Just in time for the August heat, the Star Tribune decided to provide Minnesotans with plenty of light beach reading on city zoning and housing affordability. Things kicked off Sunday with an in-depth report published by the Star Tribune about how about historic zoning policies and racial covenants led to segregation in many cities that is still evident today. This was followed by a press conference on Monday, where Rep. Steve Elkins (DFL-Bloomington) announced plans to introduce a bill at the upcoming September special session that he claims will target more affordable housing.
The Star Tribune report focused on the disparity in homeownership rates in the Twin Cities metro area between white residents and lower-income, predominantly Black and Latino families. The article focused on insufficient supply of housing units in the metro area as a driver of cost and drew a correlation between the lack of supply and zoning policies that restrict multi-family housing. Specifically, the article highlighted that 73% of the residential land in the metro area is zoned for single-family detached homes only (65% calling for lots of a quarter acre or more), with just 10% allowing duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, or mobile homes. Seven percent is zoned for apartment buildings with four or more units.
At Monday’s press conference, Rep. Elkins presented a package of zoning reforms and financing mechanisms that he purports are intended to tackle the issue of housing affordability statewide. However, while many of the disparities highlighted in the Star Tribune report are real and troubling, the legislation Rep. Elkins is proposing does not present direct solutions to those issues. In fact, the CGMC, League of Minnesota Cities, Metro Cities, and other city organizations are all deeply troubled by the implications of the legislation, which would apply one-size-fits-all rules to cities across the state and restrict local control without achieving outcomes that could reasonably be expected to lead to more affordable housing. CGMC staff has been working in coordination with the other city groups on a coordinated strategy to push back on Rep. Elkins’ bill in its current form.
From CGMC’s perspective, one of the biggest challenges with the proposed legislation is that it would apply statewide policies to problems that are primarily—or exclusively—arising in metro-area cities. As CGMC members are aware, housing is one of the key economic development challenges our organization is focused on at the Capitol, but the challenges faced in Greater Minnesota are fundamentally different than those faced in the metro area. Solutions like those offered in Elkins’ bill not only risk imposing additional challenges on our communities but are unlikely to even address the metro-focused problems they are trying to target. Housing policies should empower local governments to work with housing developers to address community needs, not limit the tools available.
