State Preemption
Dallas will need voter approval to overcome tax increase obstacles put in place by the Texas State Legislature.
The Dallas Morning News
Public health experts were pleased that Trump extended his coronavirus guidelines, but they remain advisory, left to state and local governments to implement. Nine states have yet to issue stay-at-home orders, leaving the nation vulnerable to COVID.
The Hill
As more governors order residents to stay at home and/or close nonessential businesses to contain the spread of COVID-19, Gov. Tate Reeves has gone the opposite direction by issuing an executive order that supersedes stricter local measures.
Jackson Free Press
California State Senator has released draft legislation to follow up on the previous SB 50, which in turn followed up on SB 827. The new bill, SB 902, promises a "light touch."
KQED
So far in 2020, drivers have killed 15 pedestrians on Connecticut roads.
Hartford Courant
Upzoning is gaining popularity among planners and politicians in parts of the country as a tool for affordability. But some opponents of the idea maintain that new density will only make housing affordability worse.
Curbed
For the third year in a row, an effort to increase density near transit in statewide in California has stalled in the legislature.
Los Angeles Times
The Land Use subcommittee of the Virginia House of Delegates decided quickly to uphold local control of zoning.
WAMU
After a San Mateo County Superior Court judge ruled that charter cities are exempt from the Housing Accountability Act, aka the anti-NIMBY law, the state stepped in to support the appellant, a YIMBY group that launched a "Sue the Suburbs" campaign.
San Francisco Chronicle
Washington State is the latest example of a state that wants to preempt local planning law to make it easier to add housing units to single-family residential properties all over the states.
Sightline Institute
Housing deregulation for the sake of housing affordability made progress in both Democratic- and Republican-led states last year.
City Journal
A model of accessory dwelling unit reform will be under consideration this year in the Washington State Legislature.
Sightline Institute
The ranks of states considering or taking steps to override local control to allow new density in the residential neighborhoods of cities has swelled once again, this time with a state senator in Nebraska pitching statewide legislation.
1011 Now
The ambitious "Homes for All" plan would include upzoning as only one tool for addressing the acute housing affordability crisis in the state of Maryland.
CityLab
News broke yesterday that the dormant SB 50, a bill proposed last year by California State Senator Scott Weiner, has new life in the new year.
CALmatters
The Commonwealth of Virginia will consider a bill that would legalize duplexes in single-family zones throughout the state.
CityLab
California's Senate Bill 35 is touted by affordable housing advocates and other pro-development forces as an example of what good developments can happen when local obstructions are moved out of the way by the state.
The Mercury News
Newly proposed legislation in the New York State Senate would bar cities from setting limits on the number of food vendors operating in the public realm.
New York Post
The Chicago Sun-Times responds to two Illinois state legislators who have recently proposed bills that would ban red light cameras statewide.
Chicago Sun-Times
While statewide efforts to loosen zoning restrictions have made news in (mostly) blue states like California and Oregon, (mostly) red states like Florida have been preventing local governments from passing their own housing policies.
Pacific Standard
