House Bill 184 is one of the Utah Legislature’s answers to the governor’s call for 35,000 new starter homes by 2028, according to Deputy Summit County Manager Janna Young.
“The premise of this bill is to allow a change in zoning without going through the public hearing process, specifically for starter homes, which they're defining as homes sold for the area mean purchase price,” she said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Jan. 19.
Local legislative bodies still have the final decision-making power on zoning. But for Young, public hearings are an important part of local control.
“I think we can agree with the governor and with the Legislature that affordability is a problem. We have been working on trying to address this locally, and the city has as well for many, many years,” Young said.
Government officials usually track median home prices to exclude hyperexpensive outliers. According to state policy experts, the median Summit County home price was more than $1.6 million in 2024.
HB184 looks at the mean, or average, price.
“We also don't feel like this approach would actually get the results that they're hoping to, on a policy level,” Young said. “If you look at our community, where we have such a high cost of living, ‘area mean purchase price’ is way too high for any young families or new homeowners.”
The 2026 General Session began Jan. 20 and runs until March. Most bills, HB184 included, haven’t yet been reviewed by committees and will likely be revised before they’re voted on.
Young said county leaders are also waiting to see if a bill to create the Beehive Development Agency gets reintroduced.
Last year, The Salt Lake Tribune called it the one state development authority “to rule them all.” It would have had the power to create up to three developments of “significant community impact” each year.
According to Young, conversations are happening on Capitol Hill about its return, perhaps in a scaled-back form.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
