State lawmakers on Monday rejected a bill that would have restricted the demolition of historic homes to build what’s known as “middle housing.”
Middle housing refers to townhomes, duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes. Rep. Matt Gress (R-Phoenix) said the bill is necessary to preserve state history and sarcastically thanked housing advocates for convincing most lawmakers to vote no.
“I want to thank them for coming in and blocking this bill even though we watered it down so much that it’s doing one key thing related to protecting perfectly good historic homes,” Gress said.
He said it’s not over and pledged to bring the bill back for reconsideration before the end of this year’s legislative session.
The bill failed 25-30 in the state House of Representatives with both bipartisan opposition and support.
Gress said some lawmakers flipped their votes to oppose his bill at the urging of housing lobbyists, who argued that allowing more types of housing would help the state increase its housing supply.
Lawmakers passed legislation in 2024 preempting cities from blocking construction of middle housing in many cases.
Housing groups like the Homebuilders Association of Central Arizona and the Arizona Housing Coalition said Gress’ bill is just an effort by cities to unravel that legislation.
The bill is backed by the League of Arizona Cities and Towns.
“Historic neighborhoods were built on middle housing principles and I think that more neighborhoods and more accessibility and different housing types is what we as a body should be doing for Arizonans not retracting backwards,” Rep. Sarah Liguori (D-Phoenix) told her colleagues while explaining her ‘no’ vote.
The bill prohibits building middle housing on a site where a historic home once stood, unless the historic home was demolished for safety concerns. For that reason, Liguori said it reduces private property rights.
The bill would also require middle housing in historic areas to be compatible with the “historic character, scale, and setting” of the neighborhood.
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