Spokane Valley is ready to pay six figures to keep the state out of its parking lots.
On Tuesday, city officials told staff to move ahead with hiring a consultant and spending about $100,000 on a technical study aimed at securing an exemption from Washington’s new parking rules. City leaders say they want hard data to argue that tighter parking minimums would shove overflow cars into nearby neighborhoods and trigger safety issues just as the Valley gears up for thousands of new homes. The work is expected to be funded through an upcoming budget amendment and timed so it can feed directly into the city’s 2026 comprehensive-plan update.
As reported by The Center Square, City Manager John Hohman did not sugarcoat the stakes. “From our standpoint, the outcome is uncertain, but if we don't try, you have a certain outcome that's unbearable for all of us,” he told the council, warning of “tons of cars parked all over the place” if the law kicks in without a local carveout. Councilmembers agreed by consensus to let staff start lining up the study, with a formal budget amendment still to come back for a vote.
The law Spokane Valley is pushing back on, enacted as Chapter 204, Laws of 2025, caps how much parking cities can require and lays out both exemptions and variance options. According to the Washington Legislature, the statute generally limits multifamily projects to 0.5 spaces per unit, single family homes to one space per dwelling, and commercial sites to two spaces per 1,000 square feet, while exempting some small residential and small commercial uses. It also sets implementation timelines and lets local governments submit evidence-based studies to the Department of Commerce to request relief from those caps.
City planning staff say the clock is already ticking. Spokane Valley’s land-capacity analysis estimates the city will need about 16,661 new housing units by 2046 as part of the 2026 to 2046 comprehensive-plan update. That technical work, presented to the planning commission, concludes that current zoning does not provide enough capacity and will guide whatever code changes or urban growth area decisions the council takes up this year. The capacity numbers and background materials are posted in the city’s planning packet and LCA presentation.
What the law allows and legal options
Under the new statute, a city can be excused from the parking caps if it submits an empirical safety study prepared by a credentialed transportation or land use expert and the Department of Commerce finds and certifies that the lower limits would be significantly less safe than the city’s existing rules. The law also allows variance requests in situations where complying would be hazardous to life or safety, and it creates a narrow path for cities that already have “substantially similar” requirements on the books. Those legal lanes are why Spokane Valley staff want a consultant’s analysis in hand now instead of waiting until state-imposed code changes are looming.
Deputy City Manager Erik Lamb told the council that the roughly $100,000 estimate came from a consultant who has done similar work in other communities, and that the bill would be covered out of city reserves. As The Center Square reported, staff said the study would draw on an estimated $97 million citywide fund balance, and that the council still has to sign off on a budget amendment before any firm is hired. City officials stressed that an exemption is far from guaranteed and framed the whole effort as a data-driven attempt to shield established neighborhoods from parking spillover as density ramps up.
What’s next for Spokane Valley
Next up, staff will bring back a budget-amendment proposal and a detailed scope of work for the traffic and parking analysis. If the council approves, the city plans to move quickly to seek proposals and lock in a consultant so findings can inform comprehensive-plan decisions later this year. The comp-plan schedule and Growth Management Act requirements are running on a parallel track with the state law’s rollout, which planners say makes timing a very real constraint.
Residents who want to follow along can track the planning docket and review the land-capacity analysis and supporting documents on the City of Spokane Valley’s planning web pages.
