Toews proposes housing reforms

A suite of legislation working through the Idaho Senate hopes to make housing easier to come by — and cheaper to pay for — statewide. 

The Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee on Tuesday advanced four bills from Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, aimed at cutting regulations to open more land for housing and to curb climbing costs — particularly for those just entering the housing market.

The moves hope to stifle Idaho’s skyrocketing home prices and make it easier for new homebuyers to find and buy a place, Toews said. 

The median list price for a house in Idaho has more than doubled in the past 10 years, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, reaching $569,000 in January. That’s about 119% more than you’d have paid in January 2016. 

The bills, which are backed on the House side by fellow Coeur d’Alene Republican Rep. Jordan Redman, would: 

• Strike any homeowners association rules or city or county laws that ban duplexes or “twin homes” on lots zoned for single-family houses. 

• Lift restrictions on accessory dwelling units such as backyard cottages and allow ADUs “by right” under local planning laws. 

• Create a legal path for religious organizations to develop housing on church land. 

• Remove local laws and HOA restrictions that prevent “starter-home subdivisions” — that is, dense, small-lot homes designed to sell for less than typical single-family options.

The committee agreed to all four on Tuesday, setting up formal hearings on the legislation later in the session. 

“Personally, my primary focus is to make it possible for the next generation to own a house,” Toews told the Idaho Statesman in an interview Friday.

“Homeownership is the primary way that people build wealth in our society, and statistics show that the vast majority of people want to buy a house,” he added. “And it’s important, I think, for healthy communities to have people buy a house and put down roots. Those are the type of communities I’d like to see in Idaho — I want to make sure that we don’t move in the wrong direction.”

Where’d this come from? 

Toews mostly let the legislation speak for itself in committee, though he said that the ideas grew from discussion in the Interim Committee for Land Use and Housing.

That committee, created last year through a push by Redman and Sen. Ali Rabe, D-Boise, embarked on a “comprehensive review” of local land-use laws to gauge their impact on housing prices and availability, according to the resolution that created the committee. 

To do it, members — including Toews and Redman — scoured comprehensive plans and zoning codes “to identify opportunities to reduce regulatory building costs and waiting times, and provide greater flexibility in housing development.” 

Now, the process has produced four bills betting that the market-based solutions — as opposed to government incentives or deed restrictions — can juice Idaho’s affordable housing stock. 

“The reality is that regulations created at the local level have gotten us to where we are today,” Toews told the Statesman. 

The angle is a win for Rabe, who works as executive director of the newly formed nonprofit Gem State Housing Alliance when not at the Capitol. The bills closely align with the Housing Alliance’s founding goals, namely cutting regulation and simplifying the building process, Rabe told the Idaho Statesman in December. 

“One major issue is that many of our zoning codes across the state have not been updated since the 1970s, especially residential zones,” Rabe told the Statesman’s editorial board at the time. “One of the big things we’re hoping to continue to push is smaller homes of different types and sizes, and allowing different types of homes to be built in single-family zones, which are very restricted.”

What would change? 

Taken together, Toews’ bills would open up new land for homes and allow for more homes on existing property. Generally, the idea is to allow people to build more small — and naturally less expensive — houses, Toews told the Statesman. Construction in the $250,000-$300,000 range “could get a lot more people buying homes,” he said, but that’s not what he’s seeing around the state.

Senate Bill 1279, for instance, calls out “artificial scarcity” manufactured by minimum lot sizes and setback requirements. These rules command larger properties — and higher prices — that the bill says inflate prices and limit “starter-home subdivisions.” 

The proposal would outlaw minimum lot sizes of more than 1,000 square feet in a proposed starter-home subdivision, remove some dimensional limitations and allow for densities of at least 12 homes per acre, barring infrastructure, lot shape and environmental concerns. 

“With the national median age of first-time homebuyers having recently reached 40, the need to reduce barriers of entry in the face of increasing cost of living and artificial scarcity is ever more apparent,” Toews and Redman wrote in the bill’s statement of purpose. 

Similarly, Senate Bills 1277 and 1280 would allow denser living in smaller homes. Senate Bill 1277 would cut text limiting what counts as an ADU, essentially allowing detached ADUs with the same consideration as apartments inside a home. 

The code would still tie the size and number of units to the square footage of the house and lot they are tied to, but it would prohibit HOA rules or local laws from banning or “unreasonably restricting” construction through other requirements. 

Toews hopes the ADU rule would help older, established households downsize — something he’s seen choked by high interest rates that lock people into their current homes. 

With an ADU, an older couple could move into a separate unit and sell their home to their grown children, for example. Senate Bill 1280 takes a similar approach to adding density, legalizing duplexes or “twin homes” — that is, two units that share a common wall — in existing single-family areas. 

If signed into law, these two-family structures could be approved administratively by a city and would be allowed “by right,” meaning any property owner would be entitled to build one without special permission.

Finally, Senate Bill 1278 piggybacks on a national trend of religious organizations building houses. The bill would prevent cities or counties from requiring special approvals for religious nonprofits trying to build housing on land they own or lease. 

Specifically, according to the bill’s statement of purpose, it would stop jurisdictions from “imposing discretionary zoning barriers, excessive dimensional standards, or mandates that deter religious institutions from providing housing to families in accordance with their missions” provided the land meets a few locational standards. 

“The goal is to open up the possibility for these organizations to provide for themselves and their community,” Toews said Tuesday.

Toews expects pushback from Idaho cities. There’s already been “plenty of dialogue,” he said. “I think we understand each other’s positions.” 

But some jurisdictions are already doing similar things. Toews cites Post Falls, near his North Idaho hometown, as a city cutting regulations of its own accord. All four bills still require a hearing before the committee before moving to the full Senate for a floor vote.