wa-law.org > bill > 2025-26 > HB 1742 > Original Bill
Washington state intends to lead the world in the quality of life and the environmental attributes of its cities. The legislature recognizes that major environmental health disparities exist within urban areas and that the architectural design of urban areas plays a critical role in the function and health of the ecosystems they inhabit.
The legislature also finds that the built environment itself can be a cause of various forms of pollution that harm humans and wildlife. These forms of pollution include, but are not limited to, noise pollution, light pollution, water pollution through impervious surfaces that channel untreated stormwater runoff to waterways, and building materials that radiate heat causing an urban heat island effect. While regulation, incentives, investments, and innovations in the energy and transportation sector will begin to address harmful air emissions in urban areas, the state recognizes that additional policy leadership and creativity must be directed to reducing these additional forms of pollution that are a by-product of a densely built urban environment.
The legislature further finds that there are significant opportunities for incorporating architectural and landscape design in urban areas and the built environment with myriad environmental and health benefits. These benefits include increased biodiversity, air quality, and harmonization with the natural environment, along with decreased energy use and mitigation of harmful impacts of buildings. Design approaches that promote these benefits include green and sustainable architecture, which focus on reducing negative impacts from buildings, biophilic architecture, which seeks to better connect occupants with nature, and regenerative architecture, which involves buildings capable of breaking down at end-of-life, to a net ecological benefit. These design approaches can be achieved at the landscape and neighborhood scale to also incorporate parks, recreation areas, and walkable amenities with more permeable and natural surfaces that draw communities together.
Therefore, the legislature intends to create a center for sustainable urban design to provide leadership, to inspire the public with new possibilities for environmentally sustainable urban spaces, to generate policy solutions, and to identify potential projects that would make measurable improvement in environmental outcomes.
The center for environmentally sustainable urban design is created in the department for the purpose of encouraging the use of architectural and landscape design to promote health and sustainability in built environments within first-class cities and other urban areas.
The duties of the center include, but are not limited to:
Advocating for environmentally sustainable urban design;
Coordinating with elected leaders and the private sector to achieve renewed urban spaces that improve public health and environmental outcomes;
Encouraging workforce development for related fields;
Identifying priority projects;
Providing recommendations on potential priority projects to state agencies and local government entities, upon request;
Coordinating a biennial design competition for a designated priority project, with the successful contestant demonstrating the specific health and sustainability benefits achievable in that location through environmentally sustainable urban design;
Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated, awarding grants on a competitive basis for priority projects that implement environmentally sustainable urban design; and
Studying, exploring, developing, and promoting ideas that could inform improvements in design by incorporating the values of reintegrating urban living within the greater ecosystem.
The center shall establish criteria for the selection of successful applicants under subsection (2) (f) and (g) of this section. The center shall take into consideration any recommendations by the advisory council established in subsection (5) of this section in the final selection of awardees or grantees. The criteria for a successful applicant should at a minimum include:
Providing compelling vision to the public and elected leaders of how investment in the parcel could provide health, ecological, and aesthetic benefits consistent with the purposes of the center's mission;
Demonstrating the specific health and sustainability benefits achievable in that location through environmentally sustainable urban design; and
Documenting the basis of claims regarding specific outcomes for health and the environment.
The first competition coordinated under subsection (2)(f) of this section must be for a priority project that:
Is located on a multiacre parcel within three miles of the state capitol campus;
Was previously used for commercial purposes in the beverage processing or manufacturing industry;
Has not been inhabited or used for commercial purposes for at least 20 years; and
Has experienced damage from a fire.
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The advisory council on environmentally sustainable urban design is created, consisting of 10 members to be appointed by the director of the center. In making the appointments, the director shall seek an advisory council membership that reflects a balanced representation of interests and backgrounds.
The members of the advisory council must:
Have experience, or demonstrate significant familiarity, in urban planning, green building design, sustainable architecture, or similar subject areas; and
Be from each of the congressional districts existing in the state as of January 1, 2025.
The advisory council shall:
In accordance with the criteria established under subsection (3) of this section, review and recommend applicants for grants or competitions coordinated or awarded by the center; and
Provide advice and guidance on the annual work plan of the center.
The chair of the advisory council must be elected from among its members by a simple majority vote.
The director of the center shall convene the first meeting by June 1, 2026. Thereafter, the chair of the advisory council shall schedule meetings and establish the agenda. The advisory council shall meet at least quarterly.
Staff support for the advisory council is provided by the department.
Members of the advisory council shall serve without compensation, but are entitled to reimbursement for travel expenses in accordance with RCW 43.03.050 and 43.03.060. The advisory council may use such personnel and facilities of the department as necessary to carry out its duties under this section.
For the purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
"First-class cities" has the same meaning as provided under RCW 35.01.010.
"Environmentally sustainable urban design" means an approach to urban planning and architecture that minimizes the harmful effects of humans and their built spaces on the environment. The approach may be characterized by incorporating natural vegetation on the exterior of buildings and in public rights-of-way to create ecological benefits, including but not limited to the following: Absorption of carbon dioxide, production of oxygen, reduction in the urban heat island effect, filtering stormwater runoff, and increasing urban biodiversity. "Environmentally sustainable urban design" includes sustainable, biophilic, and regenerative architecture, and may be demonstrated by:
The United States green building council rating system;
The international green construction code; or
Other reasonably equivalent standards used by professionals in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, civil engineering, and related disciplines, approved by the department in consultation with the department of commerce.
"Priority project" means a parcel or parcels within an urban area with significant potential for improvement in ecological benefits or public health measures due to:
Dilapidation by being in a state of disrepair, disuse, or neglect; or
Falling within an area of the environmental health disparities map that is experiencing higher than the median environmental health disparities.
The environmentally sustainable urban design account is created in the state treasury. All receipts directed to the account from federal funds, gifts, or grants from private or public sectors, foundations, or other sources for competitions and grants under section 2 of this act must be deposited into the account. Moneys in the account may be spent only after appropriation. Expenditures from the account may be used only for the purposes of section 2(2) (f) or (g) of this act.