Committee hears support for House Bill 2269 to expand middle housing options in rural counties

At the inaugural 2026 meeting of the House Housing Committee, members held a public hearing on House Bill 2269, which would limit middle-housing authority in certain rural areas while clarifying acceptable wastewater systems for those developments.

Jim Morishima, temporarily reassigned staff to the committee, briefed members that HB 2269 narrows the middle-housing authority in "limited areas of more intensive rural development" to counties the bill defines as rural — counties with population density under 100 people per square mile or counties smaller than 225 square miles — and expands the definition of allowable wastewater systems to include large on-site sewage systems. Morishima also said the bill clarifies that a sewer system serving a middle-housing development must be a publicly owned sanitary sewer system rather than the broader phrase "existing sewer system" used in current law.

Sponsor Representative Birnbaum said the…