So there are still some 27 bills we are tracking that would have impact on land use practice in our fair state. Some are relatively minor, while there are some pretty big ones.
The “big” ones – that is, the most impactful – would, in my opinion, be the following:
H.B. 465 Housing Affordability Revisions – this bill is in a 3rd substitute version, has passed the House, passed favorably out of Senate committee and is awaiting a vote by the full Senate. In it’s current version, the bill would – well, let me just borrow from a recent story in the DesNews about the bill:
Housing Affordability Revisions, HB465 … introduced by Rep. Stephen Whyte, R-Mapleton, would encourage market-based solutions to the state’s housing shortage during a tight budget year that has ruled out most attempts to address the issue through increased funding.
“This bill aligns state resources, policies and tools around affordable home ownership and housing affordability with the desired outcome of increasing the supply of homeowner-occupied houses,” Whyte said.
As currently written, Whyte’s bill would give city redevelopment agencies the ability to help construct homes at 120% of area median income so these funds can be used to increase the supply of owner-occupied homes, not just small rental units.
“It’s going to provide some flexibility for cities on how we use the RDA funds so that we can focus those dollars on owner-occupied units, which is an important piece of this overall puzzle,” said Cameron Diehl, the executive director of the Utah League of Cities and Towns.
The bill would also encourage state land authorities, including the School Institutional Trust Lands Administration, the Point of the Mountain State Land Authority and the Utah Inland Port Authority, to make increasing affordable housing part of their missions.
The bill originally included additional penalties for cities that failed to create moderate income housing plans. The provision, which would have cut off some state funding in cases of noncompliance, was removed after feedback from Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman.
Next is H.B. 476 Municipal Land Use Regulation Modifications – this bill has also been passed by the House, was substituted and voted out favorably in Senate committee and is now waiting for a full Senate vote. This is the bill that embodies most of the nitty gritty land use details worked out by the Land Use Task Force. The substitute version makes some corrections to the original language, adds the same provisions that were to apply to cities to counties as well (for some reason, the legislative drafters often seem to forget that counties have land use power as well 😊), and makes a relatively small correction to the annexation provisions (but does not include the bigger annexation recodification that a working group developed last year – ☹). It also makes the anticipated changes to the subdivision review process many have been hoping and waiting for. We will summarize all the details of this bill upcoming.
Let’s skip ahead to S.B. 268 First Home Investment Zone Act – this is the bill that would establish the FHIZ program, which would be similar but different to the HTRZ program already in place. As would be expected with a program of this magnitude and detail, it’s getting scrutiny and subsequent modifications, so it’s a little hard at this point to say just where this bill will wind up in terms of its details. For a really good summary of what the bill does (in its current version), take a look at this excellent distillation of the bill and a graphic example, prepared by Miranda Jones Cox at WFRC – thanks Miranda, great work! The substitute and amended version of the bill is in the House, waiting for a vote.
Another proposed program, similar but different to the HTRZ and FHIZ, is contained in a 3rd substitute version of S.B. 168 Affordable Building Amendments, and would be called the HOPZ program. How is it different? Well, there is not yet a good summary of it like there is for the FHIZ, but essentially it allows for a municipality to create a zone for residential development of a density of at least 6 units per acre and deed-restricted affordable housing. Our understanding is that the details of this program may be in flux, so we’ll wait to see what eventually passes.
Other provisions of SB168, which is one of the LUTF/CHA/UEOC bills, make some changes to various state housing programs, and most notably, establishes standards to allow for uniform treatment for modular home construction and placement. Here again is a description of the bill from the previously cited DesNews story:
Fillmore’s bill, in addition to permitting and standardizing modular home construction across the state, includes a similar provision to Harper’s, allowing — not mandating — cities to “upzone” areas for single-family, owner-occupied homes on six to eight acres. If the housing projects meet these requirements, and fall below a certain price determined by the average home sale price in the zip code, then the city can use funds generated from increased property taxes to build infrastructure “to buy down the cost” of the homes.
“Everything that we’re doing on affordable housing this year is about creating additional supply of owner-occupied, first-time homes,” Fillmore said. “And you combine that with what we’ve done last year, I think we’re really setting it up so that we can accelerate the supply of affordable homes for first-time homebuyers so that people that are currently priced out of the market and are forced into rentals, even though they would like to buy, but just can’t find the inventory, will be able to find affordable homes.”
One more of the big impact bills to summarize, H.B. 572 State Treasurer Investment Amendments – would not have a direct effect on land use rules and procedures, but it would make more money available to help build infrastructure for affordable housing projects. Quoting again from the DesNews story:
HB572, sponsored by Rep. Robert Spendlove, R-Sandy, would authorize the state treasurer’s office to temporarily make available $300 million in public investment funds to help local banks and credit unions offer low-interest loans for developers building affordable homes.
The state would provide low-rate deposits to financial institutions on the condition that they be used for loans on projects where 60% of units cost less than $450,000, there’s a five-year owner occupancy requirement and prospective buyers are informed about the First-Time Homebuyer assistance program.
That’s it for today. There are several other bills that have passed already or are moving right along, that would have effect on land use practice in cities and counties, like on financing infrastructure, waterwise landscaping, building permit processes, small educational facilities in homes, and so on. We’ll summarize those upcoming.