HARRISBURG – Dauphin County Sen. John DiSanto announced forthcoming legislation to make homeownership and other housing options more available to Pennsylvanians, by alleviating municipal zoning restrictions that impede housing affordability. The proposal will grant the automatic right to use manufactured housing and accessory dwelling units in single-family zoning districts. For municipalities with larger populations, medium-density housing will also be permitted by right. The legislation will also ensure onerous minimum lot sizes and parking space requirements don’t interfere with housing affordability. Many other states have successfully employed similar measures to stimulate housing construction without burdening taxpayers with costly, inefficient government programs. In a co-sponsorship memo, “by curtailing exclusionary land use barriers and allowing market forces to operate, we will encourage the development of communities that our residents want, at a price they can afford.”
SEN. JOHN DISANTO