Housing Policy

Christian Britschgi | 3.19.2024 10:25 AM

Happy Tuesday and welcome to yet another edition of Rent Free. This week's stories include:

But first, our lead story about the darker side of housing bipartisanship. As most of the coverage of the 2024 YIMBYtown conference detailed, housing is one of those issues where Republicans and Democrats—while generally more polarized than ever—can still work across the aisle to pass zoning reform.

The flip side of this dynamic is that Republicans and Democrats work against their own co-partisans to undermine zoning reform. For an example of this, witness what happened in Arizona yesterday.

Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, has earned herself a place in housing history/infamy by vetoing H.B. 2570, aka the Arizona Starter Homes Act, on Monday. Hers is the first gubernatorial veto of a major YIMBY bill.

The bill aimed to make smaller, owner-occupied housing easier to build by limiting local governments' abilities to ban smaller homes, require new housing to sit on larger lots, enforce purely aesthetic design requirements, force new housing to be covered by homeowners' associations (HOAs), or mandate community amenities that would require an HOA to manage.

H.B. 2570's deregulatory means in the service of more traditionally liberal ends of housing affordability produced unusually bipartisan votes in the Arizona House and Senate, with Republicans and Democrats pretty evenly represented in both the 'yes' and 'no' columns.

Want more on urban issues like regulation, development, and zoning? Sign up for Rent Free from Reason and Christian Britschgi.

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Christian Britschgi is a reporter at Reason.

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The Darkside of Housing Bipartisanship

30 1
19.03.2024

Housing Policy

Christian Britschgi | 3.19.2024 10:25 AM

Happy Tuesday and welcome to yet another edition of Rent Free. This week's stories include:

But first, our lead story about the darker side of housing bipartisanship. As most of the coverage of the 2024 YIMBYtown conference detailed, housing is one of those issues where Republicans and Democrats—while generally more polarized than ever—can........

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