(The Center Square) – A bipartisan group of Michigan lawmakers have proposed a plan to address rising housing costs in Michigan by changing zoning laws.
Last week, they gathered to announce that plan, which they hope will help increase supply.
“The bipartisan Housing Readiness Package modernizes our development processes to reduce unnecessary costs and delays, making housing more affordable and available across the state,” said state Rep. Kristian Grant, D-Grand Rapids. “This is about ensuring Michigan is prepared for growth and that more residents have access to safe, stable homes.”
Grant is joined by state Rep. Joe Aragona, R-Clinton Township, in leading the push for the nine-bill package.
“We need to make homes affordable again,” Aragona said. “One of the big reasons houses are so expensive now is because there’s an average of $95,000 in extra regulatory costs added on to the price before even buying materials or paying someone to swing a hammer.”
Housing in Michigan, as in many states, has increasingly become more expensive in recent years.
According to the 2024 Michigan Statewide Housing Needs Assessment, released by the University of Michigan, there has been a steady decline in the number of new housing units hitting the market since 2000.
Additionally, it found that low-income households have been especially affected by the housing supply gap.
In 2022, Michigan announced a Statewide Housing Plan in an attempt to address this issue. Especially focused on affordable housing, it touts nearly 90,000 building permits granted since its inception.
Lawmakers hope the bill package will further address this issue, particularly by updating Michigan’s zoning process to be more “efficient, predictable, and transparent.”
Notably, the bills will:
• Allow duplexes in single-family residential zones that are in, or adjacent to, metropolitan areas
• Prohibit minimum parking space requirements of more than one space per dwelling
• Reduce bureaucratic delays by setting a 60-day timeline for decisions
This is just a few of the revisions the Housing Readiness Package hopes to make. While receiving bipartisan support from both the Republican-led state House and Democrat-led state Senate, it is unclear if this initiative will be more successful than a similar one which stalled in 2024.
Advocacy groups like Americans for Prosperity of Michigan and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy have both come out in support of the proposed changes.
“Michigan’s housing shortage isn’t an accident – it’s the result of policy choices that make building homes harder and more expensive than it needs to be,” said Jarrett Skorup, vice president of marketing and communications at Mackinac. “This package eliminates some of these barriers to help creates more opportunities for affordable and accessible housing.”
Not everyone is happy with the plan though.
“Affordable housing is essential across the state,” said the Michigan Township Association in a statement regarding the plan, “but it should not come at the expense of local input by requiring local governments to follow one-size-fits-all requirements from the state.”
