See below for a guest post from Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins, Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi, and Arlington County Board Vice Chair Maureen Coffey on why “It’s time for all of us – state, county, local officials, and the private sector – to work together and do our part to improve housing affordability.” Bills specifically mentioned are SB354/HB888 (“Provides that no locality shall adopt, enforce, or maintain any ordinance, policy, or requirement that mandates a minimum number of parking spaces for any new building, structure, or other use or any existing building, structure, or other use that is undergoing material rehabilitation, defined in the bill. The bill has a delayed effective date of September 1, 2026.”) and SB531/HB611 (“Requires a locality to include in its zoning ordinances for single-family residential zoning districts accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, as defined in the bill, as a permitted accessory use.”). Looking at it from an economics point of view, I’d say the key to alleviating the housing crisis is to shift the supply curve for housing out, which is why I support measures like the aforementioned bills, as well as other measures to allow construction of “missing middle” housing in areas where it’s not currently allowed, etc. We’ll see what the Democratic “trifecta” in Richmond comes up with…
By Alyia Gaskins, Letty Hardi, and Maureen Coffey
A series of bills have been introduced by state lawmakers this month to address Virginia’s worsening housing crunch. As mayors, we might ordinarily be expected to oppose all of this legislation on the grounds of maximizing local policymakers’ authority over housing issues. But these are no ordinary times. Rents, costs to buy, and homelessness are all near record highs, and homeownership is getting pushed out of reach for young families in their 20s and 30s. The housing shortage is slowing down local economies because the people who used to work or shop at our cities’ stores and restaurants are being priced out of town.
There’s a better way. Policies that make it easier to build apartments on commercial corridors above businesses, or next to office buildings and near bus stops have proven effective where adopted. Some Virginia cities and towns have removed certain regulatory barriers to housing: Newport News and Richmond have ended parking mandates e; Alexandria and Charlottesville have made it easier to build apartments; Roanoke and Falls Church allow accessory dwelling units; Arlington County has changed zoning to allow up to six units by-right in all residential districts. We know these policies work based on data from cities around the U.S. that were early movers.
Minneapolis rents have barely risen in nine years; Austin has seen rents drop since 2022; rent growth has slowed in Raleigh. It’s not a coincidence that all three of those cities have eliminated their parking mandates. Local policies requiring lots of off-street parking to be built, even when some couples share a car or residents don’t own one at all, end up sharply driving up housing costs, often leading rents to be higher by $200 or more per month.
Housing reforms work across diverse regions and communities as well. Rural areas have benefitted from reforms to allow more homes. Nine states have passed laws recently to allow manufactured homes to be used more easily, so shortages of electricians or plumbers in rural areas don’t impede housing development. Largely rural states such as Montana, Maine, Arkansas, Iowa, and New Hampshire have all passed laws to make it easier to build homes because the housing shortage affects cities, suburbs, and rural areas alike.
There’s strong evidence that removing regulatory barriers to building homes improves affordability, but housing markets are regional. No city, town, or county can solve the high cost of housing on its own. Research from The Pew Charitable Trusts has found that regional housing supply affects rents in a locality four times as much as housing supply in that locality alone. So municipal officials who are committed to bringing down rents and putting homeownership within reach will only be truly successful if all the localities around them act to allow more homes as well. So far there’s only one way to achieve that: State lawmakers setting some basic ground rules while local governments keep most of their authority.
It’s simply gotten too hard to build homes. In Virginia apartments are only allowed on 5% of residential land statewide here—compare that with North Carolina, where the figure is 21%. 18 states, including Maryland and Arkansas, have passed laws to allow accessory dwelling units. And states including Illinois, Washington, Florida, and New Hampshire have curbed parking mandates that were driving up costs and blocking housing.
As local officials, perhaps more than anyone, we understand the importance of maintaining local authority. In fact, local governments often know land use best such as where new housing makes sense. It’s crucial for localities to keep most of their authority because we cover most of the cost of operating schools and local infrastructure such as sewer, stormwater, and transportation, and we need to be able to plan for those expenses as our communities grow. We are not calling for a repeal of all local land use authority, nor would we support that. But it’s not realistic or fair to ask local officials to solve problems that cross local borders alone, and housing affordability is one of them. The median cost of a home in Virginia was $258,000 in 2017, and now it’s $405,000. The median rent in Virginia was barely $1300 in 2017 and now it’s well over $1700, nearly 30% higher than the U.S. average. The housing shortage is why—we’re in a long-term landlord’s market and seller’s market because there just aren’t enough homes out there, so competition means each available one gets bid up.
Affordability is getting better in places that have adopted policies to make it easier to build homes, whether it’s by curbing arbitrary parking mandates as SB354/HB888 would do or allowing accessory dwelling units under SB531/HB611. We endorse both of these bills, because they are proven, market-driven ways to add housing supply while still respecting local control over core issues around land-use and permitting. They ensure that more homes are allowed throughout regions, not just in a few motivated localities which simply can’t solve housing affordability on their own. With new laws like these spurring more housing, homeownership doesn’t have to be a fantasy for a young family, and hourly workers don’t need to fear displacement from rising rents from the towns they have long called home.
It’s time for all of us – state, county, local officials, and the private sector – to work together and do our part to improve housing affordability. These bills are a good start, and what is needed going forward is a collaborative relationship between local and state elected officials to tackle housing affordability beyond the current General Assembly session. We hope more of our local government colleagues will join us in finding pragmatic changes around our land use, zoning, and housing policies that balance local authority with real action that delivers results for Virginians.
Alyia Gaskins is the mayor of Alexandria. Letty Hardi is the mayor of Falls Church. Maureen Coffey is the Vice-Chair of the Arlington County Board. The opinions expressed in this piece are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent those of their jurisdictions or the governing bodies of their jurisdictions.
