State, local leaders say station-area plans and financing tools are starting to unlock housing near transit

Cameron Deal, executive director of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, told the Divisions Interim Committee on Oct. 15 that local governments have made measurable progress using center-based planning and related financing tools to increase housing capacity near transit.

"Local governments are responsible for the land-use process, planning and zoning and the infrastructure that comes with it," Deal said in his progress report, noting three board priorities: affordable homeownership, sustainable infrastructure and quality of life.

The report outlined four themes: centers, housing variety, land-use processes and infrastructure. On centers, Deal said local governments and metropolitan planning organizations identified 229 potential centers in 2023; that number rose to 393 after a summer 2025 update coordinated with MPOs. "Cities have identified these specific areas where they say we want to have more intensity of land use because we have good transportation connectivity," he said.

Meg Pageant, community and economic development director at the Wasatch Front Regional Council, described the station-area planning requirement enacted for jurisdictions with fixed-rail or bus-rapid-transit stations in 2022 and the certification effort led by MPOs. Pageant said 57 station-area plans have been certified to date and the work covers both the Wasatch Front Regional Council and Mountainland Association of Governments areas. "So far, around these station areas, 64,000 homes have been planned," she said, adding that pending certifications could raise that figure toward 75,000 homes planned near transit.

Deal and Pageant emphasized the difference between planning and construction. "We recognize there are a lot of market challenges right now to seeing units actually getting built," Deal…