Ferguson signs two bills by Sen. Jeff Wilson focused on kit homes, rural designation

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Gov. Bob Ferguson signed two bills sponsored by 19th Legislative District state Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, over the weekend.

One could help promote the construction of small kit homes and the other will help secure funding for Cowlitz County.

Wilson announced Saturday that the governor had signed two bills that the senator managed to get across the finish line with bipartisan support. Wilson said the bill to establish updated building codes for kit homes is the result of four years of work on the issue.

Senate Bill 5552 calls on the Washington state Building Code Council to develop state building codes specific to kit homes where necessary. In the bill, kit homes are defined as homes that are 800 square feet or less and constructed on site out of pre-manufactured walls, floors and roofs. The senator hopes it can help property owners build more affordable tiny homes or accessory dwelling units.

“This bill has been a long time coming,” Wilson said. “But that’s a good thing, because I think the case for this legislation has become clear to everyone. If we are going to make headway in solving the state’s housing shortage, we need inexpensive and convenient options.”

Wilson recalled an era of the U.S. when first-time home buyers could purchase an inexpensive home from a Sears catalog. In a previous article by The Chronicle, Wilson said he hoped the bill can make a first home more accessible and remarked that with rising housing costs he’s not sure how he would approach the challenge of buying a first home in the current climate.

Wilson added that the idea behind the bill is that because kit designs are uniform and produced repeatedly, they need only be approved once at the state level. That simplicity can streamline the process of individual design reviews that are necessary for each individually constructed stick built home.

“We’re taking a construction method popular a century ago and adapting it for our times,” Wilson said. “Now more than ever, we need affordable options like these if we are going to keep Washington housed.”

According to a news release, the Washington state Department of Commerce projects a need for more than 1 million new homes in the state by 2044.

Ferguson also signed into law Senate Bill 6149, which was targeted at preserving rural county funding for Cowlitz County. While the bill addresses a specific issue, it does so by changing the state’s definition of a rural county, which could impact other counties in the future.

The state currently defines rural counties as those with fewer than 100 people per square mile. The language of the bill adds that a county will still be considered rural if none of its cities have a population higher than 45,000 people, even if population density has risen above 100 people per square mile.

Washington state uses the labels of rural or urban counties that are considered for tax and assistance programs in the state, and Cowlitz remaining as one of the state’s 29 rural counties will preserve current funding and ensure the county does not have to compete for funding with the most populous counties in the state.