A legislative task force that sought to address high housing costs in Wyoming has run out of time and money, leaving in limbo draft bills aimed at curbing local control over development.
The Regulatory Reform Task Force was unable to muster a quorum last month but conducted three hours of business anyway, including work on bills to restrict development moratoriums and limit mitigation fees designed to offset community impacts of new construction.
Task Force Co-chairman Rep. Bob Nicholas (R-Cheyenne) scheduled a follow-up meeting for Wednesday, but that has since been cancelled.
“It just didn’t seem prudent to go forward,” task force Co-chairman Sen. Mike Gierau (D-Jackson) said in an interview. Nicholas did not return an email seeking comment.
The task force’s charter ends this year, meaning several bills will not receive its backing or the likely endorsement of other legislative committees, reducing their chances of becoming law in the upcoming 2025 lawmaking session. In addition to the moratorium and mitigation-fee measures, unfinished business includes a bill that would require diligent approval of development applications.
It would be up to legislators to advocate for any of the measures individually, Gierau said. Meantime, a new Legislature is being seated, and its priorities are uncertain.
“There will be new leadership,” Gierau said. “They get to decide even if there is a Regulatory Reduction Task Force or not, who’s on it or not.
“It’s happening with all the committees,” Gierau said of the uncertainty. “It always happens when you’re going from one Legislature [Wyoming’s 67th] to another [the 68th].”
Bills ‘not ready’
The Legislature formed the task force in 2023, charging it with examining “rules, regulations, statutes, and processes affecting the mining, agricultural, and construction industries.” Landowners, developers and some housing advocates last year urged the task force to also focus on local authority over development permits, fees and zoning regulations. Those additional topics became top agenda items.
Local governments have resisted committee members’ efforts to restrict their land use and zoning authorities as bills have surfaced. Much discussion centered on Teton County and the town of Jackson’s development rules and regulations, seen by some as a reason for the lack of affordable housing in a community where land values have been pushed off the charts by the super-wealthy.
Nevertheless, the newly orphaned bills were essentially half baked, Gierau said. Further, the task force would have had to ask for more money from the Legislature’s Management Council to enable another meeting, an additional hurdle to further action.
“The mitigation and the moratorium bills, I think, are problematic,” he said. “I just don’t think they’re ready. I don’t think any more discussion will get them ready.”
Gierau had intended to attend the virtual task force meeting last month but was caught in an air-traffic mess, he said. Now it’s holiday season and government business, for many, is on the back burner.
“We didn’t have enough people for that [November] meeting,” he said, “I don’t believe we’ll have enough for a meeting in December.”
As it stands, Gierau said, he and Nicholas could refer a draft bill to the Joint Appropriations Committee for consideration this month. But as of Wednesday morning, Gierau said he had not received any revamped bills from Nicholas.
I spoke to the task force this year regarding bloat and bureaucracy at the local level — a particular problem here in Laramie. Alas — perhaps due to lobbying by WAM and the presence of big government advocate Mike Yin on the panel — it lacked the will to take necessary action. Will the new Legislature buck the lobbyists (who, unlike the legislators, are full time professionals) and do something about smothering regulation not only at the state level but at the municipal level? One can only hope so.
It’s valid to be concerned about the increasing authoritarian take-over of our country at the federal level, but we forget that it’s happening at all levels of government especially in the red states like Wyoming. Property rights are fundamental to the American way of life, and local control of development is essential to the welfare and character of local communities. When state government can override local land use regulation and zoning, then the next step is to override local building codes and other aspects of public safety. A very slippery slope.