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Adds a new definition of “pro-housing policy” to the federal transit capital grants law and gives transit grant applicants a small scoring boost when their project is near transit and the applicant documents that the state or local government has adopted specified pro-housing policies. The Department of Transportation must work with HUD to estimate how many housing units (including affordable units) those policies will produce or preserve, and projects that receive the adjustment must have project-level information reported publicly.
Redesignates existing paragraph (6) in subsection (a) of 49 U.S.C. 5309 as paragraph (7).
Inserts a new paragraph (6) in subsection (a) establishing the term “pro-housing policy.” The term means any State or local action that will remove regulatory barriers to the construction or preservation of housing units, including affordable housing units.
Specifies that pro-housing policies include actions that reduce or eliminate parking minimums.
Specifies that pro-housing policies include establishing a by-right approval process for multi-family housing where approval is limited to verifying objective zoning and design standards that (I) involve no subjective judgment by a public official, (II) are uniformly verifiable by reference to an external and uniform benchmark or criterion available to both developer and public official before submission, and (III) include only standards published and adopted by ordinance or resolution before application submission.
Specifies that pro-housing policies include reducing or eliminating minimum lot sizes.
Primary effects fall on transit grant applicants (particularly large transit agencies and local governments) and local planning/housing officials. Transit agencies that apply for capital investment grants can increase their project scores if their jurisdiction adopts qualifying pro-housing actions, boosting those projects’ competitiveness for federal funds. Local governments are incentivized to adopt zoning, permitting, and public‑land policies that enable housing near transit, which can accelerate housing production and preservation—including affordable units—over time. Affordable housing developers and housing production advocates may benefit from increased local policy support and greater alignment of transit investment with housing goals. Administrative impacts include the need for DOT (with HUD) to develop an estimation method, for applicants to assemble verifiable documentation, and for agencies to publish project-level reports; these add modest administrative burden but improve transparency. The policy is designed to nudge local land-use change rather than mandate it, so direct fiscal impacts on State and local budgets are limited, though localities choosing to implement policy changes may face costs or political tradeoffs associated with zoning and permitting reform.
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Introduced July 21, 2025 by Brian Emanuel Schatz · Last progress July 21, 2025
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Introduced in Senate