The transit oriented development bill that failed to get out of Rep. Geoff Simpson’s (D-47, Covington, Kiss Song) local government committee yesterday (and is the subject of the gigantic post right below this one), made it out of the committee this morning 7-4.
It was a party line vote—Democrats in favor, Republicans against. The bill’s original mandate to get rid of parking minimums, which pissed off usually-green Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D-33, Burien) enough to make him vote against the environmental bill yesterday, was struck in this morning’s version (along with most of the bill’s zoning specifics).
The hard and fast environmental standards were replaced with some general language so the bill’s strongest supporters—committee chair Simpson and Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-34, West Seattle, Vashon) could get the bill out of committee.
Rep. Nelson will now try to reestablish the language as the bill moves through the process. Nelson says, “I’m going to sit down with the stake holders and legislators to hear their concerns, but there’s a fine line for doing what we want to do with this bill. We need to leverage the public’s investment in light rail to create dense, walkable, bikable communities.”
