August and September. For many years, these new data releases were opportunities to see how the communities and movements I belonged to were making measurable improvements in the world around us – more people riding transit, more affordable homes being built, fewer acres of farmland lost – all the things we push for here at futurewise. But sometimes, new data breaks your heart.

After 2+ years of pandemic and zoom meetings, this summer has been a great opportunity to travel around the state and visit local partners and supporters to experience the issues we are working on firsthand. From Port Angeles to Okanogan County, I’m grateful to all the wonderful folks that have hosted and guided me on my recent visits and I’m looking forward to more this fall.

You may have heard about Seattle and its comprehensive plan wondering what it is and what it has to do with you. Futurewise is here to give a quick background, our own comments, and what you can do. Warning: it’s wonky! We’re here to break it down for you.

Futurewise is coming off two successive years of victories at the state legislature, from passing HB 1220 in 2021 to promote housing justice and affordability in Washington cities to passing SB 5042 in 2022 to protect farmland and wildlife habitat by preventing sprawl, to funding incentives and guidance for planning practices to address climate change.

In March 2022, Snohomish County adopted Ordinance No. 22-006, which amended the regulations that apply to detached accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on rural lands and agricultural, forest, and mineral resource lands of long-term commercial significance.

WA Can't Wait 2022 Legislative Session Wrap-Up In the blink of an eye, the 2022 WA Legislative Session has come and gone. Despite the devastating, 11th hour death of HB1099, our bill with Rep Davina Duerr to add climate change planning to the GMA, this was still one of Futurewise’s most successful legislative sessions of all time.

Futurewise is hiring for a Communications Manager to join our team! Please check out the job description to apply.

Futurewise is excited to host Jerusalem Demsas and Heidi Groover for a Housing Power Hour in a few weeks! Join us on Tuesday, April 5th at 5 PM for a debrief on the 2022 legislative session and a preview of what’s next for housing and zoning for Washington.

Futurewise Final Legislative Update: HB 1099 Dies With Minutes to Go It is with profound disappointment that I write you with the news that HB 1099, our landmark bill to add climate change to the GMA, died yesterday with minutes to go before the legislative session ended.

HB 1099 is built on consensus supported by housing advocates, environmental justice groups, unions, local governments, state agencies, tribes, and more.We have collaborated for a year and a half on this legislation for a shared vision of responsible, just, and sustainable climate planning in Washington.Now it’s time to make that vision a reality before some of our largest and fastest-growing communities undergo their 2024 comprehensive plan updates.Below is our Fix HB1099 Coalition Support letter, calling on the Washington Legislature to reincorporate critical VMT and GHG emissions reduction requirements in HB1099, which were removed by an amendment passed in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. We have until Thursday, March 10th to #FixHB1099. To date, the letter has been signed by:

We’ve never been this close to victory… With just days left in the 2022 legislative session, I’m excited to share that we are on the verge of victory for all of our priority bills. First, let’s celebrate what we’ve accomplished together:

Cities and counties across Washington are ready to plan for our climate reality and for a more resilient future.

Week 8 Legislative Update: Down to the wireWe are in the final stretch. Within days, our priority legislation will be up for votes on the Senate and House floors. By Friday, we’ll know if we have passed our bills.

Week 7 Legislative Update: Halfway there We’re officially in the second half of this year’s legislative session and I’m very happy to share that all three of our priority bills (HB 1099, SB 5042 and HB 1769) are all still alive and kicking after this week’s cutoff date. Wahoo!

Love is in the air – that is, love for our climate, our farms and our future!

The statewide Missing Middle Housing bill (HB 1782) is still alive! Thanks to tireless advocacy by people like you, this bill to allow duplexes (Image 1), triplexes, and fourplexes throughout Washington's cities is still moving forward.

We’re reaching the halfway point of the 2022 legislative session, which is why I’m so pleased to share that we’re ahead of schedule to add climate to the GMA and close the GMA sprawl loophole. This week’s update is short and sweet – read on for status updates!

We’ve got a pretty short update this week and here’s why: another one of our priority bills, SB 5042, passed out of the Senate! 🎉🎉🎉

It’s official: HB 1099, our climate update to the GMA, officially passed out of the House of Representatives! Let’s take a moment to celebrate. 🎉🎉🎉

The Washington state legislature convened this week for the start of the 2022 legislative session. As a reminder, the 2022 session is what’s called a “short” session, meaning we have just 60 days to pass our priority legislation. Things are already moving quickly, so read on for how you can help keep the momentum going.

Here is our most up-to-date list of articles and op-eds written about our 2022 WA Can't Wait Campaign:

Today marks the first day of the 2022 legislative session and Futurewise is here to win. We’re here to finish what we started in 2021, as well as highlight some new priorities for you to follow. It’s a short session this year – just 60 days – so there’s no time to waste. Read on for what we’re working on and how you can get involved.

