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Dive Brief:
- Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed two major housing bills into law on Monday that he said could unlock 7,000 new housing units on land near transit and ease initial cost burdens for developers.
- The Maryland Transit and Housing Opportunity Act incentivizes qualifying land near transit for housing development by designating them as “enterprise zones” and eliminates parking requirements for certain new housing within a quarter-mile of an active rail station. The Maryland Housing Certainty Act delays local impact fees for developers until after construction is completed and requires local approval or denial of a project to be based on regulations in place when an application is submitted.
- The transit and housing act opens up 300 acres of station-adjacent state-owned land for development. “I remember asking, ‘Who is the largest landowner in the state of Maryland?’ It happens to be the state of Maryland,” Moore said during a bill-signing event. “So if that’s the case, then let’s actually make sure that we can put better use to underutilized land.”
Dive Insight:
Several states are stepping in with legislation to address affordable housing shortages, at times causing friction between states and localities over local zoning control.
States and local governments are also increasingly utilizing public land for housing development to address supply shortfalls.
Multiple states, including California, Massachusetts and Washington, have pushed for increased transit-oriented housing development in recent years. Maryland’s new law increases financing options for transit-oriented development.
“Our people should be able to live near where they grew up,” Moore said. “Our people should be able to live where they aspire and where they hope to be.”
