Utah
Utah Lawmakers Call for Housing on Public Lands
Some Utah lawmakers are speaking up to support federal legislation known as the Helping Open Underutilized Space to Ensure Shelter (HOUSES) Act, which would open up some of the state’s federal lands to housing development in an effort to bridge the housing supply gap.
According to an article by Sofia Jeremias in The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah Representative Ken Ivory sponsored a state house resolution in support of the HOUSES Act. “The proposal would require that 85% of public lands sold be used for residential development and that 4 homes be built per acre. The other 15% could be used for commercial businesses or ‘other needs of potential communities.’”
Utah has roughly 150,000 acres of federal lands within city limits, Ivory said, with another 600,000 within a mile of a city.