As Craig Call and I were putting together the 2025 ULUI Fall Conference, we were looking for people to be on the Wednesday morning panel to respond to the prior presentation on the State Housing Plan. Craig thought it would be great to have Deseret News columnist Jay Evensen.  He had been a speaker and panelist at a couple of our previous conferences and he always does a great job.  We thought his perspective and insightful comments would be an much-needed perspective on the steps being taken at the state and local level to deal with the housing issues.

Unfortunately, Jay had some other things going on and he declined to join us.  Last week, the DesNews published an op-ed by Jay on this very topic, and it really made me sad that we were not able to have him join us at the conference.

His closing comments in the op-ed summarized well what many of the issues are as we attempt to address our land use and housing issues.  Jay said,

In Utah, where the governor has a goal of seeing 35,000 new starter homes and 150,000 new homes overall built by the end of 2028, Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful, is sponsoring a bill to speed up the process. It would create a new statewide default zone allowing city councils to supersede current ordinances and allow houses on one-eighth-acre lots.

City councils would have to take an official vote to reject such developments.

It might speed construction, but this idea also might be a hard sell in a Legislature dominated by conservatives who place a high value on the kind of local control that lets cities decide for themselves how they want to look. They might see zoning reform as more of a leftist solution than one protecting property rights.

I see two sides to this. One is that the state needs to address runaway housing costs that price young families out of the market. A good share of this is caused by scarcity and zoning restrictions.

But the other side is the danger of becoming too eager to boost construction through zoning reform. Housing projects may be approved with lax oversight, something one suburban planner has told me may already be happening in some places. Cities may lose control of their planning goals.

Finally, many local politicians fear they won’t be re-elected if they support too much high-density or starter home construction, even if the state is forcing it on them. That’s a hurdle the state government ultimately may have a hard time clearing.

You really need to read the full piece.  It helps put things in perspective.  It would have been good to have him at the conference to talk and answer questions.  Maybe next year? I’m pretty sure we’ll still be dealing with this!