In all Minnesota cities, decisions about housing stock and residential development should be left to local leaders and their residents — not legislators in Saint Paul.

With housing shortages and issues of housing affordability occurring statewide, the State Legislature is preparing to propose measures that address both issues without considering unique differences in size and geography that exist among cities. Discussions in the upcoming State Legislative session are likely to center heavily around local zoning and land use preemption.

Residential housing needs in Lyon County cities are not the same as cities in the Twin Cities metro area. A one-size-fits-all solution makes little sense. Cities require flexibility to address their own unique circumstances. That’s why the League of Minnesota Cities, a membership organization that represents nearly all of our state’s 850-plus cities, will continue to advocate for retention of local authority when it comes to housing policy decisions.

The League will oppose proposals that seek to preempt local zoning and land use decision-making when it comes to residential development while, instead, supporting constructive policy alternatives that support city efforts. The League advocates for a city-state partnership to consider reforms proven to address availability and affordability that ensure efforts can be locally led and shaped by each community.

For example, the State Legislature should:

• Provide tools and resources for cities to progress toward implementation goals and refrain from penalizing cities for market forces outside of their control. Cities do not control the pace of housing development or the affordability of a housing product that hits the market.

• Consider density directly tied to affordability shortages and tailored to individual community needs.

• Include options for financing infrastructure needed to support residential housing development without relying on the property tax base, and without leaning on existing homeowners to shoulder the burden of cost. This could be achieved by enacting policy that allow cities to assess infrastructure impact fees for supporting new development and the resizing of infrastructure to support infill development.

• Recognize environmental infrastructure, regulatory, and planning needs. Environmental factors that need to be considered and vary from city to city include groundwater quality and availability, water and sewer infrastructure capacity, sensitive water resources and habitat, impaired water pollutant load restrictions, and state and federal permit requirements on city operations and utilities.

Local challenges demand local solutions. Instead of handing down mandates when it comes to city land use and zoning regulations for residential development, the State should help cities, large and small, remain flexible to address the specific needs of those residing in the community. Through considering development incentives for cities in the upcoming legislative session, State leaders have an opportunity to address housing challenges through empowering, not punishing, city leaders and residents.

— Daniel Lightfoot is the intergovernmental relations representative and federal relations manager for the League of Minnesota Cities