Substitute Senate Bill 6214 creates a new legal framework authorizing cities or counties to establish "land bank authorities" by ordinance or resolution and adds new chapters and sections in Title 35. Land bank authorities may be public corporations under RCW 35.21.730, public housing authorities, or 501(c)(3) nonprofits (with nonprofits barred from constructing housing). Land banks may find, acquire, hold, manage, improve, lease, transfer, or dispose of real property for affordable housing and related public-benefit uses, including transfers below fair market value in exchange for long-term affordability requirements. At least 50 percent of land or property leased or sold by a land bank must carry a covenant or deed restriction requiring affordability for at least 30 years (rental units affordable to households at or below 80% area median income; owner-occupied units affordable to households at or below 120% area median income). Each land bank must publish an annual report and submit it to any city or county where it acquired or transferred land in the prior 12 months. Acquisitions and dispositions must align with local, regional, or state housing plans, antidisplacement policies, and adopted local housing targets. The bill amends and adds tax and transaction rules. It amends RCW 36.35.150 to allow counties to transfer tax-foreclosed property by private negotiation to land bank authorities and requires county notice to cities (generally within 60 days) with a 30-day city purchase acceptance window and reimbursement provisions. It amends RCW 35.21.755 and RCW 35.82.210 to expand tax-immunity/exemption language to include certain land bank and tribal housing authorities and adds a new section exempting property owned by nonprofit land bank operators that qualify under 26 U.S.C. §501(c)(3) from property taxation (details in one amendment are truncated in the facts provided). RCW 82.45.010 (real estate excise tax/sale definition) is revised to define "sale" broadly, to aggregate transfers within 36 months for controlling interest rules, and to list many exclusions and new exemptions, including exemptions for transfers to land bank authorities, qualified low-income housing developments (with a sunset for some exemptions), transfers to qualifying grantees for low-income housing subject to timelines and repayment if conditions are not met, transfers involving residential properties for persons with developmental disabilities subject to a 50-year continued-use requirement, and sales of "qualified space" for exempt community purposes (with varied effective and expiration dates). These changes create new statutory authority, add procedural requirements for property disposition and reporting, expand or create tax and excise-tax exemptions and deferrals, and impose conditional repayment or immediate excise tax liability in specified failure circumstances. The bill makes both substantive law changes (new powers and duties for land banks and new exemptions) and procedural/tax changes (notice, filing of affidavits, timelines, aggregation rules, and reporting). Several provisions and definitions cited in the provided facts are truncated or reference other sections or agencies not fully identified here (for example the specific "department" responsible for filings and rulemaking and the complete text of the RCW 35.21.755 amendment), so some implementation details and complete tax-exemption language are unclear from the extracted material.

If enacted, the bill lets cities or counties create local "land bank authorities" (run by a public corporation, housing authority, or eligible nonprofit) that can buy, hold, improve, lease, and transfer land specifically to produce affordable housing and related public uses. Counties can prioritize and privately negotiate transfers of tax-foreclosed property to those land banks instead of selling to the highest bidder, and land banks can sell or lease land below market in exchange for long-term affordability requirements; at least half of land moved out of a land bank must carry 30-year affordability covenants (rentals for households at or below 80% of area median income; owner-occupied limited to households at or below 120% AMI). Nonprofit land bank owners that qualify as 501(c)(3)s get a property tax exemption for their land bank property, and land bank activity must be reported annually to affected cities and counties. The most affected actors are city and county legislative bodies (which must adopt ordinances to create land banks and follow notice and purchase timelines), county treasurers and taxing jurisdictions (which may see lower one-time sale revenue from foreclosed property but a tool to meet housing targets), public housing authorities and qualifying nonprofits (who gain a way to hold land with reduced tax costs but nonprofits operating a land bank may not construct housing), and grantees that accept property with tax incentives (who must meet deadlines and covenants or repay taxes with interest). The Department of Social and Health Services has a defined oversight role for certain transfers to serve people with developmental disabilities. Some implementation details—exact tax exemption mechanics, which state department handles filings and certification, and portions of the tax exemption language—are incomplete or truncated in the provided text, so certain fiscal and administrative impacts depend on those missing clarifications.