Committee seeks clarity on "visitability," "adaptability" and universal design in housing draft

The House Committee on General & Housing spent much of its brief session seeking clarity about terminology in the S328 omnibus housing draft, asking staff to locate statutory and regulatory definitions for "visitability," "adaptability" and broader "universal design" standards.

The Chair asked directly, "Does anybody understand what the relationship between the term visitability, the term adaptability, and universal design is?" Committee members explained their reading: adaptability is a relatively low-cost set of design choices that extend a house's useful life and allow retrofitting, while visitability focuses on basic ability to enter and use common spaces — examples cited included ramped entrances and 36-inch exterior doors.

A committee member illustrated the difference with a personal example: "If you think about my friend Shelley who was diagnosed with MS quite young...what would Shelly need in order to be able to visit any of her friends? That's what visitability is." The conversation also referred to a code section labeled "accessibility standards 29 0 7," which the Chair characterized as "terribly written" but containing a short list of items used in current code.

The Chair asked staff to forward to Marion the exact statutory or regulatory places that define those terms so the committee could better understand which components are already in code and which would be new policy choices. In the same conversation, the Chair referenced testimony from Alex Farrell that "802 homes" was an administrative program not defined in statute; counsel said the legislature can refer to or require actions by programs even if the program itself is an administrative creation.

The committee did not take final action on S328 during the session; staff will circulate citations and return with a revised draft for further discussion.