A long time ago in an age now past, the prairies stretched for miles north of St. Anthony's Falls.
That time is gone. With housing at a premium and three bills impacting local government authority, Mayor Myron Bailey had a message towards the end of the March 19 Cottage Grove City Council meeting: Let your representatives know where you stand on state bills that would curtail local municipalities’ zoning authority, and ask in turn where they stand.
“If one of these bills were to pass we would not be able to stop or do ‘no parking’ on any city street, because we can’t require homes that are being built or whatever, that they have parking in front of their home, or triplex, or duplex,” Bailey said. “We can’t tell them—one of the parts of a bill— was we can’t tell them they have to use certain types of materials on a home. You might say, ‘well what does that mean?’ You could say ‘well I’m going to use aluminum siding or a metal panel like a pole barn’ and they could build a home with basically a pole barn…those are just a few of them.”
With almost all metro area municipalities opposed, Bailey said to bring the question to legislators.
“If you see one of your legislative people, whether it’s a representative or senator or someone you know, ask them the question,” he said. “Where do they stand on these bills that limit city’s abilities to zone and create ordinances?”
Bailey's comments came as three bills before the state legislature stand to impact housing as well as local government's zoning authority, laid out in Chapter 462 of the Minnesota Statutes. Each of the three bills tackles a different angle of the issue.
"The first bill, listed as SF2229/HF1987 and called the Minnesota Starter Homes Act, would legalize duplexes and accessory dwellings on residential lots as well as townhomes on vacant lots and within developments. If passed cities could not require certain building materials and would only use be able to use tools like conditional use permits or a Planned Use Development (PUD) when health or safety was involved, retaining authority to restrict development on infrastructure grounds.
The second bill, listed SF2286/HF2018 and called the Transforming Main Street Act, would limit local municipalities’ zoning authority for multi-family and mixed-use households. More specifically, it would require a 60-day review period and ban municipalities from using local zoning ordinances to stop multifamily developments. It would also provide density bonuses for affordable and workforce housing developments, with the first floor retained for commercial use if currently zoned as such. Large cities would have to allow buildings up to 75 feet tall.
The third bill, listed as SF2231/HF2140 and called the More Homes, Right Places Act, would seek to increase residential density along transit corridors by creation of mixed-use housing zones, limiting municipalities ability to impose setbacks, minimum square footage, or parking mandates.
The three bills share many of the same legislative sponsors, with bill proponents pointing to the need for housing as low supply drives up rents and costs.
Other bills in the Legislature this year have sought to ban aesthetic mandates (HF 2013), as well as parking minimums (SF1268/HF1309).
The current legislative session started Jan. 14 and picked up April 1 after a short break. A similar bill to the More Homes, Right Places Act was defeated last year.