Get on board to shape Washington's future Futurewise is Washington’s only non-profit that works statewide on land use issues. Our work crosses the urban/rural divide—we encourage growth in cities to create healthy, affordable, low-carbon communities and we protect our state’s precious natural habitat, farmland and rural communities from urban sprawl.

During the week of December 6th, advocates across the state will take action to contact their legislators, urging them to update our state's Growth Management Act to meet today's biggest challenges. By pledging to join our WA Can't Wait Week of Action, you will receive daily emails during the week of December 6th with easy advocacy actions to contact your legislators about our three WA Can't Wait priorities, as well as access to the week's virtual events.

The 2022 legislative session ended on March 10th. Below you can find a timeline for each of our legislative priorities, and where they ended up when the clock struck midnight on the 10th.

This article was originally published in The Urbanist

This article was originally published in The Urbanist.

This article was originally published in The Urbanist

It’s a very special year for Futurewise. This year marks Tim Trohimovich’s 20th anniversary with us! Tim serves as Futurewise’s Director of Planning and Law and is our in-house legal counsel.

Shoreline Master Programs

Along with our partners, we are excited to announce the launch of King County for Everyone (KC4E), a broad coalition network of organizations and individuals working to build a future where everyone, regardless of income level or background, has access to a safe, stable, and affordable home. KC4E represents the regional evolution of the work by Seattle for Everyone to push for access to more housing in every income group, subsidy and support for affordable housing, and equitable development strategies. This expanded approach recognizes that local and regional housing affordability and equity issues are inextricably connected. 

At Futurewise, we believe that everyone deserves to live in dignified, safe, and affordable housing, that we must do everything we can to protect our communities and environment from the worst impacts of climate change, and that in doing all of this work we must be centering the voices and experiences of frontline communities. These crises are interconnected and are having real and profound impacts on Washingtonians right now- so this legislative session we sought to pass bold and comprehensive policy that would get at their roots. That’s why we launched our Washington Can’t Wait Campaign this past September to pass updates to our state’s Growth Management Act that would address some of the biggest crises facing our state. Here’s how it went: 

We’re officially past the opposite chamber deadline for legislation to pass: here’s what we’ve accomplished together.

You know that part of the superhero movie, toward the end when it seems like the heroes are outnumbered and outgunned? We know that our heroes will win in the end, but at that moment, it’s not clear how.

It’s official: both HB 1099 and HB 1220 have cleared the next hurdle in their journey to the governor’s desk, passing out of the Senate Housing and Local Government Committee last week. Now both bills are in the Senate Ways and Means Committee, where they’ll need another YES vote before heading to the Senate floor.

After wrapping up our second Week of Action, we’re back to the grind to make sure HB 1099 and HB 1220 make it out of committee this week. Here’s the scoop:

It’s official: we’re halfway through the legislative session. Only 44 days left to pass our Washington Can’t Wait campaign priorities. With that in mind, let’s dive right in!   

We’ve got some very, very good news to share. Drumroll please….

Welcome to Week 8! We’re pressing up against a deadline – March 9th – to get all three Futurewise bills (SB 5042, HB 1099, and HB 1220) passed out of their house of origin. This week's legislative update is focused on what you can do to get these bills passed.

We’re in week 7 of the legislative session and we're calling on all of our supporters to help us make sure that SB 5042, Futurewise's GMA vesting bill, and HB 1099, Futurewise's climate GMA bill, keep moving! Can you take two quick actions to keep these bills alive?

Welcome to the sixth legislative update from Futurewise’s Washington Can’t Wait Campaign!

We’re back with another legislative update! The first thing to note: we’re just one week away from our first major legislative deadline. February 15th marks the cutoff for bills to be passed out of a policy committee in order to continue to be considered by legislators. Good news for Futurewise supporters: two out of three priority bills are already out of committee, and we expect the third to be voted out this week. With that in mind, this week’s update will be pretty short and sweet!

Welcome to our weekly legislative update. The session continues to move along at an often unpredictable pace, and we will continue to do our best to keep you informed on where our priority legislation sits in the process. 

Welcome to our third week of session!

Session is officially in swing! Here at Futurewise, we’re keeping all our supporters in the loop about top land-use priorities, as well as other important legislation that we think you should know about.

Welcome to our first legislative update for the Washington Can’t Wait Campaign and Futurewise's other legislative priorities! Stay tuned for a new post every Monday to get information on our priorities as our various bills move through the legislature and any relevant calls to action that you can take to support these priorities.

