There was a story this morning on the Utah News Dispatch by Katie McKellar – What Utah lawmakers did — and didn’t — do for housing in 2025.  I’ve noted previously that Katie is one of the most informed journalists in local media on what is happening in housing and land use, and so I anticipated that this story would shed more light on what key legislators and officials were thinking and saying might happen upcoming on these issues.  And while there was some new stuff from Steve Waldrip, the Governor’s Senior Advisor on Housing, mostly the story just reiterated what had been said in a piece right after the legislative session ended, which was that a couple of legislators expressed some disappointment that more wasn’t done.

Katie seems to imply in her writing that the two legislators she quotes – Rep. Ray Ward and Sen. Lincoln Fillmore – are anxious to see more “draconian” mandates on local governments to reduce lot sizes and the size and mix of homes:

(Fillmore) said generally, “it’s been a little bit frustrating this year that really meaningful policies that (would) make a big difference in increasing the supply of (starter) homes just not have been able to move because of the roadblocks created by local governments.”

Waldrip was less disenchanted, but did seem to imply that measures in next year’s legislative session will likely be driven by what winds up in the State Housing Plan that is now under development and is mandated to be done by the end of the year.

As state leaders work to develop the state housing plan, Waldrip said the goal is to “push those issues to the forefront.” He hopes that as all stakeholders (cities, counties, builders, lawmakers, and others) come to agree on shared goals, that the debate isn’t so focused on state versus cities, but rather what needs to be done to increase the number of homes in Utah.

… “By setting that up as the lead-in to the rest of the discussion, you can’t ignore the fact that’s going to require some really, really hard things to have to happen.”

So Waldrip said as state leaders draft the housing plan, they’ll be working to put together policy recommendations for lawmakers to consider ahead of the 2026 session that’s slated to begin in January.

Like we said, it ain’t over yet!