The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act promises public finance potential for municipalities willing to amend their policies and do the groundwork.
"Communities can begin preparing now by identifying redevelopment sites, reviewing zoning that allows missing-middle housing, updating housing plans, and discussing potential projects with county partners, regional planning agencies, housing organizations, and experienced developers."
The advice comes from four attorneys with Miller Canfield. Ronald Liscombe, James Snyder, Kristin Nied, and Michael McGee have laid out a framework for municipalities to work on while the federal rulemaking and appropriations processes plays out.
The ROAD act is the first major bipartisan housing bill passed by Congress in 30 years. It changes the rules on Community Development Block Grants, raises the cap on public welfare investments for banks, and removes the chassis requirement for manufactured homes.
The attorneys are recommending a thorough reassessment of available land as a first step.
"Identify priority housing sites," they said. "Consider which vacant, underused or redevelopment properties could realistically accommodate new housing, and which sites are most important to the community's broader development goals."
Zoning plays a major role in the success of the new law. Upzoning, in the form of permitting more duplexes, townhomes, and multifamily developments is encouraged to maximize benefits.
Bonding for supporting site preparation could also play a major role
"Assess infrastructure constraints," said Miller Canfield. "Determine whether water, sewer, roads, sidewalks, utilities or other public improvements could prevent otherwise viable housing projects from moving forward."
The National League of Cities is also providing support for leveraging the new legislation by partnering with the American Planning Association in developing a playbook that lays out
"Cities should prioritize partnerships to deliver the housing units their community needs," said NLC.
"Prioritizing partnerships should involve strengthening and deepening their partnerships — with builders, realtors, lenders, chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, metropolitan planning agencies, school districts, transportation agencies, federal and state partners."
The Roosevelt Institute is zeroed in on the how the bill is encouraging cities to adopt preapproved designs for mixed-income housing projects.
"A preapproved design is pretty much what it sounds like," said the institute. "In cities with preapproved designs, also sometimes referred to as 'pattern zoning,' any proposed construction project that follows one of these designs gets fast-tracked for approval to build."
The Reason Foundation remains skeptical about the federal government trying to fix a problem that starts at the local level, but it is in favor of loosening community banking regulations, which are also tucked into the fine print of the bill.
"Smaller institutions held 57% of one-to-four-family residential construction loans in 2024, and easing their regulatory burden removes friction from the very part of the lending market that finances most new home construction," writes Christina Mojica, for Reason.
Reason also likes the provision that erases the line separating "trailers" and manufactured homes by removing the chassis requirement.
"That single regulatory change has the potential to open an entire tier of housing production that has been artificially suppressed," said Reason.
"Countries where factory-built construction is the norm rather than the exception show what's possible at scale."
