Committee places Utah Housing Strategic Plan resolution on consent after broad stakeholder support

The Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Standing Committee unanimously recommended HCR 6, the first-substitute concurrent resolution endorsing the Utah Housing Strategic Plan, and moved the resolution to the consent calendar.

Representative White introduced the nonbinding resolution, which recognizes the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget-led plan developed with more than 100 stakeholders and multiple technical contributors. Steve Waldrop, the governor’s senior advisor on housing, described the process as an open, collaborative effort with steering and technical committees and subcommittees producing policy recommendations, outcome metrics and guiding principles.

Multiple municipal and sectoral stakeholders testified in support, including Kate Bradshaw (mayor of Bountiful and president of the Utah League of Cities and Towns), David Damson (Utah Housing Corporation), Miranda Jones Cox (Wasatch Front Regional Council), Soren Simonson (Jordan River Commission), and Chris Kyler (Utah Association of Realtors). They highlighted the plan’s emphasis on coordination of land use and transportation, technical assistance for smaller communities, and protections for local decision-making under the guiding principle of “partnership, not preemption.”

Representative White asked the committee to place the resolution on the concurrence calendar; the committee voted unanimously to forward HCR 6 and to place it on the consent calendar.