Not a lot of “sturm und drang” going on with the land use bills right now, even though we are up to 39 bills we are tracking (holy cow!).  Many of those bills are not going anywhere, and of the bills that are showing at least some sign of movement, there’s not much new to report.  There are some modifications being made, mostly relatively minor ones.  One bill that has had some rather dramatic changes made to it is HB510 – Municipal Incorporation Modifications – this bill would make significant changes to the process for the creation of “preliminary municipalities” – we’ve talked about these in a recent posting.  The current substitute version of the bill would require significant coordination with the county where the PM is being proposed, including a waiting period of some 18 months before an application can be submitted.  There’s a lot of planning-type requirements, so this certainly won’t be a quick or easy process.

Three news stories in the last few days about some of the bills we’re following as well.

A story on KSL about Rep. Ward’s small lots and starter housing bill HB184, who’s headline has an interesting characterization of the action on this bill – ‘The status quo is not working’: Lawmakers reject plan designed to build more starter homes. The title and tenor of the story is such that it makes it sound like the legislature rejected this effort to solve the housing crisis.  It did not make any mention of the procedural morass this bill would have created to allow for such homes and lots, which is one of the main reasons planners didn’t like this bill even though they generally support the idea of smaller lots and starter home promotion.

A good story in the Trib about Rep. Roberts’ infrastructure loan program bill, HB492.

The bill would repurpose money from the Transportation Investment Fund to provide low-interest loans for local governments seeking to fund such projects as sewer lift stations, water tanks, treatment plants, and regional roads.

Until now, Utah hasn’t had a great way to fund regional infrastructure projects, said Steve Waldrip, who serves as Gov. Spencer Cox’s senior advisor for housing strategy.

“This is something that is desperately needed across the state,” he said.

He (Roberts) tried to think differently when proposing this bill, he said, to get at the supply issues by addressing one of the biggest choke points – infrastructure. A “significant amount of homes” are approved but not built, Roberts said, with infrastructure as the holdup.

The bill passed the House on Tuesday and is now over in the Senate.

The third story is another from KSL, this one about Rep. Ward’s resolution to support the making of some unreserved federal lands available for building housing – HCR14 – Concurrent Resolution Supporting the Transfer of Federally Managed Lands.  The concept has run into some problems because of recent efforts by U.S. Sen. Mike Lee’s bill to turn some federal lands over to state or local governments:

Measures to turn swaths of public land over to local entities were met with widespread opposition last year, but a Utah legislative committee agrees it could yield good things.

This resolution calls for a much more limited purpose in making federal lands available.

Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner announced last year that they formed a joint task force to explore using “underutilized federal land” for housing to increase supply and potentially lower costs. Utah’s resolution, if passed, offers federal leaders “one more thing in their hand that they can use as a tool” when they have these types of land policy discussions in Washington, Ward said.

The resolution was approved unanimously by the House committee, and now awaits action on the House floor.

It’s getting close to crazy time at the legislature, when lots happens in just the last few days.  Watch out!