The Utah Legislature seems on track to take another swing at statewide zoning policy changes to enable the building of smaller single-family homes.
Steve Waldrip, senior advisor for housing strategy to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, confirmed that Utah officials are hoping to introduce legislation during the next legislative session that would allow for smaller homes to be built on smaller lots statewide, regardless of city zoning rules.
Waldrip’s comments came last week during the ULI Utah Housing Summit, as he told Building Salt Lake that the state was approaching what has for years been a policy concept lawmakers have chosen to avoid for fear of backlash from local elected officials.
He said cities around the state agree that new, smaller homes are needed, and the goal would be to create a framework that would allow homes between 1,000 and 1,400 square feet to be built by-right if a property meets certain criteria. Another aspect of the bill could create pre-approved housing plans that would help streamline city approvals and permitting.
“The theory is if we can get (the bill) so that a builder can have certainty that if they are going to build one of these approved floor plans, on an approved lot size, in an approved location in a city — they don’t have to go through the months of legal wrangling and and council approvals and staff and all of the time and money that goes into every single home now,” Waldrip told BSL. “If we can ensure the outcome, then the cities I think are very comfortable that they’re willing to give on the process as long as that outcome is assured.”
Waldrip said those lot parameters and other details of the proposal are still being discussed, but he’s cautiously optimistic about getting a bill worked out that could create smaller homes to be built by-right around the state. He said there’s been positive momentum around the concept, and one of the main goals now is to ensure any legislation wouldn’t have unintended consequences.
“One of the policy priorities we have for this coming year is to create a statewide starter home zone, where — anywhere in the state, in every city — you have a place where you can just go build small homes on small lots, without going through development agreements, without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees,” Waldrip told the ULI conference crowd.
Steve Waldrip
Waldrip said groups like the Utah League of Cities and Towns (ULCT) have been in on these conversations.
Cameron Diehl, the ULCT executive director, said in an email to BSL the league hasn’t been in formal talks yet on the bill, but were planning to meet with state Rep. Ray Ward later this week. Ward is a housing reform advocate, and has presented a number of housing-related bills in previous years.
Another group involved in these conversations is the Wasatch Advocates for Livable Communities. The group’s policy manager, Lauren Cole, told BSL the WALC, “would be excited to support legislation that pairs infill-permissive zoning with a statewide pre-approved plan set program.”
Her understanding of the bill is that it would not be a statewide lot size reform. The bill would not require cities to allow smaller minimum lot sizes or cap lot sizes. Instead, she said, the bill would create an opt-in “starter home overlay zone.”
“WALC would support that as a step in the right direction, but we’d urge lawmakers to consider that an opt-in incentive model doesn’t match the scale of Utah’s housing shortage,” Cole told BSL in an email. “Broader zoning reform that unlocks by-right flexibility to build on smaller lots would do more and more quickly and an incentive-based approach risks cities simply not opting in at the rate Utah needs.”
Cole also noted that Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed Senate Bill 1352 into law earlier this year. That new law bars cities over 10,000 people from requiring minimum lot sizes over 1,500 square feet for single-family detached homes in starter home subdivisions.
“Salt Lake County is quickly approaching buildout capacity under current zoning, so infill development is the primary way our established cities can grow without sprawling into foothills, farmland, and open space,” Cole said. “In a state watching the Great Salt Lake shrink, lot size policy is water policy too.”
During his talk to the conference, Waldrip said more and more cities around Utah have increasingly realized the issues with the housing market and the state’s shortfall in housing units. Since he started with the governor’s office in 2023, Waldrip said he’s spent a lot of time playing the role of Chicken Little, trying to convince people there were issues with housing and affordability.
“What I’ve seen over the last couple of years is the group of people who think and believe that there is a problem has grown dramatically,” Waldrip told the audience. “That’s also in direct proportion to the number of their children that are returning home to them and saying, ‘I can’t do what I thought I could do, and what you thought I could do.’”
Back in 2025, he told BSL he was bullish on the future of housing policy reforms in Utah — even while bills on the topic were failing to move beyond committee hearings.
In 2025, Ward’s House Bill 88, which would’ve allowed ADUs across Utah, failed to pass out of committee despite Waldrip’s testimony in favor of it. Ward also proposed House Bill 90 that year, which would’ve allowed homes to be built on 6,000-square-foot lots. That bill also was voted down in committee.
Now, it seems that optimism could yield a new bill to enable smaller homes to be built. That, combined with a slate of pre-approved building plans, could yield new legislation that would combat the state’s ongoing lack of housing. Waldrip said he’s cautiously optimistic there’s an alignment of interests so the proposed bill could gain momentum.
“We’ve got legislators who are interested in supporting this,” Waldrip told BSL. “From sort of all across the political spectrum, it kind of checks all the boxes.”
He added, “it’s not a blue issue, it’s not a red issue, it’s an us issue, and I think we’re starting to see things that way, which is really encouraging.”
This piece originally appeared on the Building Salt Lake website. Click here to read the original article.
