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As the Legislature moves into lame duck session, marking the final weeks of Democrats’ control of the House, Reps. Cynthia Neeley (D-Flint) and Kristian Grant (D-Grand Rapids) have introduced four bills intended to streamline the housing development process to help address the state’s housing crisis.
Grant told Michigan Advance Monday she’d been working on the package for over a year, and had taken time to study the barriers to new housing development and the increased costs for housing, noting many of these barriers could be found at the local level.
The bills — House Bills 6095–6098 — are a part of the larger package, but with time running short in lame duck session, Grant said choices had to be made on which components should move.
House Bill 6095 would bar local zoning ordinances from requiring more than 1.5 parking spaces for each dwelling unit for a residential use property.
House Bill 6096 would require local units of government to provide developers with a blank site application form which includes a complete list of required studies or other documents required, as well as any technical standards for the studies. While additional studies or documents may be requested for the applications, they can only be requested if the study an applicant submitted was incomplete or failed to meet the technical requirements outlined in the form, or if the scope of the application has changed.
“Surveys and studies for building projects can be a pretty significant cost. And what we’ve seen around the state, I’ve had many developers reach out, saying that zoning and planning boards are not denying their project, but what they’re doing is layering on multiple surveys and studies that are required,” Grant said. “Some of them have nothing to do with the actual project, and it’s a way of delaying it without denying it.”
“At the end of the day, those many studies, you know, one can be $40,000 one can be 50, one can be 70, like there’s no there’s no set guidelines to how studies are required. And at the end of the day, if the housing project happens, those costs are just relayed to the renter or the buyer,” Grant said.
House Bill 6097 categorizes a residential duplex as a permitted use in a zoning area where a single-family residence is permitted, but only within a metropolitan statistical area defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
“It won’t change to make duplexes everywhere, it’ll be more for infill lots, but maybe someone can’t afford a single family home, but they can afford to purchase a townhome or duplex unit,” Grant said.
“We have people who are working every day and can’t afford the type of housing that’s on the market. So that leads me to believe that we need to change and have more variety in the housing that we’re making an option to people,” Grant said.
House Bill 6098 sets a definition in state law for which community members can submit a petition in opposition to a zoning ordinance change, requiring the petition to be signed by the owners and any tenants of at least 50% of the area of land included in the proposed change, the owners and any tenants of at least 50% of the area of land included within an area extending outward 200 feet from any point on the boundary of the land included in the proposed change, or both if a change in the ordinance increases the impact of the development.
This change would prevent parties from outside the state or outside of a neighborhood coming to boycott a development Grant said, noting that there is often a stigma around the development of affordable housing despite the need for affordable and attainable housing at multiple levels of income.
Moving forward the goal is to pass as many of these bills as possible Grant said, noting her uncertainty for what the next legislative session may bring.
Alongside support from a number of Democrats, Grant said she expects the bills will receive some support from Republicans.
“For housing, it’s not the big, brand new things that we’ve never heard about that needs to be done. We have to look back at a time when housing was much more accessible and see what has changed since then,” Grant said.
“We have excessive parking requirements. We have excessive studies being required. We have a lot of barriers that could use some tweaks. We’ve tried them for many decades, and they haven’t been working well,” Grant said.
While a number of Michigan municipalities aren’t supportive of the bills, Grant said lawmakers need to prioritize making sure Michiganders have a roof over their heads, and an affordable place to live is the bare minimum of what a state should be able to provide to people at all income levels.
“I would love for everyone to be on board with this but at the end of the day, if I have to decide between local power or local people having a roof over their heads, I’m going to choose the people every time,” Grant said.
While speaking with the Advance Tuesday, Jennifer Rigterink, assistant director of state and federal affairs for the Michigan Municipal League said they stand opposed to the package as introduced due to concerns that they are chipping away at local decision making through the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act, and noting the league’s preference for a carrot rather than a stick approach to addressing these zoning concerns.
While the league could be brought to at least neutral position on House Bill 6098, Rigterink said the application changes to House Bill 6096 weren’t realistic for municipalities, with the league arguing these changes would likely make development longer and more costly.
The league also contends that these changes will not improve affordability, pointing to a study from the Urban Institute which found that zoning reforms were associated with a small increase in housing supply, but did not reduce housing costs or increase availability of lower cost units.
However the study also notes positive impacts across the affordability spectrum, with the authors stating they could not rule out the possibility of equal impacts across different income segments.
“Local government can’t control the cost of materials, shortage in labor and issues getting projects financed. These are huge factors needing to be addressed instead of thinking mandated zoning reform is the silver bullet. We disagree that one of the biggest challenges to building more housing are barriers at the local level,” Rigterink said in a later email.
The bills are currently in front of the House Committee on Economic Development and Small Business.