Latest news with #HousingforJobsAct
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Moore's remodeled housing bill approved by House; still needs Senate consideration
Del. Robbyn Lewis (D-Baltimore City) discusses amendments for House Bill 503. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters) The House voted 104-15 Tuesday for what started as Gov. Wes Moore's (D) priority housing legislation but which was so heavily amended that the not even the original name remains. What began as the governor's 'Housing for Jobs Act' will now head to the Senate as the 'Housing Development Act' – with nearly every component of the bill that tied housing development to job growth stricken. The heavily amended House Bill 503 now prompts the Department of Housing and Community Development to set 10-year housing targets for the state, its counties and every municipality, and report on their progress annually. 'It allows our entire state to work together to make sure that each jurisdiction has a role … in showing how to produce the housing that our people need,' said Del. Robbyn Lewis (D-Baltimore City) during debate on the House floor. 'Our state is 96,000 housing units short. We're not serving the needs of our constituents. This bill allows us to do that.' Most of the changes adopted by the House were first introduced in the House Environment and Transport Committee last week. When introduced in January, the governor's bill was framed as an expansion on his housing package from last year. The original version aimed to expedite housing development by requiring counties to automatically approve most qualifying project requests in areas where the state determined there was an imbalance between housing and jobs. House members overhaul Moore housing bill with 'simpler' amendments The bill did not get its first hearing until March, but representatives from the counties and others quickly expressed 'significant' concerns, particularly over the bill's language that would have forced counties to approve housing in some situations. Under the amended bill approved Tuesday, each jurisdiction would have a hand in creating those targets and would consider estimates for future employment and housing demand along with population growth and other considerations. The bill also creates so-called 'vesting rights' so that a housing developer with an approved project proposal would retain the right to develop the property for at least five years, or a period granted by the local jurisdiction or the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, whichever is longer. The legislation creates a new Housing Opportunities Made Equitable Commission — the HOME Commission — a group of various stakeholders that would study the housing crisis in the state and make recommendations to lawmakers to address the issue. During a floor session Tuesday morning, Del. Christopher T. Adams (R-Lower Shore) secured one amendment to add a residential real estate owner to the commission, which was seen as a friendly amendment and accepted into the bill. Other Republican amendments were not as lucky. Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County), noting that 'quite a bit of the bill was stricken in the reprint,' offered an amendment to opt Baltimore County out of the provisions of the legislation. She said the county is more proactive in setting future housing plans than what the bill would require. 'We are, in Baltimore County, setting these targets and these goals on a local level through our county council that does a great job of doing this every four years,' Szeliga said. 'I don't think that the state setting housing goals should be preemptive over the local county. My county councilman does an amazing job, as do all seven of them. I prefer to leave this in the hands of our local government and not have the state override that.' With clock ticking, lawmakers still hope to iron out issues on Moore's housing bill Lewis argued that the bill does not attempt to override any local planning efforts but calls on the counties to work with state housing officials to set local targets that would help boost housing supply in their unique areas. 'These targets are non-binding, and the process for having each jurisdiction work with the department actually sets up a really strong and regulatory consistency standard,' Lewis said. 'So that, across our state, we're all working together to make sure that each jurisdiction builds and produces the amount of housing it uniquely needs on a timeline, supported and encouraged by the Department and the HOME commission. 'This is not a preemption bill,' she said. 'We, the committee, understood very well the concerns about that.' Szeliga's amendment failed on party lines, as did another proposed by Del. Matthew Morgan (R-St. Mary's) that would have restricted local jurisdictions from approving new housing projects in areas where schools are overcrowded. Despite the hefty changes, the Moore administration has previously expressed support for the new direction of the legislation, saying it still 'moves the needle' toward the governor's goal of boosting housing supply in the state. Senators will need to take a look at what is essentially a brand new bill than the Senate version they last considered in early March. With just days left in session, senators will need to work quickly to pass the legislation out of committee and before the full chamber before Sine Die on Monday.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House members overhaul Moore housing bill with ‘simpler' amendments
