Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2840 Compare Versions

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11 I
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 2840
55 To direct the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, acting through
66 the Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, to publish
77 guidelines and best practices for State zoning and local zoning frame-
88 works, and for other purposes.
99 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
1010 APRIL10, 2025
1111 Mr. F
1212 LOOD(for himself and Ms. PETTERSEN) introduced the following bill;
1313 which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
1414 A BILL
1515 To direct the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development,
1616 acting through the Assistant Secretary for Policy Devel-
1717 opment and Research, to publish guidelines and best
1818 practices for State zoning and local zoning frameworks,
1919 and for other purposes.
2020 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
2121 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2222 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2323 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Housing Supply 4
2424 Frameworks Act’’. 5
2525 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
2626 Congress finds the followings: 7
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3030 (1) As of 2022 in the United States, there was 1
3131 an estimated housing shortage of 3,850,000 homes. 2
3232 This housing supply shortage has resulted in a 3
3333 record number of cost-burdened households across 4
3434 regions and spanning the large and small cities, 5
3535 towns, and coastal and rural communities of the 6
3636 United States. 7
3737 (2) Several factors contribute to the under-8
3838 supply of housing in the United States, particularly 9
3939 workforce housing, including rising costs of con-10
4040 struction, a shortage of labor, supply chain disrup-11
4141 tions, and a lack of reliable funding sources. 12
4242 (3) Regulatory barriers at the State and local 13
4343 levels, such as zoning and land use regulations, also 14
4444 inhibit the creation of new housing to meet local and 15
4545 regional housing needs. 16
4646 (4) State and local governments are proactively 17
4747 exploring solutions for reforming regulatory barriers, 18
4848 but additional resources, data, and models can help 19
4949 adequately address these challenges. 20
5050 (5) While land use regulation is the responsi-21
5151 bility of State and local governments, there is Fed-22
5252 eral support for necessary reforms, and there is an 23
5353 opportunity for the Federal Government to provide 24
5454 support and assistance to State and local govern-25
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5858 ments that wish to undertake necessary reforms in 1
5959 a manner that fits their communities’ needs. 2
6060 (6) Therefore, zoning ordinances or systems of 3
6161 land use regulation that have the intent or effect of 4
6262 restricting housing opportunities based on economic 5
6363 status or income without interests that are substan-6
6464 tial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory and that outweigh 7
6565 the regional need for housing are contrary to the re-8
6666 gional and national interest. 9
6767 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 10
6868 In this Act: 11
6969 (1) A
7070 FFORDABLE HOUSING .—The term ‘‘afford-12
7171 able housing’’ means housing in which the occupant 13
7272 is paying no more than 30 percent of gross income 14
7373 for housing costs. 15
7474 (2) A
7575 SSISTANT SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Assist-16
7676 ant Secretary’’ means the Assistant Secretary for 17
7777 Policy Development and Research of the Depart-18
7878 ment of Housing and Urban Development. 19
7979 (3) F
8080 RAMEWORK-RELATED TERMS.— 20
8181 (A) L
8282 OCAL ZONING FRAMEWORK .—The 21
8383 term ‘‘local zoning framework’’ means the local 22
8484 zoning codes and other ordinances, procedures, 23
8585 and policies governing zoning and land-use at 24
8686 the local level. 25
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9090 (B) STATE ZONING FRAMEWORK .—The 1
9191 term ‘‘State zoning framework’’ means the 2
9292 State legislation or State agency and depart-3
9393 ment procedures, or such legislation or proce-4
9494 dures in an insular area of the United States, 5
9595 enabling local planning and zoning authorities 6
9696 and establishing and guiding related policies 7
9797 and programs. 8
9898 (4) S
9999 ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 9
100100 the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. 10
101101 SEC. 4. GUIDELINES ON STATE AND LOCAL ZONING FRAME-11
102102 WORKS. 12
103103 (a) E
104104 STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 3 years after 13
105105 the date of enactment of this section, the Assistant Sec-14
106106 retary shall publish documents outlining guidelines and 15
107107 best practices to support production of adequate housing 16
108108 to meet the needs of communities and provide housing op-17
109109 portunities for individuals at every income level across 18
110110 communities with respect to— 19
