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- Two Utah housing bills stalled in the House Committee Friday, facing no action.
- Rep. Ray Ward proposed allowing accessory dwelling units and smaller lot sizes to increase affordable housing.
- Opponents, including Draper Mayor Troy Walker, expressed concerns over local authority and rental increases.
SALT LAKE CITY — Two bills intended to increase Utah's affordable housing options stalled in the Utah House Political Subdivisions Committee Friday.
Committee members chose to take no action on either HB88, which mandated that urban municipalities allow accessory dwelling units in residential zones, or on HB90, that stated single-family home lots in those communities could be as small as 6,000 square feet.
The sponsor of both bills, Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful, said he was trying to apply the "lightest touch'' to increasing housing density as a way to address a housing problem that is worse in Utah than in much of the country.
"If we want to slow the rise of the average cost of homes, there's no other solution than allowing the building of more homes, the building of smaller homes and, as land becomes more expensive, to allow more homes to be built on smaller pieces of land," Ward said.
Also known as mother-in-law apartments , or granny flats, he said accessory dwelling units located within or next to a family home can help revitalize older neighborhoods by bringing in young families. Ward said homeowners often rent the units to family members.
But Draper Mayor Troy Walker, speaking as president of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, testified against both bills, saying a "mandate of anyplace, anytime" preempts the authority of local governments.
Walker said the units are already permitted in a number of communities and that Utah needs to be promoting home "ownership, not just occupancy." He adding more units changes neighborhoods and "increases rentals, which we don't need more of."
But Gov. Spencer Cox's senior adviser for housing, Steve Waldrip, told the committee that what he called the extreme regulation of housing has "given frankly outsized influence to those that live in their current neighborhoods versus those that could live there."
Waldrip said while there's no "silver bullet" that will solve the state's housing woes, more housing options are needed. Accessory dwelling units have been used to address shortages in other parts of the country, he said, and have "not caused neighborhoods to collapse."
Rep. Gay Lynn Bennion, D-Cottonwood Heights, made the motion to move on from HB88 without taking any action. Bennion cited concerns about the impact on places like Alta that are trying to limit development.
She also said, however, that communities need to overcome NIMBYism, the "not-in-my-backyard" response to housing solutions, suggesting that if that doesn't happen over the next year, state mandates may be necessary.
During the discussion of moving on from HB90, Rep. Matthew Gwynn, R-Farr West, said previous efforts to increase housing need to be evaluated to determine if those policies are the right direction for state.
Gwynn, who said a massive multi-unit development is under construction across the street from his home, urged lawmakers to "slow down."
The motions to move on from both bills passed with Ward as the only committee member opposed.
