Bellingham may be the first WA city to legalize mobile dwellings in residential neighborhoods. MDUs are the least expensive, fasted to deploy housing type there is. MDUs should be legal in all cities, which is why @sightline.org is working on statewide legislation in both WA and OR.

Catie Gould@citizen-cate.bsky.social · last wk.

"Mobile dwelling units are an important, low-cost housing option and a rare opportunity to make substantial progress toward our affordability goals." - Councilmember Jace Cotton BELLINGHAM, lets go! 😍 Read more at: www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/a...

New study finds that unfunded inclusionary zoning: - reduces resid. construction by nearly a third - relocates MF developments to lower rent areas - costs renters $800,000 in excess rents per IZ unit created Who could have guessed that taxing housing to fund affordable housing is a bad idea?

Excellent discussion of how a land value tax can help cities get more housing built and boost economic development in their downtowns. WA state could authorize the equivalent of an LVT with the Vibrant Cities Act, which will be a top legislative priority for @sightline.org in the 2027 session.

David Roberts@volts.wtf · 3w ago

Read/listen all about how a "land value tax" can discourage land speculation & encourage dense building on the highest value land, ie, land near urban cores. www.volts.wtf/p/want-less-...

Vancouver BC's Villages Plan is the first proposal in many decades in any North American city that would substantially push apartment zones into the leafy neigbhorhoods away from noisy, polluted arterials. Public input has been mostly negative, big surprise. www.sightline.org/2026/07/10/i...

David Roberts@volts.wtf · 3w ago

"Corridor zoning" amounts to jamming low-income residents into big, bland apartment buildings alongside stroads, where they can serve as a buffer, absorbing all the noise & air pollution cars produce, protecting the precious single-family homes that dominate everywhere around them. It's abominable.

Vancouver's proposed Village Plan would allow small apartment buildings on three to four blocks surrounding 17 designated centers. In other words, a big step for apartments not on dangerous, polluted arterial streets. Public hearing is tomorrow 7/14 at 6pm. www.sightline.org/2026/07/10/i...

In Pictures: The Possibilities of Vancouver’s New Villages Plan | Sightline Institute

The Four/Five design prioritizes green space, daylight, affordability, and accessibility—all for greater connection and community.

sightline.org

It's tunnel vision to focus on MHA generating funds for affordable housing. It can! But it comes at the cost of raising rents for everyone else. Because no housing gets built until the worsening shortage pushes up rents high enough to offset the MHA fee. And that hits lower-income renters hardest.

Seattle walks back plan to lower fees funding affordable housing

Days before a deal to lower developer fees that fund affordable housing was expected to be released to the public, City Hall is backing away from the idea.

seattletimes.com

One reason this backsliding never ends is because the deal itself reinforced the idea that taxing housing to pay for housing is fine as long as it’s calibrated. No. Unfunded inclusionary zoning is bad policy that harms renters in all economic conditions and it should be abolished everywhere.

Erica C. Barnett@ericacbarnett.bsky.social · last mo.

BREAKING: A deal that would have given housing developers a partial holiday on mandatory affordable housing fees has fallen through. The agreement, brokered between private-market developers, affordable housing developers, and the mayor's office, was supposed to culminate in legislation on Monday.

Spokane Councilmember Klitzke is leading the charge for state legislation that would authorize the equivalent of a land value tax: “A property tax that exempts buildings and shifts the burden onto land would give us a new and powerful tool to fill in our gaps while keeping Spokane affordable.”

Most Spokane homeowners would pay less tax under reform proposal. Here's who would pay more

Some Spokane politicians want to replace the existing property tax system with one that shifts tax burden from homes, apartments and many commercial properties and place it instead onto parking lots ...

spokesman.com

Excited to be working on a new approach to a land value tax that would be legal in WA state. Tax buildings less and land more and you'll get more new buildings and less vacant land. It's a non-zoning solution for mitigating the housing shortage, and it's value capture done right.

Yes, a Land Value Tax Is Possible in Washington State | Sightline Institute

A new report modeling a property tax building exemption in Spokane rebalances incentives toward community goals, encouraging homebuilding and discouraging in-city vacant land speculation.

sightline.org

Good news for cash-strapped cities hesitant to upzone: "Building homes near existing jobs, stores, and transit saves public dollars, in both up-front infrastucture and ongoing maintenance, and produces more property taxes per acre than local gov'ts can expect from development at the edge of town."

Building Homes Near Jobs, Stores, and Transit Saves Public Dollars

Amid a national housing shortage, momentum is growing at the state and local levels to make it easier to build more homes—a proven way of reducing unaffordable rents and home prices. A key question fa...

pew.org

For the upzoning skeptics: Auckland. The effect was strong because the upzone was big. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Virginia and Kentucky just passed state bills to enable land value taxes. Renewed interest in LVT has been popping up all of the country. @sightline.org is working with legislators and advocates to develop a bill for 2027 in Washington. progressandpoverty.substack.com/p/two-states...

Two States Pass Land Value Tax Enabling Legislation -- Landscape 8

With back-to-back wins in Virginia and Kentucky, land value taxation is re-emerging as a viable policy tool.

progressandpoverty.substack.com

Yet another vacancy chain paper, but with a new contribution: evidence that some residents downsize into the new condos. That is, they open up *larger* homes. Building small apartments is a solution for increasing the availablity of family-sized homes. morehousing.substack.com/p/honolulu

SF should just go all the way and eliminate IZ altogether. Even at 5% it will kill marginal homebuilding projects. It will do less damage than if it wasn't lowered, but there is no magic threshold below which undfunded IZ is harmless. It's like watching someone go through the stages of grief.

