State representatives Leo Biasiucci and Matt Gress have collaborated with the Arizona Multihousing Association, the League of Cities and Towns, and stakeholders from both sides of the political aisle on a pair of bills to help solve the state’s housing shortage. In a March 28th opinion column in the Arizona Capitol Times, the two Republicans make their case for the measures.
As they tell it:
As two people representing disparate areas of the state, we have put forward a handful of ideas meant to address our housing problems. We sponsored separate bills – each with their own concepts to reduce the crisis.
HB2297 makes it substantially easier to turn obsolete and underutilized office and commercial buildings into residential space without seeking the time-consuming rezoning or conditional use permits most localities require. This game-changing legislation could open the flood gates to turn increasingly underused commercial developments into thousands of apartments and condos. Converting already existing buildings into residential units cuts down on the time to bring new housing to market.
SB1162, a mirror to Rep. Matt Gress’ HB2518, mandates cities and towns to dispense with zoning changes within 180 days of a completed application; and requires cities of greater than 30,000 to complete a housing needs assessment every five years and annually report to the Department of Housing the number of residential units submitted to the city for approval and how many homes were built and received certification for occupancy.
The two measures have attracted strong support from Republicans and Democrats – but at the Arizona Legislature surprises and shenanigans can always happen until a bill is signed by the Governor and becomes law.
We’ll keep you posted on the fate of both bills and the latest efforts to right-size housing supply and demand in Arizona. There is no bigger issue facing our industry and our state, and Biasiucci and Gress are exactly right: “One silver-bullet bill to end our crisis isn’t likely on the horizon.”
