Lawmakers in almost every state have proposed overriding local zoning rules to encourage denser development, saying more home building will lower sky-high home prices and rents.
More than 400 bills have been introduced across 44 states so far this year, according to Salim Furth, director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a free market think tank.
“It’s everything, everywhere all at once,” Furth said of the blitz of bills.
Proposals in some states, such as Arizona, Colorado and Washington, would build on previous zoning preemption laws. Proposals in other states, such as Texas, would make sweeping changes for the first time.
Texas Sen. Bryan Hughes (R) is sponsoring bills that would lift local restrictions on building accessory dwelling units, allow mixed-use and multi-family residential development in certain commercial areas, and make it harder for people to block zoning changes in their neighborhoods.
“That goal of homeownership is getting more and more out of reach for many Texans, for many Americans,” Hughes told KLTV in January. “So we want to put policies in place that make it easier for people to afford a home.” Hughes’s office did not respond to requests for additional comment.
Local leaders say the state does not need to step in.
“We’re against all the bills that would preempt city authority, because our theory is that the right level of density is already happening through local action,” said Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League, an association that advocates for Texas cities.
He pointed to Austin, where city leaders in 2023 and 2024 voted to allow up to three units on single-family lots and shrink single-family lot sizes, among other changes meant to encourage housing density.
Local leaders should be able to decide what’s best for their community, Sandlin said. “There’s not one-size-fits-all when it comes to zoning, density and other issues.”
A growing number of state leaders on the right and left say forcing cities to allow more density would help alleviate a nationwide housing affordability crisis.
Half of all renters and nearly 1 in 4 homeowners spent more than 30% of their income on housing and utilities in 2022, according to the latest data from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Millions more people struggled to afford housing in 2022 than two years earlier.
Pro-housing advocates point to Minneapolis, where city leaders have spent almost 20 years rolling back zoning restrictions, as evidence that such reforms work.
The city has been adding housing faster than other Midwestern cities, according to Pew Charitable Trusts. Average rents there grew by 1% from 2017 to 2022, compared to 14% across Minnesota.
Lawmakers in some states that have passed major zoning bills in the past are coming back for more this year, with bills that would preempt zoning, speed up permitting, and streamline building codes.
Colorado lawmakers are considering standardizing building codes for factory-built housing and making it easier for religious and educational institutions to build housing on land they own.
The Washington Senate recently voted to ban cities and counties from requiring more than half a parking space per residential unit and more than one parking space per 1,000 feet of commercial space, among other changes to parking rules. The bill is now before a House committee.
“Too many cities mandate more parking than needed, and this bill reduces those overly rigid requirements that force builders to pave more parking spots than the people who live, work, and shop there really need,” Sen. Jessica Bateman (D), the bill’s sponsor, said in a statement after the Senate vote.
Texas lawmakers are taking another crack at zoning preemption after bills that would have made it easier to build accessory dwelling units, relaxed height restrictions, and shrunk single-family lot sizes all failed last session. Pro-housing groups hope this session will be different.
“We have a suite of bills that I think are a little more targeted,” said Felicity Maxwell, executive director of Texans for Housing, a nonprofit that advocates for making it easier to build housing.
In addition to Hughes’s bills, Texas Republicans have proposed making it easier for religious organizations to build housing on land they own and preventing more urban cities from requiring minimum lot sizes larger than 2,500 square feet.
Sandlin said local leaders support one idea also backed by pro-housing groups: making it harder for property owners to block proposed zoning changes in their neighborhoods.
Under current law, 20% of affected or surrounding property owners can formally protest a zoning change. If they do, 75% of city council members must vote to override the protest and make the change.
In practice, this can mean zoning proposals are scuttled by a single landowner’s objection, Maxwell said. “The joke around this one is, it’s called ‘tyrant’s veto.’”
Hughes has proposed requiring 60% of affected or surrounding property owners to protest a zoning change in order to hold it up, and then to allow a simple majority of city council members to override their petition. There’s a similar bill in the House.
“We’re supportive of legislation that would make it easier to make [zoning] changes,” Sandlin said. “We’re not anti-density, we’re just pro-local control.”
