Governor Noem Introduces Legislation to Simplify City Zoning Regulations

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Governor Noem Introduces Legislation to Simplify City Zoning Regulations

PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem announced that she will introduce a bill to simplify city zoning regulations and ease the permitting process for homebuilders and homeowners in South Dakota.

“South Dakota’s housing market is booming, and that’s tremendous news, but we don’t want home prices to skyrocket as a result,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “We’re streamlining zoning regulations at the city level, building off last year’s success, to ensure that the cost of living remains affordable for residents of our great state. Restrictive zoning laws make it harder for South Dakotans – especially our young people – to find affordable housing. It is essential that we make changes like these to help young adults and young families achieve the American Dream of owning a home. This will have the added benefit of spurring housing development to keep up with the folks moving to South Dakota who want to share our freedom and way of life.”

Last year, Governor Noem supported and signed SB 157, which simplified zoning regulations at the county level. This year’s legislation will make similar improvements to the zoning process at the municipal level.

Restrictive zoning laws make it more expensive to build homes. As Mercatus Center recently testified to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, “State and local regulatory constraints on housing supply are the primary cause of high and rising housing prices.” Governor Noem’s legislation will relax such constraints to drive lower housing prices for South Dakotans.

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6 thoughts on “Governor Noem Introduces Legislation to Simplify City Zoning Regulations”

  1. This is a great bill. I think it was 5-10 years ago, Augie did a study which noted that the #1 limit to SD economic and job growth as availability to housing. And, it also noted that SD has an excessive timeline from development land acquisition to home occupancy related to regulations.

    Hopefully our cities will respond correctly and do their part to speed up approval and permitting processes.

  2. I wish the press releases included bill numbers or links to bill text so we could see what the proposals look like. The press releases soften come out before the bills are processed by LRC, I know, but it’s still frustrating.

    I just searched for a bill on confidentiality of nonprofit donor records and couldn’t find it on the LRC website. The press release on that bill came out from the Governor’s Office at the beginning of this week, I believe.

  3. Wow! Absolutely stupid. The biggest asset that most South Dakotans have is their home, and, to date, municipal zoning laws do a pretty good job protecting that value. Anyone who thinks we should strive to undermine home values and deplete tax basis needs to swim across the mighty Missouri over to Fort Pierre and back.

    1. Nony: you’re not from Pierre, clearly. We all know certain days of the week “wade” to Ft. Pierre is more likely the case.

  5. Another solution in search of a problem. I’ve financed nearly 3,000 housing units in 8 states: SD has. NO problems with local zoning.

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