Governor Josh Shapiro announced Pennsylvania’s first-ever comprehensive Housing Action Plan to address housing needs across the Commonwealth. The state Department of Community and Economic Development was charged with developing the plan by an executive order Shapiro signed in September 2024 and was due in September of 2025.  

“This plan also acknowledges the important role local leaders, developers, organized labor, and others must play in our success,” Gov. Shapiro says in the plan’s cover letter. “Local governments must modernize their zoning regulations and permitting processes. Builders must expand into places where supply is falling short. Labor organizations must train a strong, skilled workforce. Housing-focused nonprofits must find new and innovative ways to lift up residents experiencing crisis. State government will do its part to get stuff done – cutting red tape, investing in housing programs, and coordinating across agencies like never before – but we need partners to deliver real results.” 

The plan acknowledges that local governing is stepping up to address housing, stating, “Cities, boroughs, and townships across the Commonwealth are updating their zoning ordinances and improving and digitizing local permitting processes. Counties and county conservation districts are simplifying subdivision approval processes and aggressively working to reduce local environmental permitting wait times. Together, these efforts are lowering costs, increasing predictability, and making it easier to build.” 

However, the plan points to “certain outdated and overly burdensome construction regulations” as driving up costs and slowing down development. It opines that “Pennsylvania’s permitting and regulatory framework has grown steadily more complex over the decades, with state regulators often layering new development requirements without revisiting or modernizing older rules. Local land use regulations – such as restrictive zoning, excessive parking mandates, and lengthy permit approval processes – further limit housing construction, particularly in areas where demand is highest.” Municipal limits on occupancy by nonrelated people are cited as a barrier to housing that needs to change. 

The plan calls for modernizing Pennsylvania’s housing development regulations, stating that “local governments are empowered to set local zoning and land use regulations, but many need assistance in modernizing and refreshing their local codes.” The plan calls for DCED to provide a library of model land use ordinances and for the state to revisit the construction code requirements it sets for residential homes. It proposes to create a housing ready community designation for municipalities that modernize land use regulations and give preference for housing funds to those with the designation.  

The plan calls for modernization of the Municipalities Planning Code and enabling homeowners to build or renovate structures into accessory dwelling units, limiting minimum lot size and setback requirements, permitting manufactured homes in areas zoned for single-family housing, and better leveraging of Commonwealth and faith-based owned property for future residential development. The plan also calls for more transit-oriented development and easing of restrictive parking requirements, removing density limits, and reassessing minimum lot sizes. It also calls for incentivizing mixed-use development on main streets and commercial corridors.  

What isn’t clear is which of these changes would be incentivized and which the plan prefers to be required. PSATS opposes the preemption of municipal land use decision-making and will remind the administration and legislators of these concerns as the plan’s proposals move forward. 

Click here to read the Housing Action Plan.