Well, speak of the devil!
Yesterday we noted that a KSL news story confirmed that there was a bill in the works to set minimum base densities for many Utah communities, by Rep. Ray Ward. And then later that same day, viola! Out comes the bill!
The bill is H.B. 306 Residential Housing Amendments. It would define what a starter home is, an issue that has been the subject of some debate in the land use task force and CHA (no single definition was agreed upon by these groups – yet!). The bill then says,
An urban municipality may not deny approval of a lot in a residential zoning district, based on lot size, if the lot is at least 5,400 square feet in size.
A starter home is a permitted use in a residential zone of an urban municipality.
Just like that, the bill would do away with any residential zoning that, in “urban municipalities,” requires minimum lot sizes larger than 5,400 square feet. While this would be more in line with what we’ve been seeing happening in other states on zoning reform, it goes farther than many of these in that it sets a uniform minimum lot size.
The real problem is that this bill has not been discussed with the LUTF, the CHA, or the UEOC, nor with any communities that I’m aware of. Why the bill sponsor wouldn’t at least attempt to make such an effort is kind of mystifying. The UEOC, as we’ve reported earlier, included this issue in a list of topics on which discussion should continue, but was not yet ready for legislative action. I’m going to predict right now that this bill will run into a buzz saw of opposition.
We’ve also demonstrated in several previous posts that in states where zoning reforms are imposed top-down from the state level to locals, usually without significant involvement of local officials to craft those reforms, implementation is weak. This is confirmed again in a recent story about zoning reform, States increasingly join the land use reform rodeo. The story quotes Nestor Davidson, a property and urban law professor at Fordham University:
“It requires a balance,” Davidson said. “I think it’s as much a mistake to ignore the regional and statewide implications of local land use as it is to have the pendulum swing the other way and make this purely a state issue.”
The story also notes the recent lawsuit that has put a hold on many of the zoning reforms enacted in the “Montana Miracle” (see previous posts), and says,
The conflict mirrors a broader tension between residents, cities and states and underscores the importance of collaboration across governments, one expert said.
The injunction “reflects similar tensions that are playing out in states across the country as states are reconsidering the primacy … of single-family housing in local zoning,” said Davidson.
While the goal of Rep. Ward’s bill may certainly be laudable and should be considered, there’s a better way to go about it, for it to have a good chance of actually being implemented.
Elsewhere, we must make note of another bill we’ll be following. Friend and colleague Nick Norris, Salt Lake City Planning Director, brought to our attention a bill that is pretty much identical to one that was filed last year (but did not pass), with an innocuous title but with considerable land use impact. The title of the bill? S.B. 13 Education Entity Amendments. The bill would create a couple of new kinds of private educational facilities (home-based education entity and micro-education entity) and would essentially give them the same pass on land use regulation that charter schools have. Last year’s bill failed to pass, I think, because there were lots of questions about what these educational entities are and if they were really needed. Thanks for the catch, Nick. It’s added to our list of bills to follow, now up to 17!