Maryland doesn’t need to dig up its rural areas to solve a decade and a half of sluggish housing, leaders say.
Members of the Maryland Senate Committee on Education, Energy, and Environment were briefed on the housing situation by state leaders in Annapolis on Wednesday. Legislators will consider at least four major bills this year related to housing, as Maryland estimates that 15 years of construction under construction has left it with a 100,000 housing shortage.
The first objective is to simplify the processes of builders and reduce regulatory barriers, said the Secretary of Housing and Community Development. Jacob Day.
“The solution to our housing crisis is not just government-subsidized, zero-income housing development,” said Day. “The market has to play an important role here too, so the regulatory environment we create has an important role to play, to produce affordable, small-sized and low-cost products. [housing] for consumers and employers alike.”
Improving the home building process
The state used to produce about 30,000 new homes a year, but that stopped in 2005. The production of its houses has not exceeded 20,000 since then. Annually, it issues 40% fewer residence permits per year compared to 2008, Day said.
As a result, not only is the lack of affordable housing felt in the lower economic strata—half of renters pay more than a third of their income for housing—but also in the moderate income range. Only 49 percent of middle-income households could afford the state’s median housing price in 2022 compared to 75 percent in 2000.
“This is true across the country, but other states are talking about it,” Day said. “They get there quickly, adopt a model policy, and see the fruits of their labor immediately. And that puts us at a competitive disadvantage.”
The answer does not have to be urban sprawl, but to “enable” housing in the areas where it is designed. That means looking at local and land use restrictions, such as parking lot size and unit size requirements. It also means aligning the goals of housing finance companies to promote housing, Day said.
Long wait times in the permitting process are a problem for homebuilders. One municipality can approve the program in 12 months, another can take 42 months, said Day.
Some of that is technology, too. The 2024 executive order created the Unified Permit Review Council intended to connect the different permitting processes of federal agencies.
Some states are using a streamlined permitting process and an online dashboard to streamline the housing and other development process, it said. Rebecca FloraSecretary of Planning of Maryland, who chairs the council.
Day said that streamlining the permitting process could boost housing production by a third, because every month delays reduce the number of homes built.
Many loans support housing modifications
The update comes as Maryland Gov. Wes Moore He issued three bills aimed at reforming housing laws.
Moore pushed for the Silver Start Housing Act, which would prevent localities from enacting other zoning provisions that prevent development. The Housing Guarantee Act prevents new regulations, which have been re-implemented since the delay in housing projects. And the Transit and Housing Opportunity Act aims to open up the area around transit stations for thousands of new units.
The Senate’s champion bill, the Building Affordably in My Back Yard Act, also aims to help build homes in the state.
Together, these policies aim to build dense housing in existing areas. Only 11% of residentially zoned land in Maryland allows for medium or high density development, and current zoning laws make tiny homes illegal.
Shortages of mid-sized homes—two-apartments, duplexes, and other types of housing—strikes this disparity, Day said. Also, it takes changes in the law to encourage the development of townhouses and manufactured homes. Both of those rates are about a third less expensive than single-family detached homes.
The state housing affordability report card by state from Realtor.com® gives Maryland a B-
Truth on the ground
Day said the state “can’t support low density” because it’s a financial drain on the areas. That means leaving some rural-urban boundaries around places like Baltimore, and avoiding conflicts over farm crowding.
But some areas block development altogether, said Sen. Mary Washington he said, and there should be a special emphasis on the creation of policies that promote zoning change.
“We don’t really address the overcrowding of certain types of housing in certain communities, if you don’t open up the space,” Washington said. “I don’t want to talk about farmland, because that’s easy, that’s very clear. I’m talking about urban areas, rural areas where agreements are made and all kinds of things.”
Also, new policies should also balance trade-offs and realities at the local level, it said Dominic Butchkodirector of intergovernmental relations for the Maryland Association of Counties.
State policies are implemented at the local level, where many cities do not have large numbers of workers. Facilitating housing development also conflicts with sometimes expensive housing laws. And infrastructure is a limiting factor, Butchko said.
“Nothing we are doing or any law so far will increase the number of houses in our rural areas,” he said. “The only thing that will create more housing in rural Maryland is significant investment in infrastructure and without that we are not getting to where we need to be.”
