Two bills that promote denser, more affordable housing in single-family residential areas have until Crossover Day on Friday to hurdle House floor votes and head to the Senate for a chance at becoming law. Both are currently before the House Rules Committee.
House Bill 1166 would override local zoning restrictions in single-family residential areas to permit 400 square-foot or smaller homes, known as accessory dwelling units (ADUs), in homeowners’ backyards. It passed the House Governance Affairs Committee on Feb. 25.
While the statewide mandate to override single-family residential zoning faces political uncertainty, House Bill 400 instead uses grant incentives. Called the Community Housing Options Increase Cost Efficiency (CHOICE) Act, it encourages cities and counties to allow duplexes, triplexes, or small apartment buildings in areas zoned for single-family residential development.
In exchange, municipalities would get preference for federal recreational trail grants administered by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, as well as Department of Community Affairs grants and loans, certain Environmental Finance Authority funding, and relief from local matching requirements for road improvement grants from the state Department of Transportation.
Backed by both affordable housing advocates and the realtors lobby, HB 400 was approved by the House Governmental Affairs Committee on Feb. 25. (A mirror-image Senate version, Senate Bill 508, has not moved since it dropped on Feb. 12.)
Natallie Keiser, the executive director of advocacy group HouseATL, said both bills offer a new approach to the state’s housing shortage. “The ADU bill is a small step,” she said, “but it’s a step in the right direction that has some potential.”
“The CHOICE Act addresses our extremely constrained [housing] supply, and it doesn’t tell cities and counties what to do,” Keiser added. “It encourages them and gives them options for what works for their locality — so it’s kind of a property rights issue, which is attractive to the Legislature.”
Will Johnston, the CEO of tiny-home builder MicroLife Institute, said the CHOICE Act could reduce the power of “not in my backyard” opposition to denser housing. “The biggest hurdle is often NIMBYism,” he told Atlanta Civic Circle. “So being able to bring some incentivization can actually encourage the development we want to see.”
Since the housing crisis is statewide, Johnston is hoping even legislators from more conservative rural areas will be amenable to HB 400. “There is momentum, even in rural Georgia, to diversify housing typology, but they need the right incentivization,” he said.
Johnson added that MicroLife Institute is in talks with a small town in southeast Georgia to develop a cottage court, which has already caught on in urban areas. The CHOICE Act defines that as a group of homes, each measuring 1,600 square feet or less, which share a common outdoor amenity space.
This article does not give a balanced view of HB 1166. For the other side of the argument, please see my article which ran on Monday in James Magazine Online. If you will send me an email address for you, I will send you the article.
NIMBY is second-person usage. The full set of grammatical points of view is:
I am a neighborhood advocate.
You are a NIMBY.
He/she is an unreasonable obstructionist.
Bob Irvin