The session is over, and there will be plenty to talk about, given the bills that passed and what they will require of planners and local officials. But still, while we were following 40 bills, only 26 of them passed, often in much modified versions. We will go over these bills during this week and hit the highlights of what they do. And I really want to get on to some other stuff I’ve seen recently, like the court ruling on the “Montana Miracle” land use bill, land use regulation in Britain and its impact on housing, and more!
For this post, I just wanted to share some of the things being said about the housing and land use provisions that were passed.
A story in Saturday’s DesNews asked the question, Did the 2025 Legislature do enough for housing affordability in Utah? The assessment by the editors? “Efforts by lawmakers this year not as ‘flashy,’ but still expected to help.” Cameron Diehl, League executive director, was quoted:
“I actually think there have been some important bills this year that will make a difference in the land-use process space, and will make a difference in the housing affordability space,” Diehl told the Deseret News.
Steve Waldrip, the Governor’s Senior Housing on Housing, said,
… issues left on the table this session will likely be hashed out as work continues on a new statewide housing plan set to be completed this fall.
The second phase of putting together the plan will be “where the rubber meets the road,” Waldrip said. A balance will need to be found on issues like housing density, he said, where reductions in lot sizes will be weighed against preserving neighborhoods and quality of life.
But that doesn’t mean there weren’t significant efforts to make housing more affordable, Waldrip said. However, he said unlike with past programs, what’s been accomplished just hasn’t attracted a lot of attention.
But one Senator did not seem to be all that happy with what was passed this session, and more particularly with what was not passed. This was especially noteworthy, because this Senator is a co-chair of the Commission on Housing Affordability.
Sen. Lincoln Fillmore told reporters the shortage of starter homes in the state hasn’t been adequately addressed this session.
“I do confess to this year being a little bit disappointed in what I felt like we were able to get done,” he said. “We’re getting some good policy in, but a lot of the proposals that really would have made a big difference in increasing supply have not passed.”
Sen. Fillmore went on to point out the bills sponsored by Rep. Ray Ward (HB88 and HB90) as examples of ones he would have liked to see pass (Fillmore was the Senate sponsor for both bills). He also had included a provision in a bill he was sponsoring (SB262) that would have defined a general plan as having to be adopted by ordinance, which he believed would have made conformance of land use regulations with general plans mandatory (it would not have done so, because of other provisions in the LUDMA). In the end, this provision was amended out of the bill, but is showed the willingness of the senator to include something that had been a point of discussion by the parties at the Land Use Task Force and Commission on Housing Affordability that was not a consensus point.
Sen. Fillmore, who is also the Senate Majority Leader, echoed similar comments about the big Beehive Development Authority bill (SB337), that ultimately did not pass. This story in the Utah News Dispatch quoted the senator,
“The governor was a huge supporter of this bill, and so I don’t think the idea’s going to go away,” Cullimore said. “But I think it needs to be retooled and bring some more people to the table so that as it further develops they have more input and can help with the messaging along the way.”
So, while we now have to deal with what was passed this session, it certainly looks like there is more that will be coming, maybe along the lines of what one of the members of the CHA, David Damschen, said in a meeting last June:
Something I’ve heard from colleagues in other states on carrots vs. sticks, I’ve seen our governor and legislature working hard to develop compromise and produce some carrots. I have great respect for the League and our local governments, but I’ve heard it said that in other states that have gone down this road, that it got to the point where the carrots had to become sticks at some point. The League and cities and the property rights coalition have worked hard to come up with things that can be agreed upon, but it appears we’re running out of things that can be agreed upon.
I’ve got to stop doing this sometime!