Dan Bertolet@danbertolet.bsky.social · 3mo ago

San Francisco is moving in the right direction on inclusionary zoning. It will reduce its IZ requirement to 5 percent of units, and to compensate, will double its housing trust fund, which is mostly funded from property taxes. Property tax is a much better way to fund rent-restricted housing!

Pew has a new 3-minute video spotlighting the story of a real person who was able to move into an affordable home because of the vacancy chain created by the construction of an expensive new, market-rate apartment building. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQYM...

Building More Housing Creates 'Moving Chains' of Affordability

YouTube video by Pew

youtube.com

Another way to think about this is that if Seattle hadn't built so many new rental apartments, renters would now have housing costs much closer to Seattle's high ownership costs. www.seattletimes.com/business/rea...

Think owning a Seattle home is pricey? Here’s how much harder it has become

While homeownership has always cost more than renting, the gap between the two has soared since 2020.

seattletimes.com

San Francisco is moving in the right direction on inclusionary zoning. It will reduce its IZ requirement to 5 percent of units, and to compensate, will double its housing trust fund, which is mostly funded from property taxes. Property tax is a much better way to fund rent-restricted housing!

Lurie Seeks to Lower Inclusionary Rate, Increase Annual Contribution to Housing Trust Fund - Connect CRE

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie introduced two proposals to help spur the production of housing in the city. One would reduce the mandated inclusionary rate of affordable units in market-rate develop...

connectcre.com

San Francisco assessed its IZ and found that "none of the financial models could support any inclusionary housing." That's because under current economic conditions pretty much nothing pencils even if 100% market rate. IZ just makes it worse, as it always does. media.api.sf.gov/documents/Tr...

Ahoy housing wonks in Alaska and BC! Sightline is hiring part-time contributors to help advance housing abundance in these two corners of Cascadia. Please spread the word! www.sightline.org/about/careers/

Good on the NYT for calling out how inclusionary zoning backfires and worsens affordability. Great to see wider recognition of this reality. But it's not only when IZ mandates "too many" BMR units. If IZ puts *any* extra cost burden on homebuilding it will backfire. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Great to see @futurewise.bsky.social taking on the task of making sure we get proper implementation of all the building code reform bills that WA has passed since 2023. futurewise.org/get-involved...

Get Involved: Building Code Reform and Advocacy - Futurewise

In recent years, there has been growing attention to the barriers that existing building codes in the United States pose to goals of building more housing, in

futurewise.org

Scissor stairs are typically associated with skinny highrise towers, but they're a good option to have for midrise buildings too, like this new 6-story apartment building in Brooklyn designed by @panyc.bsky.social.

Dan Bertolet@danbertolet.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Guest contributor @markusja.bsky.social gives the rundown on another first for Washington state on legislation to increase housing options: HB 2228 sets the process in motion for updating the building code to allow scissor stairs. www.sightline.org/2026/05/13/w...

Guest contributor @markusja.bsky.social gives the rundown on another first for Washington state on legislation to increase housing options: HB 2228 sets the process in motion for updating the building code to allow scissor stairs. www.sightline.org/2026/05/13/w...

Washington Passes First Statewide Scissor Stair Reform | Sightline Institute

The measure ushers in more light-filled, infill-suited apartment homes—and sets a model for other states.

sightline.org

Happy Birthday to the Parking Reform & Modernization Act! 🎂 @jessdbateman.bsky.social www.sightline.org/2026/05/07/w...

Washington State’s Parking Reform Is Already Working | Sightline Institute

Cities are laying the groundwork for more homes thanks to new flexibility on parking—with other states taking note.

sightline.org

Legalize apartment buildings!

Climate Is Stuck, Housing Isn’t | Sightline Institute

Why apartments may be the most powerful domestic climate move of the Trump years.

sightline.org

The perfect, low-cost, infill solution for retrofitting detached house neighborhoods anywhere and everywhere: Six 900 sf, 2-bedroom flats. Selling for $300k (in Portland). On a standard 5,000 sf house lot. Bottom two units accessible. No on-site parking. www.redfin.com/OR/Portland/...

Good explainer on land value taxes. @sightline.org is continuing work initiated in WA's 2026 session to develop legislation that exempts building value from property tax, which has all the benefits of a split rate land value tax, but doesn't run afoul of the state constitution's uniformity clause.

Daryl Fairweather ⛅@fairweatherphd.bsky.social · 3mo ago

U.S. home prices have quadrupled since 1995, but it's not that homes got more expensive to build. It's that the LAND We tax buildings the same as land, so owners are rewarded for keeping lots empty and penalized for building homes. Watch my latest YouTube on Land Value Tax youtu.be/v8bvin28SbA

Great news that Seattle may roll back its MHA program that impedes homebuilding by either requiring below-market units or charging a fee-in-lieu. @sightline.org encourages Mayor Wilson (@mayorofseattle.bsky.social) and Councilmember Foster to enact the most aggressive moratorium possible.

My entry in the capture the essence of Vancouver’s West End in one photograph challenge

More towers of all shapes and sizes, downtown Vancouver