Two months ago something happened to Idaho that nobody's talking about enough...
— Western Civ Maximalist (@brian_lenney) June 25, 2026
A Boise Democrat's interim committee wrote a bunch of "housing affordability" bills. Developers shaped the recommendations, and Republicans carried the water.
And your local zoning? Gone.
I voted… pic.twitter.com/eqIkaCjsYN
Two months ago something happened to Idaho that nobody's talking about enough...
A Boise Democrat's interim committee wrote a bunch of "housing affordability" bills. Developers shaped the recommendations, and Republicans carried the water.
And your local zoning? Gone.
I voted no on all of it.
HB 800: now manufactured homes can go on any single-family lot statewide. Your city doesn't get a say (unless you've got an HOA, which is the only thing they left standing).
SB 1352 is the one that should scare you. Cities over 10,000 can't require lot sizes bigger than 1,500 square feet. So now they can fo 12 units per acre, mandated by the state. And it passed the House 36-34. Two votes decided the future of your neighborhood. Flew through the Senate.
SB 1354: says ADUs can now be forced into every community and HOAs are stripped of the ability to block them (SB 1353 would've crammed duplexes in too but that one died in the House).
You know what none of these bills do?
Not a single one stops institutional investors from buying entire subdivisions and converting them to rentals. California money is flooding our market and pricing Idaho kids out of homeownership and nobody addressed it. Nobody even tried to hold anyone accountable for the actual "affordability" problem.
They called it "housing affordability" but it's just developer welfare.
The interim committee that produced this whole package? Run by Sen. Ali Rabe, a Democrat. Guess who was at the table writing the recommendations. Developers.
And Republican legislators delivered it for them.
Governor Little told the press in 2023 he opposed the state overriding local zoning and said it wasn't his approach.
Then he signed every bill a few months ago anyways and never explained what changed.
Oh and Idaho isn't alone...
Over a dozen states ran the same play this year. Montana. Colorado. Virginia. Georgia. Read the bills side by side the framing is almost copy-paste (i.e. National leftist playbook).
So, this session the Idaho legislature decided Boise Democrats and developers know better than your mayor and your planning commission.
And exactly NONE of these bills will make housing affordable.
But they will make a lot of people RICH!
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