A new analysis by Envision Utah warns that Utah could need more than 840,000 new homes over the next 30 years, adding to the urgency already felt by state and local leaders to deliver more housing.
Two years ago, Gov. Spencer Cox unveiled an ambitious goal of constructing 150,000 new homes in Utah by the end of 2028. Thirty-five thousand of those are supposed to be starter homes aimed at young, first-time buyers. Progress has been slow since that announcement.
“We've got a long way to go,” he said at the 2025 Ivory Prize Summit for housing innovation on Oct. 29. “We're kind of in the beginning phases of that.”
The harsh reality is that Cox and state lawmakers can only do so much to encourage new housing construction. The overwhelming majority of that power rests in the hands of local governments and planning commissions. They’re the people who approve individual projects. It’s also where the process gets bogged down the most.
That’s not to say the state hasn’t tried to tinker with how homes get built. The Legislature has considered dozens of housing-related bills in the past few years to address everything from construction near public transit to $300 million in incentives to build starter homes.
As the state fixates on supply, some local Utah leaders say they need room to take on the issue themselves before the state makes any more big changes. For Draper Mayor Troy Walker, keeping up with the Legislature can be dizzying.
“We need some time sometimes to be able to let the new laws sink in, figure out where we are,” he said at the summit. “It's not that we're not always willing, but it's like a fire hose sometimes for us.”
Still, Draper has moved forward with large-scale housing projects within city limits. One high-density residential and commercial project called Vista Station is centered around the city’s FrontRunner station.
For Walker, local governments would be wise to move fast on progressive zoning changes in the most high-need areas. That also opens up opportunities for an economic boost, too.
“We were the first ones to do it, unlimited height, unlimited density [in this area],” he said, referring to Vista Station. “It had a tax-assessed value back then of about just under $6 million … That project now has an assessed value of almost $700 million.”
Other Utah cities have also passed zoning reform. The Salt Lake City Council passed sweeping changes in 2023 to allow more multi-family housing in residential zones, additional height allowances in more dense areas of the city and a streamlined approval process.
Cox has tried to encourage more local leaders to act aggressively. In May, he held a closed-door meeting with 40 mayors to trade ideas and ease some of the tension between state housing goals and local governments. A product of that meeting was a state-run housing dashboard where progress can be monitored and shortcomings can be identified. Still, he recognized the barriers.
“This is something we really do have to figure out as a state with our local governments,” Cox said at this week’s summit. “I'm a former mayor, former city councilman, former county commissioner, worked at every level of local government and understand the problems and the difficulties that are there.”
For South Jordan Mayor Dawn Ramsey, one area where the state can and should make an impact is by helping smaller municipalities with understaffed building departments.
“We have communities everywhere in Utah and across America that do not have that,” she said. “They don't have the professional expertise, they don't have the staff.”
In 2023, the Legislature created and funded the Local Administrative Advisor program to do just that. Ramsay said there were cuts to that funding that towns and cities need back.
“Because if we want housing policy to work, we have to make sure that we're enabling people.”
She said that when city staff are fully equipped to handle it, a building application can move through the permitting and approval process much faster.
