Zoning reform bills pass Montana House with bipartisan support

HELENA — A set of payments aimed toward rising Montana’s housing provide have handed one other key step on the state Legislature.

This week, three payments making large modifications in how cities deal with zoning handed via the Home, every with broad margins and bipartisan help.

“This has been unimaginable: to have the ability to work with people on the proper, on the left – individuals who normally do not work collectively,” mentioned Kendall Cotton, president and CEO of the Frontier Institute. “But it surely looks like Montanans of all political stripes are coming collectively on this difficulty of housing affordability.”

The Frontier Institute is a Montana suppose tank that has recognized housing as one of many precedence points for this legislative session, they usually highlighted Senate Payments 382, 323 and 245 as vital proposals for addressing it.

“You realize, Montana’s been found,” Cotton mentioned. “We’re rising actually quick. A number of persons are shifting right here. How can we be sure that Montana stays feeling like Montana and would not turn out to be like California as we develop?”

The three payments mirror suggestions that got here from Gov. Greg Gianforte’s housing process pressure final 12 months, which Cotton was a member of.

· SB 382, sponsored by Sen. Forrest Mandeville, R-Columbus, handed 95-5. It could totally overhaul cities’ land-use planning course of. As a part of that, it might require that cities undertake 5 suggestions from a listing of 14 methods for rising housing entry. The invoice would apply to cities with greater than 5,000 individuals which might be in counties with greater than 70,000 individuals.
· SB 323, sponsored by Sen. Jeremy Trebas, R-Nice Falls, handed 72-26. It could require that cities with greater than 5,000 residents permit duplexes anyplace that single-family residences are allowed. The invoice beforehand would have required bigger cities to additionally permit triplexes and fourplexes, nevertheless it was amended within the Home Native Authorities Committee.
· SB 245, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, handed 96-4. It could require cities to permit multi-unit housing developments in business zones. The invoice would apply to municipalities designated as city areas which have greater than 7,000 residents.

Cotton mentioned these payments would encourage denser improvement inside cities, quite than growth on the outskirts.

“Permitting a little bit little bit of that mild density goes to permit our cities to catch as much as inhabitants progress, construct the properties that we have to construct for lots of the oldsters shifting right here and create that pathway to homeownership for younger households and renters,” he mentioned.

The Montana League of Cities and Cities, which represents the state’s municipalities, labored carefully on SB 382.

“We’ve acquired to repair the method,” mentioned govt director Kelly Lynch. “Our statutes are actually antiquated and outdated, and SB 382 actually tries to place them in a way more affordable, considerate manner of strolling via the method.”

However through the course of, the League expressed extra issues about different zoning-related payments that they mentioned would impose top-down mandates on cities.

Lynch mentioned these payments have been amended in methods that can make them simpler for native governments to implement.

“Our place has been that our cities have already been engaged on these points for lots of years,” she mentioned. “We’ve planners who go to the nationwide conferences. These sorts of discussions have been taking place for a very long time. However once you undergo that native public course of, it takes loads longer. However I feel most of them are already in a scenario, are very near having these similar forms of rules, particularly within the type that the payments are in now.”

As a result of all three payments have been amended whereas they have been within the Home, they may now return to the Senate, the place senators will determine whether or not to just accept the modifications. If the Senate concurs with the Home amendments, the payments will go to the governor’s desk. In the event that they reject the amendments, a convention committee might be appointed to iron out the variations.