Washington State Extends Emergency RV Plan Approval Process

As reported previously, in late December the Washington Department of Labor and Industries filed an emergency rule aimed at addressing a severe labor shortage in the Factory Assembled Structure RV and Park Model RV plan approval program. That emergency rule has been extended through August 17, 2022.

At the beginning of 2022 the plan approval program had a backlog of over 2,000 floorplans and designs for RVs, Park Model RVs, and other structures. Approval of floorplans is legally required for an RV to be sold in the state of Washington. The extended emergency rule will continue to give the option to RV manufacturers to use state approved outside “licensed professionals” to approve and submit their plans or for the manufacturers to submit the plans directly to the state without outside assistance, as was traditionally done.

The new plan review and submittal guidelines for RVs and Park Model RVs is now hosted by the Washington Department of Labor and Industries online here. In addition to review and submittal guidelines, the webpage contains information on approved ‘license professionals” RV manufacturers can use.

Since the beginning of 2022 Department of Labor and Industries has begun the effort to obtain and train staff for the Factory Assembled Structure program. In recent discussions with officials in Factory Assembled Structures, the RV Industry Association's Government Affairs staff learned that the state is well on the way to filling and training many of the positions that were open for years. The state’s goal is to fully staff the plan approval program as soon as possible, and that may be completed soon.

The RV Industry Association’s state government affairs and standards teams continue to be engaged with the department over this emergency rule and backlog issue. Staff will continue to monitor and update members on the changes to the Washington state RV and Park Model RVs approval process.

For more information on this issue, contact RV Industry Association Senior Manager of Government Affairs Nick Rudowich at nrudowich@rvia.org.