If signed by Gov. Evers, measure will help increase housing supply and decrease cost
A bill that will ultimately help increase housing supply, make homes more affordable and still allow local municipalities to control where and how fast they grow passed through the Wisconsin Senate this week and was expected to pass in the Assembly late Thursday as well.
Dubbed the “Truth in Planning” legislation, AB453 will — if signed by Gov. Tony Evers —assure that cities’ and villages’ zoning ordinances are consistent with their comprehensive plans that identify areas where houses will be allowed and that specify minimum and maximum densities.
The bill requires municipalities’ comprehensive plans to identify where and how densely residential growth will happen, by five-year increments over 20 years.
If someone requests the rezoning of a parcel to develop homes and a municipality’s comprehensive plan doesn’t meet the new law’s requirements, the land will automatically be rezoned to the requested classification or to the least restrictive zoning classification allowed.
Rep. Rob Brooks, the Saukville Republican who is one of the sponsors of the bill, said the legislation is “significant,” “good for everybody” and a way to address the not-in-my-backyard “nimbyism going on around the state.”
Currently, Wisconsin municipalities are required periodically to produce comprehensive plans, but zoning for particular parcels does not automatically conform to those plans — meaning that when a development proposal for a parcel emerges, the rezoning process can become a nexus of delay and opposition.
Backers say the legislation addresses the sentiment that Wisconsin needs housing, “but not in my neighborhood,” while ensuring that elected officials and planners at the municipal level retain control. It actually empowers municipalities, said Brooks, to fulfill their vision.
“It allows them to say, ‘We want duplexes, four-families, eight-families,’ and then — because it is in the plan — they can go ahead and do it.”
The legislation does not force any municipality to allow homes. It just mandates that cities and villages plan in a transparent fashion that gives developers some certainty when they come in with a proposal.
“I really strongly believe it will provide predictability for developers on new homes in the future,” said Brad Boycks, executive director of the Wisconsin Builders Association. “Time is money,” and decreasing the amount of time developers have to spend appearing before regulators and redrafting plans time and time again will made housing more affordable.
Increasing supply will also help affordability.
Finding a way to make the housing market work without counterproductive rent control or big government subsidies has been one of the Badger Institute’s primary research and advocacy areas for the past year. See our 61-page “Out of Reach” publication here.
“Over 40 percent of Americans and a majority of those under the age of 30 say it is no longer possible to attain the American Dream,” the Institute noted in the report.
“These are not naysayers who never had faith in America (that’s another 6 percent who say achieving the Dream was never possible). It’s a big swath of our country that includes almost as many Republicans as Democrats, over a third of college graduates and almost 40 percent of middle-income earners.
“Some might feel they can no longer have the career they sought or ever retire. But the crux of the American Dream in the eyes of a vast majority of Americans, other surveys show, is homeownership — an aspiration increasingly out of reach.”
This bill helps remedy that.
The Assembly passed a close-to-final version of the bill Wednesday, but the Senate, according to Boycks, subsequently added a small amendment on some timing issues, so the bill was heading back to the Assembly again on Thursday.
Brooks said he is “very hopeful” the legislation will be signed by Evers. “While we’re of different parties, the governor has been very supportive of housing proposals.”
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