For the ULUI Spring Conference legislative update session last Friday, I subtitled the slide presentation “ Is This Really Gonna Work?”  This was in reference to several bills passed during the session that aimed more at collaborative, incentive-based measures to help housing affordability, rather than the more typical zoning-reform top-down requirements being passed elsewhere around the nation.  To see what I mean by this, take a look at the previous blog post and read over the first grouping of bills.

I felt somewhat vindicated in my thoughts about these bills when Katie McKellar, the DesNews’ previous writer on housing issues, wrote a piece titled Utah’s New Housing Experiment last week.  The subtitle to Katie’s story says, “Legislature creates arsenal of new tools to encourage increased supply of ‘attainable’ homes, aiming for prices around $350,000. Will it actually make a difference?”  (Katie now writes for The Utah News Dispatch, a relatively new service that is funded by grants and contributions and makes news stories available to all).

My thoughts on these bills, which set up new programs like FHIZ and HOPZ and provide new financing mechanisms for infrastructure and development, are that they are a great idea, but will they actually get used?  Will cities set them up, and will developers/builders actually want to use them?  Only time will tell.  Steve Waldrip, the Governor’s new Senior Housing Policy and Innovation Advisor, is optimistic from his conversations with those who would build such housing, and from communities that say they want more affordable options in their neighborhoods.

Gov. Cox, at the close of the legislative session, said,

“You’ve done some incredibly innovative things that I believe will transform our state and lead the nation,” Cox said on the House floor. “You have passed the largest housing attainability package in the country.”

Waldrip said,

“We feel confident that the majority of cities want to do the right thing: they want to provide housing for their people.” … He acknowledged that lawmakers’ approach this year largely trusts cities to act. “It really is in their court to take advantage of this.”

And most notable to me were these comments:

Dejan Eskic, a housing researcher with the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute who is also the chief economist for the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, said even though lawmakers maybe could have been more aggressive, he thinks their package of bills could help “move the football” when it comes to Utah’s housing issues.

Eskic noted lawmakers opted not to advance upzoning legislation like HB306. (note from me: this would have been more typical of zoning reform measures around the country)  That bill, which didn’t get a public hearing, would have categorized starter homes as a “permitted use” in Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties, as well as cities with populations over 15,000. Essentially, it would have required those cities to approve newly built single-family homes that are sold at a price that is less than the area’s median price for that type of home. It likely would have hit pushback from cities and counties wanting to keep more control over their local zoning authority.

“You can always move the needle a bit more aggressively,” Eskic said, but he credited lawmakers with focusing on something that’s been a big barrier for both cities and developers: the cost of infrastructure (roads and sewer lines, for example) that have stood in the way of making many already entitled housing developments financially viable.

“The infrastructure (focus) was really progressive,” he said. “We’re probably not even realizing what a big deal it could be down the road.”

Both Waldrip and Eskic were at the ULUI conference last week talking about these issues.  So… will it work?  Enough to keep other more “aggressive” zoning reform measures from being adopted?

Time will tell, because these tools haven’t been tried before in Utah.

“I honestly don’t know,” Eskic said.  “Some cities will, and some cities will find every way to go around it.”

When pressed on whether cities will take advantage of these tools, given none of the bills contain teeth to force or require cities to use them, (House Speaker Mike) Schultz said, “We’re hopeful they do.”

“I’ve been told by several cities they’re actually excited about some of these things,” he said.

Schultz also acknowledged, though, that these are new tools and strategies, and it remains to be seen whether they will eventually help solve Utah’s housing crisis.

“Will it have an impact? I truly believe it will,” Schultz said. “Will it solve the problem? Yet to be seen.”