Washington Can't Wait Campaign supporters from across the state have been writing and submitting incredible op-eds and letters to the editor in support of updating the Growth Management Act to address climate change, housing affordability, and environmental justice. Below you will find a list of all submissions that have been published to date. This page will continue to be updated throughout the 2021 legislative session as our volunteer writers continue their incredible work. Interested in writing a piece to submit to your local paper? Email jamie@futurewise.org for resources and support to get started!

Washington State Supreme Court decides not to review Futurewise win to protect farmland in Ferry County  

If there is anything that the wildfires this summer have taught us, it is that climate change has arrived at our doorstep in Washington and we are running out of time to take substantive action on an issue that is having disproportionate impacts on our communities. No matter your race, class, creed, or political party, we all have a stake in ensuring that Washington is a healthy, sustainable, and equitable place to live for this and all future generations. 

If there is anything that the wildfires this summer have taught is, it is that climate change has arrived at our doorstep in Washington and we are running out of time to take substantive action. 

Futurewise is launching our Washington Can’t Wait Campaign to fight for action on climate change, environmental justice and affordable housing by passing the biggest changes to the Growth Management Act in three decades. Please join us for our Campaign Kickoff on Thursday, September 24 from 5:30 to 6:30. RSVP here.

Originally published at The Urbanist

Watch a virtual panel discussion with emerging leaders from Olympia, Port Angeles and Pasco. We're talking about housing affordability, farmland protection and what big cities can learn from their smaller neighbors.

Futurewise stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and protesters across America rising up to fight police brutality and demand health, safety, and freedom for the Black community. As our country confronts the racial injustice and violence of our law enforcement and criminal justice systems, we urge our elected officials to respond to the urgent demands of the families whose loved ones have been taken from them and of the protesters who have taken to the streets.

Growth Management Hearings Board concludes that the King County Wineries, Breweries, and Distilleries Ordinance violates state laws to protect the environment On March 26, 2020, the Growth Management Hearings Board (Board) granted Futurewise’s and the Friends of the Sammamish Valley’s dispositive motion. The Board agreed the King County Wineries, Breweries, and Distilleries Ordinance violated the Washington State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).

Originally published in The Urbanist

We’re back with another Futurewise dispatch! This week we’re featuring our Livable Communities program, with Tiernan Martin, Livable Communities Manager, and Cameron Steinback, Livable Communities Coordinator. We talk about the challenges of community engagement during a pandemic and what we’re learning from equity focused planners across the country.

Futurewise Executive Director Alex Brennan joined national transit leaders for a moderated discussion about how the Covid-19 crisis is impacting transit and mobility.

Here in Washington, we're entering our third week of the governor's Stay Home, Stay Healthy order to prevent the spread of coronavirus in our communities. While everyone is stuck at home, we're going to be sharing weekly dispatches from our staff and partners around the state. First up, Alison Cable, our Tri-Cities Program Manager.  

Check out our 30th anniversary retrospective of the Growth Management Act and Futurewise's victories.

Futurewise and Zero Waste Washington are jointly seeking a part-time Full Charge Bookeeper to support the great work of both our organizations.

The Story Behind HB 2427, the GMA Climate Goal Bill

Last week we were thrilled to share that the Washington State House of Representatives is leading on climate by passing HB 2427, a new bill that would add a climate goal to the GMA and require our state’s largest counties and the cities in those counites to plan for climate change. Now it’s time for the Senate to take up the bill. Ask your senator to vote YES on HB 2427 to act on climate.

On 30th Anniversary of Growth Management Act, Washington State Could Become One of the First to Require Local Planning for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation

We are now 3 weeks into this year’s short legislative session. At this point, most of the bills we are tracking have gotten a hearing and we are a week away from crucial decisions about which bills make it out of their policymaking committees. This is a great time to reach out to legislators.

The 2020 legislative session kicked off on Monday! We have a short session -- just 60 days -- to accomplish some big goals. Below we're sharing our top priorities along with some bills to watch.

Wonkabout Washington is back after a brief hiatus and we’re wrapping up the year with an exceptionally wonky topic that has broad impacts for land use law and tenant rights regulations across Washington. That’s right, we’re talking this month about takings law! 

Together we can be bold. We're at a critical moment in our state’s history. Our aquatic ecosystems are at the breaking point, reflected in the dire straits of our local salmon runs and resident orcas. Greenhouse gas emissions have started rising again, leaving us far off track for meeting the targets we know are essential to protect our planet’s future. Housing prices having skyrocketed, with thousands living on the streets, and homeownership out of reach for a whole generation. And with the passage of I-976, our state is at risk of backsliding towards auto-dependent, sprawling growth that clogs our roads and pollutes our air.

Originally published in The Urbanist

Futurewise is excited to announce that Alex Brennan will be joining the organization as our new Executive Director!

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!