Maryland REALTORS® Online

Housing Supply – Are Planners Leading the Way?

The Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) summer conference is most known for its unofficial and after-hours lineup of receptions and fundraisers for the political set. Between all of that, attendees manage to sneak in an educational session or two.

On this year’s agenda – and of importance to Maryland REALTORS® was a session entitled “Let’s Talk Housing: National Problem, Local Solutions”.

While the title was promising, questions remained. In the last General Assembly session, it was local governments and MACo who voiced the strongest opposition to the efforts of Maryland REALTORS® to expand housing supply through measures like Accessory Dwelling Units.

Would there be more of the same?
The answer, perhaps surprisingly, was no.

Rather, this panel of local planners and state agency officials presented a fairly strong case for changing the status quo, encouraging new development, and expanding affordability.

Miguel Salinas, Planning and Zoning Director for the Town of Easton, described modern land use practices in stark terms. Zoning, he explained, is the one legal way left to exclude individuals from homeownership by limiting supply and inflating prices beyond affordable levels.

He noted that Talbot County’s 1-acre minimum lot size requirements preclude the construction of dwellings that would serve the area’s middle-income residents. The shortage is compounded by the number of acres that have been zoned as conservation districts, which typically produce homes on 3.5-acre lots.

Zoning is not the only hurdle in producing new housing units. Les Knapp Jr., Senior Policy Advisor for the Maryland Department of the Environment, delved into regulatory costs as a key driver of housing unaffordability. Knapp warned officials to beware of the “cumulative impact conundrum” that overlapping regulations have on pricing and project viability.

He gave two such examples: fire sprinklers and energy efficiency standards. These features impose significant upfront costs for builders. Very often, accounting for these costs occurs in a silo without regard to the other requirements, taxes, and fees that are also being placed upon new housing developments.

Knapp encouraged governments to take a more global look at the costs of their policy decisions, because “small price fluctuations have an outsize impact on affordable housing.”

One local government looking to lead by example is Baltimore County. Terry Hickey, Director of Housing and Community Development, outlined recent recommendations from the county’s Affordable Housing Workgroup to deliver a continuum of housing options that move all residents along a path to eventual homeownership.