111111 (1) State zoning frameworks; and 20
112112 (2) local zoning frameworks. 21
113113 (b) C
114114 ONSULTATION; PUBLICCOMMENT.—During the 22
115115 2 year period beginning on the date of enactment of this 23
116116 section, in developing the guidelines and best practices re-24
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120120 quired under the previous subsection, the Assistant Sec-1
121121 retary shall— 2
122122 (1) publish draft guidelines in the Federal Reg-3
123123 ister for public comment; and 4
124124 (2) establish a task force for the purpose of 5
125125 providing consultation to draft guidelines published 6
126126 under the previous clause, the members of which 7
127127 shall include— 8
128128 (A) planners and architects; 9
129129 (B) advocates with experience in affordable 10
130130 housing, community development efforts, and 11
131131 fair housing; 12
132132 (C) housing developers, including afford-13
133133 able and market-rate housing developers, manu-14
134134 factured housing developers, and other business 15
135135 interests; 16
136136 (D) community engagement experts and 17
137137 community members impacted by zoning deci-18
138138 sions; 19
139139 (E) public housing authorities and transit 20
140140 authorities; 21
141141 (F) members of local zoning and planning 22
142142 boards and local and regional transportation 23
143143 planning organizations; 24
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147147 (G) State officials responsible for housing 1
148148 or land use, including members of State zoning 2
149149 boards of appeals; 3
150150 (H) academic researchers; and 4
151151 (I) home builders. 5
152152 (c) C
153153 ONTENTS.—The guidelines and best practices 6
154154 required under subsection (a) shall— 7
155155 (1) with respect to State zoning frameworks, 8
156156 outline potential models for updated State enabling 9
157157 legislation or State agency and department proce-10
158158 dures; 11
159159 (2) include recommendations regarding— 12
160160 (A) the reduction or elimination of parking 13
161161 minimums; 14
162162 (B) the increase in maximum floor area 15
163163 ratio requirements and maximum building 16
164164 heights and the reduction in minimum lot sizes 17
165165 and set-back requirements; 18
166166 (C) the elimination of restrictions against 19
167167 accessory dwelling units; 20
168168 (D) increasing by-right uses, including du-21
169169 plex, triplex, or quadplex buildings, across cities 22
170170 or metropolitan areas, including mechanisms, 23
171171 such as proximity to transit, to determine the 24
172172 jurisdictional level for rezoning and ensures de-25
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176176 velopment that does not disproportionately bur-1
177177 den residents of economically distressed areas; 2
178178 (E) review of by-right development pro-3
179179 posals to streamline review and reduce uncer-4
180180 tainty, including— 5
181181 (i) nondiscretionary, ministerial re-6
182182 view; and 7
183183 (ii) entitlement and design review 8
184184 processes; 9
185185 (F) the reduction of obstacles to a range of 10
186186 housing types at all levels of affordability, in-11
187187 cluding manufactured and modular housing; 12
188188 (G) State model zoning regulations for di-13
189189 recting local reforms, including mechanisms to 14
190190 encourage adoption; 15
191191 (H) provisions to encourage transit-ori-16
192192 ented development, including increased permis-17
193193 sible units per structure and reduced minimum 18
194194 lot sizes near existing or planned public transit 19
195195 stations; 20
196196 (I) potential reforms to the public engage-21
197197 ment process, including— 22
198198 (i) meaningful access for persons with 23
199199 limited English proficiency and effective 24
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203203 communication improvements for persons 1
204204 with disabilities; 2
205205 (ii) leveraging of virtual meeting tech-3
206206 nologies; and 4
207207 (iii) proactive outreach in commu-5
208208 nities; 6
209209 (J) reforms to protest petition statutes; 7
210210 (K) the standardization, reduction, or 8
211211 elimination of impact fees; 9
212212 (L) cost effective and appropriate building 10
213213 codes; 11
214214 (M) models for community benefit agree-12
215215 ments; 13
216216 (N) mechanisms to preserve affordability, 14
217217 limit disruption of low-income communities, and 15
218218 prevent displacement of existing residents; 16
219219 (O) with respect to State zoning frame-17
220220 works, a model for a State zoning appeals proc-18
221221 ess, which would— 19
222222 (i) create a process for developers or 20
223223 builders requesting a variance, conditional 21
224224 use, or zoning district change or otherwise 22
225225 petitioning a local zoning or planning 23
226226 board for a project including a State-de-24
227227 fined amount of affordable housing to ap-25
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231231 peal a rejection to a State body or regional 1
232232 body empowered by the State; 2
233233 (ii) establish qualifications for com-3
234234 munities to be exempted from the appeals 4
235235 process based on their available stock of 5
236236 affordable housing; and 6
