Land Development and Growth

To help facilitate new construction, NAHB provides numerous resources to help members and HBAs advocate for more practical growth and development, to find innovative solutions for funding essential infrastructure, and to demonstrate how home construction benefits the economy.

Land Use 101 is a one-stop toolkit that assembles the best available resources from NAHB to address virtually every issue relating to growth, land use and development including impact fees and housing affordability.

Among the resources it provides are NAHB briefing papers, presentations, talking points, and credentialed reports that members and staff can use to address issues in their markets.

A similar resource, Housing for All, presents case studies of innovative solutions that communities nationwide have employed to help make homes more affordable and to enable more families to achieve homeownership or have access to suitable rental housing.

Ordinance Reviews

As a free service, NAHB’s Legal and Land Use staff assist members and HBAs by reviewing state and local ordinances and regulations relating to development and construction, including local zoning ordinances, comprehensive plans, subdivision regulations, complete streets ordinances, impact fee ordinances and state legislation.

The Legal staff examines and analyzes ordinances based on constitutional, statutory and case law considerations. Generally, ordinances are reviewed for statutory compliance, procedural and substantive due process considerations, Fifth Amendment takings issues and other legal deficiencies.

NAHB’s Land Use staff also provides rigorous critical review and comments on the land use policy and implementation aspects of proposed and revised ordinances. Staff members also provide onsite assistance and expert witness testimony as needed.