Metro opened applications for its Housing Production Accelerator Fund, which gives local governments grants and technical assistance for pre-development work such as permit review support, feasibility studies, environmental site assessments and regulatory updates. The fund is backed by a one-time $5 million investment from regional construction excise tax reserves and addresses four of the 16 actions in Metro's Regional Housing Coordination Strategy. Applications are reviewed and awarded on a rolling basis.
Metro Council President Juan Carlos González said creating the fund was the Council's first vote of 2026.
The Washington State Department of Commerce awarded Ridgefield a $70,000 grant to speed up residential building-permit review; the city will work with a software vendor to identify and implement improvements. Commerce announced $475,000 in grants across eight local governments on Thursday, including Tacoma, Bellevue, Lacey, Tumwater, Yakima, Pierce County and the Snohomish County Health Department.
Longtime residents of older Clark County neighborhoods told the county that cars from new small-lot developments are taking up their on-street parking. The county is considering reducing parking minimums, and eliminating them for affordable housing, senior housing and homes smaller than 1,200 square feet.
The Clark County Council on Tuesday approved impact fee increases for the La Center, Hockinson and Woodland school districts and new impact fees for four fire districts in unincorporated Clark County; Evergreen Public Schools requested its fee be reduced to zero, citing declining enrollment. La Center's fee for a single-family home rises from $3,501 to $7,536, and Hockinson's rises 95% to $15,175.
The New York City Council approved John Mangin, a Department of City Planning official and an architect of the 2024 "City of Yes for Housing" plan, to chair the Board of Standards and Appeals by a vote of 40 in favor, six against and four abstentions. The board interprets the city's zoning rules and decides whether to grant exceptions to developers whose projects do not conform to them.
New York City's rental vacancy rate is 1.4 percent, the lowest in nearly sixty years.
Reps. French Hill, Mike Flood, and Emanuel Cleaver told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's housing conference that implementation of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act now depends on HUD rulemaking and on the 33,295 government bodies with local zoning authority. Hill said cities that do not loosen development rules "can have your CDBG money clipped," and Flood said the bill's regulations are now being written. The bill carries no funding, and a majority of its 125 implementation items fall on HUD.
The ROAD to Housing Act became law in July 2026 without the president's signature.
Stateline reported that cities including Baltimore, Denver, Los Angeles, and Honolulu are deploying AI tools to flag incomplete housing-permit applications, with two new federal funding streams supporting the shift: the new federal housing law's Innovation Fund at $200 million annually and up to $3 million in HUD grants for automated permitting systems. Honolulu officials said AI pre-screening cut permit reviews from an average of 3.4 review cycles per application to 1.4 for single- and two-family residential projects, and applicants' average time in the process fell from 73 days to 32.5 days.
Denver's council approved a five-year AI plan-review contract in March for about $4.6 million, with a stated goal of raising first-round application acceptance from 37% to 80%.