B5.1 Allow stricter local residential building codes
As I read RCW 19.27.060(1)(a) and RCW 19.27.074(1)(b) local amendments to the State residential & multifamily requirements must be approved by the State Building Code Council.
Currently, State law allows local jurisdictions to adopt more ambitious energy codes than the State’s for all non-residential buildings and (I think) for multi-family buildings over three stories. (The Washington Code Council already generates a “voluntary aspirational energy code” requiring further reductions in each three year cycle that provides a template for “stretch codes” like these, and provides developers with a preview of the likely additions to the code in the next cycle. Since legislation now requires these updates to produce a 70% reduction from 2006 levels in the annual net energy consumption of new residential and commercial buildings by 2031, this strengthening of the code is an ongoing process.)
However, local jurisdictions are currently prohibited from adding to the state’s energy code for residential or smaller multi-family buildings (except for special conditions unique to a district). Representative Doglio sponsored a bill in the 2019 session (HB1257) which included a provision directing the Code Council to create two more ambitious levels of the code that local jurisdictions might choose to adopt for these buildings – one producing energy savings of 8-10% beyond the State’s minimum code, and another with savings of 16-20% beyond the minimum. Several cities testified in support of the bill, including Olympia (represented by Councilmember Nathaniel Jones); local resident Chris Van Dahlen also testified in support of it as the President of the EcoBuilding Guild. (The bill eventually passed, but these provisions were removed by amendment in the House Finance Committee.
(The NW Energy Coalition and Shift Zero did a flyer about the bill.)