Houses and businesses lining the streets of Annapolis on March 24, 2025. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters). Lawmakers are scrambling to push through a heavily amended version of Gov. Wes Moore's (D) priority 'Housing for Jobs Act,' which may be the governor's bill in name only at this point. The bill that originally would have tied increased housing development to job growth in the state now calls for studies, the setting of housing goals and limited guarantees for developers. The House Environment and Transportation Committee approved the amended version of the House Bill 503 Friday and will send it to the full House next week, when there will be just a week left in the session. The Senate is waiting for the House bill. 'This was the path forward that we found, and I think will provide meaningful changes while also setting, hopefully, a roadmap to the future to make even more meaningful changes,' Del. Dylan Behler (D-Anne Arundel), a member of the committee, said this week. 'I know that there were a lot of conversations [between] … the governor's office and other groups that care deeply about this and focus on lowering the cost of housing for Marylanders.' With clock ticking, lawmakers still hope to iron out issues on Moore's housing bill Despite the changes, the Moore administration said in a statement that it's 'proud' of the amended bill and will 'continue to work with legislative partners to pass it into law.' 'Maryland is facing a housing supply and affordability crisis and this legislation directly addresses it by creating regulatory certainty for housing production in Maryland,' the administration statement said. When introduced, the governor's bill was framed as an expansion on his housing package from last year. The original version aimed to expedite housing development by requiring counties to automatically approve most qualifying project requests if the state determines there is an imbalance between housing and jobs in the county. Representatives from the Maryland Association of Counties quickly expressed 'significant' concerns over the bill, particularly the language that would have forced counties to approve housing in some situations. MACo officials said in a recent statement that the bill is now more 'streamlined' and that many of its initial concerns have been addressed. Now, the bill creates a housing commission to study the state's housing crisis and make recommendations to address the lack of affordable units in the state. It also calls on the state's housing secretary to set a 10-year target for housing production in the state, while creating create subtargets for specific regions in consultation with county governments. The bill also sets up 'vesting rights' for developers, meaning that they would have a guarantee for five years that they can build on a property once a project is approved, and ensures that the developer is governed by the laws and policies issued at the time of a projects application. MACo Executive Director Michael Sanderson believes the current, 'simpler' version of the bill will have an easier time navigating the remaining legislative hurdles than the initial language. He said the administration bill was not helped by the fact that it did not get a hearing until March. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'It's just kind of unfortunate that this ended up being one of the bills that got a late hearing. Maybe if this whole process had started on Valentine's day instead of March … we might have been further along,' Sanderson said. He added that the amendments narrow the goal of the bill to the 'essential elements that they (the administration) think could move the needle the most.' 'Nobody loves the idea of a task force or a commission as a resolution,' Sanderson said, 'but sometimes on big issues, having the forum where you go hash this stuff out, that might be a more productive way.' There is a Senate version of the legislation, Senate Bill 430, but Education, Energy, and the Environment Chair Sen. Brian Feldman (D-Montgomery) said he is waiting to see how the House settles the bill before the legislation moves in the Senate. Housing Secretary Jake Day said that despite the language overhaul, the bill still incorporates an overarching goal of improving housing supply in areas that need it. 'I am grateful now that it seems like we are at a place where this can move, and I think many of the most important concepts remain intact — and look to me like they are going to move forward,' Day said. 'I know we're nearing the end, but … I still think it's a bill that can move the needle on housing production and housing affordability.' Citing the complete language overhaul, Del. Ryan Nawrocki (R-Baltimore) said the initial bill language was 'clearly not ready for primetime.' 'It says to me that the bill was a flawed bill as it came to the committee, if we're kind of rewriting the whole bill through amendments,' he said. 'The significant rewrite … is the committee also acknowledging that there were serious flaws with that initial version of the bill.' Nawrocki voted against the bill during Friday's voting session, noting that he had some 'heartburn' on the new vesting rights language, which could be a point of contention as it moves through the legislative process. But it still received overall approval in the House committee. Day hopes that the bill passed this year will inform additional housing legislation in future sessions to help tackle the affordability crisis in the state. 'We'll have to see what gets passed this year,' Day said. 'Time is of the essence, and housing isn't getting cheaper … We've got a lot of work to do on production. I think what comes back in future years really depends on the progress that is made this year.'