237237 (iii) establish a State zoning appeals 7
238238 board to consider appeals to a variance re-8
239239 jection and objectively evaluate petitions 9
240240 based on the potential for environmental 10
241241 damage and infrastructural capacity; 11
242242 (P) with respect to State zoning frame-12
243243 works, best practices on the disposition of land 13
244244 owned by State governments for affordable 14
245245 housing development; 15
246246 (Q) with respect to local zoning frame-16
247247 works— 17
248248 (i) the simplification and standardiza-18
249249 tion of existing zoning codes; 19
250250 (ii) maximum review timelines; 20
251251 (iii) differentiations between best 21
252252 practices for rural, suburban, and urban 22
253253 communities, and communities with dif-23
254254 ferent levels of density or population dis-24
255255 tribution; and 25
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259259 (iv) best practices for the disposition 1
260260 of land owned by local governments; and 2
261261 (R) other land use measures that promote 3
262262 access to new housing opportunities identified 4
263263 by the Secretary; and 5
264264 (3) consider— 6
265265 (A) local housing needs, including ways to 7
266266 set and measure housing goals and targets; 8
267267 (B) a range of affordability for rental 9
268268 units, with a prioritization of units attainable to 10
269269 extremely low-income, low-income, and mod-11
270270 erate income residents; 12
271271 (C) a range of affordability for homeown-13
272272 ership units attainable to low-income and mod-14
273273 erate-income residents; 15
274274 (D) with respect to State zoning frame-16
275275 works, distinctions between States providing 17
276276 constitutional or statutory home rule authority 18
277277 to municipalities and States operating under 19
278278 the Dillon rule, as articulated in Hunter v. 20
279279 Pittsburgh (207 U.S. 161 (1907)); 21
280280 (E) accountability measures; 22
281281 (F) the long-term cost to residents and 23
282282 businesses if more housing is not constructed; 24
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286286 (G) barriers to individuals seeking to ac-1
287287 cess affordable housing in growing communities 2
288288 and communities with economic opportunity; 3
289289 (H) consistency with respect to fair hous-4
290290 ing and civil rights requirements; 5
291291 (I) effects of adopting any recommenda-6
292292 tions on eligibility for Federal discretionary 7
293293 grants under the Department of Housing and 8
294294 Urban Development, the Department of Trans-9
295295 portation, and the Department of Agriculture, 10
296296 and tax credits for the purpose of housing or 11
297297 community development; 12
298298 (J) coordination between infrastructure in-13
299299 vestments and housing planning; 14
300300 (K) with respect to State zoning frame-15
301301 works, statewide mechanisms to preserve exist-16
302302 ing affordability over the long term, including 17
303303 support for land banks and community land 18
304304 trusts; 19
305305 (L) with respect to State zoning frame-20
306306 works, guidance to States on collecting and 21
307307 maintaining proactive data on the current rent-22
308308 al housing market and rental registries; 23
309309 (M) public comments described in sub-24
310310 section (b)(1); and 25
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314314 (N) other considerations as identified by 1
315315 the Secretary. 2
316316 SEC. 5. REPORTING. 3
317317 Not later than 5 years after the date on which the 4
318318 Assistant Secretary publishes the guidelines and best prac-5
319319 tices for State and local zoning frameworks, the Assistant 6
320320 Secretary shall submit to Congress a report describing— 7
321321 (1) the States that have adopted recommenda-8
322322 tions from the guidelines and best practices, pursu-9
323323 ant to section 4 of this Act; 10
324324 (2) a summary of the localities that have adopt-11
325325 ed recommendations from the guidelines and best 12
326326 practices, pursuant to Section 4 of this Act; 13
327327 (3) a list of States that adopted a State zoning 14
328328 framework; 15
329329 (4) a summary of the modifications that each 16
330330 State has made in their State zoning framework; 17
331331 and 18
332332 (5) a general summary of the types of updates 19
333333 localities have made to their local zoning framework. 20
334334 SEC. 6. ABOLISHMENT OF REGULATORY BARRIERS CLEAR-21
335335 INGHOUSE. 22
336336 (a) I
337337 NGENERAL.—The Regulatory Barriers Clear-23
338338 inghouse established pursuant to section 1205 of the 24
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342342 Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 (42 1
343343 U.S.C. 12705d) is abolished. 2
344344 (b) R
345345 EPEAL.—Section 1205 of the Housing and 3
346346 Community Development Act of 1992 (42 U.S.C. 12705d) 4
347347 is repealed. 5
348348 SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 6
349349 There is authorized to be appropriated to the Sec-7
350350 retary of Housing and Urban Development to carry out 8
351351 this Act $3,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 9
352352 2030. 10
353353 Æ
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