The 2025 legislative session officially starts tomorrow, and as promised in the last blog post, here’s some more evidence of the likelihood of action on the housing and land use fronts.

At last Wednesday’s 2025 Silicon Slopes Summit in Orem, Gov. Cox reiterated his emphasis on this topic.

Cox said his biggest regret from his first term was his inability to do more on what he says is his top issue: housing affordability. “This is the single most important issue in our state,” Cox said.

He noted that one of the reason Utah’s Silicon Slopes revolution happened was because Silicon Valley “became unattainable for far too many people.”  To ensure future prosperity for Utah’s tech ecosystem, Cox said the state needs to achieve prosperity in other areas, like housing.

Compatible with that sentiment was the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Outlook and Public Policy Summit the Friday before.  Mary Catherine Perry, the Chamber’s Vice President for public policy and government affairs said at the summit,

“When housing becomes prohibitively expensive, workers are forced to relocate far away, even leaving the region altogether.”  Perry asked lawmakers to build on the last few years’ wave of housing policy in the 2025 legislative session by further streamlining the real estate development process, offering more tax incentives for starter home construction and continuing to reform “outdated” zoning restrictions.

In discussions by a panel state legislative leaders at the Summit, the theme was continued.

On housing, (House Speaker) Schultz, himself a former homebuilder, said government inspection and zoning processes account for 25% to 30% of housing costs. He stressed the importance of collaborating with municipalities, saying that cities’ efforts to increase high-density apartments in recent years have led to falling rents.

“If we don’t do that with housing, it’s what’s going to force our kids and grandkids into apartments and they will not have the opportunity to live the American dream,” Schultz said. “So it’s really about home ownership.”

The claim that local regulation of building adds 25-30% to the cost of construction is dubious, one that has been fostered at the national level.  What isn’t made clear in such a statement is that this figure likely includes all aspects, including building code standards and requirements, impact fees for public infrastructure (without which building would not be possible), as well as review and approval processes.  The figure is often thrown out there in such a way as to make it sound like the review and approval process alone is responsible for that level of cost.

What all this appears to indicate is that there will be plenty coming (again!) in this legislative session to keep planners, planning commissioners and councilmembers scrambling throughout this year.  I just want to say that I think there’s no question that there is a real, substantial issue with housing affordability, and that local planning and land use regulation plays some role in that.  I also believe, though, that there are a number of other factors that play even bigger roles that do not easily lend themselves to quick fixes.  Let’s not forget about them.