Developers proposing new housing in downtown Olympia face sharply reduced parking mandates under a state law that limits what the city can require them to build.

Washington's parking minimum reform law, which took effect July 27, 2025, caps parking requirements for cities with more than 30,000 residents. Olympia, with an estimated population of 56,848 according to 2026 census projections, qualifies.

The city cannot mandate more than one parking space per two residential units, more than one space per single-family home, or more than two spaces per 1,000 square feet of commercial space.

The caps arrive as Olympia pushes to add housing downtown. More than 500 housing units entered the city's development pipeline in the roughly 16 months after the City Council declared an affordable housing emergency in early 2025, according to a city committee report published in late April 2026.

No parking minimums are allowed at all for homes under 1,200 square feet, affordable housing, child care facilities, senior housing, or buildings converted from commercial to residential use.

"From the developer's side, parking is the big thing that has to be solved early on to determine feasibility of a project," Matthew Fitzsimmons, an architect and project manager at HCM Design who has worked on more than 11,000 residential units, told the Washington State Standard.

Structured parking can cost tens of thousands of dollars per space, according to the Washington State Standard's July 8 report on the national trend. Those costs are typically passed on to renters and buyers.

At least 14 states have enacted laws reducing or eliminating parking minimums since 2019, according to the Parking Reform Network.

Catie Gould, a senior researcher at the Seattle-based Sightline Institute, told the Washington State Standard that the housing crisis has driven the policy shift nationwide.

Tumwater, with a population of roughly 26,956 according to 2024 American Community Survey data, does not meet the law's 30,000-resident threshold. The state's parking caps do not apply there.

Developers along the Capitol Boulevard corridor still face whatever local parking requirements Tumwater has on the books.

The Olympia City Council approved moving forward with a Parking and Business Improvement Area evaluation at its April 14, 2026, meeting, continuing a review of the downtown parking district structure. No follow-up date has been publicly announced.

Separately, Senate Bill 6026, signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson in 2026, requires cities above 30,000 residents to allow residential uses in commercial and mixed-use zones without a rezoning process.

Combined with the parking caps, the two laws remove regulatory barriers for developers proposing new housing on Olympia's downtown commercial lots.