Bipartisan efforts won a string of bills for more homes, lower costs, and less red tape for Montanans - with lessons for other states.
Something big is brewing in Big Sky Country: an ongoing bipartisan revolution in housing policy.
In 2023 Montana passed an ambitious package of land use reforms, making it easier for the state to meet its growing demand for housing. This year the legislature's cross-partisan pro-housing caucus kept its foot on the gas and passed an even more ambitious package of changes to the rules that have contributed to the state's housing shortage.
The most significant reforms won't take effect until 2026, but other states would do well to study Montana's strategy for success.
An end to overbuilding parking lots
House Bill 492, introduced by Rep. Katie Zolnikov (Republican, Billings), sets a high bar for other states pursuing parking reform. Beginning in October 2026, any home smaller than 1,200 square feet in Montana's ten largest cities will be exempt from costly local parking mandates. Because more than 80 percent of apartments and condos in the United States are already smaller than 1,200 square feet, this effectively means that multifamily buildings in those cities will no longer be required to have any particular number of off-street parking spaces. HB 492 also exempts small detached homes, all deed-restricted affordable housing, assisted living homes, and daycares. And it strikes down excessive parking mandates in many smaller cities, giving property owners there almost as much flexibility over how many parking spaces they need.
This is a major change for many of Montana's fastest growing cities such as Bozeman, Missoula, and Whitefish - all of which currently require one to two parking spaces for every home. It's hard to understate the potential impact of HB 492. A recent study found that eliminating parking minimums alone can boost new home construction by 40-70 percent. In the future, Montana may go further. HB 492 originally set limits on parking mandates for other commercial uses as well. While these were removed from the bill in committee, legislators indicated they'd like to reintroduce the idea in a future legislative session.
Taller buildings, double-wides, condo lawsuits, single staircases, and more
Where HB 492 concerns what builders can do on the ground, Senate Bill 243, introduced by Sen. Ellie Boldman (Democrat, Missoula), looks upward. The bill overrides local height restrictions to allow buildings up to six stories in downtown, industrial, and "heavy commercial" zones. ("Heavy commercial" zones are not defined in the bill; however, the sponsor's floor speeches indicate it's where "commercial uses cluster" and not "standalone corner stores in the middle of a single-family neighborhood.")
Several narrower bills are tackling other obstacles to housing construction:
First is SB 133, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Greg Hertz (Republican, Polson), limits the impact fees that cities charge developers, which increase the cost of construction. Specifically, it eliminates administrative fees, caps fees growth to inflation, and limits the imposition of fees to infrastructure projects that are directly linked to a proposed development.
Hertz also successfully ran bills to limit construction defect litigation (SB 143) and transfer decision-making on historical preservation permits from volunteer-run boards to professional city staff (SB 214).
Next is SB 252, introduced by Sen. Dave Fern (Democrat, Whitefish), requires cities to treat manufactured homes on equal footing as stick-built construction.
SB 532, introduced by Sen. Forrest Mandeville (Republican, Columbus), allows one ADU by right on parcels outside cities. (Hertz's SB 528 from the prior session legalized ADUs within cities.)
Finally, SB 213, introduced by Sen. Daniel Zolnikov (R-Billings), puts Montana among states such as Connecticut and Washington that are re-legalizing single-stair residential buildings. SB 213 orders new ru...

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