The House Financial Services Committee this week released bipartisan legislation designed to streamline housing development and increase local flexibility.
The Housing for the 21st Century Act, sponsored by committee Chairman French Hill (R-Ark.) and Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) contains several provisions to boost housing production. According to a committee summary, they include language directing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to publish voluntary guidelines on modernizing zoning, to potentially exempt some housing from the National Environmental Policy Act, to change to definition of manufactured housing to allow housing with or without a permanent chassis, and to update the statutory maximum loan limits for Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance for residential multifamily construction.
The legislation is separate from the ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan Senate Banking Committee bill that also proposed to make several changes to accelerate housing construction.
