Preemptive Manufactured Housing Bill Passes House Committee

Legislation that would prohibit any city or county from adopting any zoning law that excludes qualified manufactured housing from being in any residential zone where single-family residences are permitted narrowly passed the first meeting of the House Local Government Committee on Tuesday.

Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) Executive Director/CEO J.D. Chaney and Kentucky Association of Counties (KACo) Director of Government Affairs Shellie Hampton joined in opposition to House Bill 160, which cleared the committee with several representatives voting against the bill and/or urging the sponsor to work with KLC and KACo to address issues in the legislation.

House Bill 160 is sponsored by Representative Susan Witten (R-Louisville), who chaired the Housing Task Force over the interim session in 2024. The task force submitted a need for approximately 206,000 housing units in Kentucky. While Witten’s bill addresses single-family homes, the 10-member task force heard from multiple presenters that much of Kentucky's missing housing supply is in "middle housing" and apartment units.

Middle housing includes townhomes, multiplexes, and other similar types of more dense housing units. While single-family home construction has rebounded from post-2008 lows, apartment construction and especially middle housing construction have lagged significantly. Because apartments and middle housing provide more density, the total number of units constructed has remained low because the proportion of new construction that is single family homes has increased.

KLC and KACo expressed concerns about the bill to the committee but also applauded the efforts of Representative Witten to address supply and affordability issues discovered by the task force.

“We believe that a broad-based approach taken by this bill is to strip the ability of local leaders to collaborate with their constituents on designing policies that address their unique needs and works to impede the ability of local leaders to be responsive on this issue to the citizens that they serve,” Chaney said.

Representatives Josh Bray (R-Mount Vernon), George Brown Jr. (D-Lexington), Beverly Chester-Burton (D-Louisville), and Mary Beth Imes (R-Murray) all voted against the bill in committee.

Representatives Steven Doan (R-Erlanger), Ken Fleming (R-Louisville), and Chris Freeland (R-Benton) voted to move the bill forward but urged continued work on it and reserved the right to change their votes on the House floor. Also voting for the bill was Representatives Jared Bauman (R-Louisville), Peyton Griffee (R-Mt. Washington), Tony Hampton (R-Georgetown), Mark Hart (R-Falmouth), Chris Lewis (R-Louisville), Savannah Maddox (R-Dry Ridge), Rebecca Raymer (R-Morgantown), Rachel Roarx (D-Louisville), Sarah Stalker (D-Louisville), and Susan Witten (R-Louisville).

The bill now moves to the full House of Representatives.