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With clock ticking, lawmakers still hope to iron out issues on Moore's housing bill
Gov. Wes Moore's housing legislation aims to pressure counties into more quickly approving housing projects in areas where jobs outnumber available housing units. (Photo by Tech. Sgt. Austen R. Adriaens/Air National Guard) The clock is ticking on Gov. Wes Moore's bill to expedite housing development in the state, a proposal that county officials have warned has substantive issues and will need 'significant' work before they can get behind it. But nobody's saying it's a lost cause yet. 'There is a lot of interest in this bill. We know we need to invest in housing infrastructure,' Del. Robbyn Lewis (D-Baltimore City) said Friday. 'It's not over until it's over.' The bill she's talking about it the 'Housing for Jobs Act,' which has both a House and Senate version. The bills look at a region's 'jobs-to-housing' ratio and press local governments to expedite approval of housing projects in those areas where there are 1.5 jobs for every available housing unit. In areas with such a 'regional housing infrastructure gap,' local governments would be expected to automatically approve new housing developments, unless county officials can prove the project would negatively impact the area. The goal of the bill is to essentially 'default to 'yes' on housing proposals,' Housing Secretary Jake Day said at a recent bill hearing. Moore — who testified in person on March 4 before both the House Environment and Transportation Committee and the Senate Education, Energy and Environment Committee — said the legislation is intended to build off of his housing package last year, which aimed to build the state's housing supply amid an estimated 96,000-unit shortage. His plan this year will 'give builders greater certainty when it comes to planning and executing projects, and we are taking these steps without heavy-handed preemption,' Moore said in his testimony. But members of the Maryland Association of Counties have 'serious concerns' with the bill's language and say that it needs major amendments before the association can support it — which it wants to do. Governor's supplemental budget helps fund disabilities agency by cutting other programs MACo First Vice President M.C. Keegan-Ayer said at the bill's initial hearing in the Senate on March 4 that the governor's office refused to have a meeting with the association on legislation until after the bill was introduced to committee. When MACo finally saw the bill's language mid-February, it found 'substantive' issues that raise 'serious concerns and … we believe, unintended consequences,' Keegan-Ayer said. One concern is the legal challenge aspect of the bill, which says developers can sue counties that are not in compliance with the law. Keegan-Ayer said the bill could accidentally 'create perverse incentives' for job growth initiatives. 'If we're bringing in more businesses, if we create new jobs … even while we are trying to build housing as quickly as possible given the interest rates and what the building industry is able to bear, we may be penalized by this bill for having a disproportionate number of jobs in relation to the number of housing units,' Keegan-Ayer said. Dominic Butchko, MACo's director of intergovernmental relations, said it's like the state 'holding a metaphorical gun to a county's head, saying approve this or you will be sued within a year.' MACo is also concerned about school density issues. Under the bill, a county could deny a project if the local school and neighboring schools are at or above 100% of capacity. Otherwise, the county would be expected to approve the project, the bill says. Butchko reiterated that concern at a meeting Monday of the the House Environment and Transportation's Land Use and Ethics Subcommittee, which Lewis chairs. 'We [counties] cannot reset the lines of who can go to what classroom. We sign the check for the school district and that is where that relationship ends,' Butchko said. 'What this provision says is if you have a school district that is at 100%, but you have neighboring school districts that are not at 100%, the county can't deny that project then,' he said. 'You're still going to see that overburdened classroom in that district.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE There is an out for counties. They could deny housing proposals if they can show by 'clear and convincing evidence' that a project would negatively impact the community. The bill lists other justifications for denial, including health and safety considerations, inadequate water or wastewater systems, a price tag too high for the county, or conflict with federal or state law, among others. Sen. Brian Feldman (D-Montgomery), who chairs the Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee, said that he plans to meet with Environment and Transportation Chair Del. Marc Korman (D-Montgomery) and the administration soon to 'assess if there is traction to move' the bill out of committee. Korman agreed earlier this week that the lack of momentum on the legislation did not mean the bill was down for the count, with crossover day on Monday. 'If you look at last year, the governor's housing bill, we didn't pass that before crossover. It was fine,' Korman said Monday. 'It's important to the governor. We're going to give it due attention and care.' Committee leaders say that some 'complicated' bills — such as the governor's priority housing legislation — can still be in play, even if they blow past the crossover deadline. 'For some of these bigger bills, crossover is not a major factor,' Feldman said Friday. Butchko said MACo is 'very interested in cooperating with the state where we can,' but there are 'a lot of gaps' between the bill's intended goal and how the current language would be implemented. Michael Sanderson, executive director for MACo, said that part of the delay in moving Moore's housing bill is due to the lack of communication between the administration and MACo. 'We were talking in November and January at the concept level. But as for, 'Here's the bill, let's talk about what's in the bill' — we ended up not really having a real exchange on that stuff until the time of the hearing,' Sanderson said Friday. 'It's OK … but it's part of the reason why we're on overtime on this bill, because we didn't get a chance to work through the text of the bill until the middle of February.' But Sanderson said both sides are talking now. 'I think when they heard the things we were concerned about, I think everyone around the table felt like the deeply held principles aren't really the conflict here. It's the specifics of, 'How do you write this?'' he said. Despite the serious concerns raised in the committee and subcommittee meetings, Sanderson said MACo is interested in continuing discussions further. 'For what it's worth, process-wise, I think everybody involved has sort of shook hands that this is a bill that has a chance to pass — even if it misses crossover, which it most certainly will,' Sanderson said. 'With normal bills it's like, 'OK those bills are dead' – in this case we're still talking.'
