Conferences and Events

Wrap-up 2024 APA-Wisconsin Annual Conference Wrap-up

FORWARD! EVOLVING OUR APPROACH TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, EQUITY, AND RESILIENCE.

Local and regional planners across Wisconsin are at the forefront of creative, equity-driven solutions to issues facing our communities.

2024 Annual Conference Recap

2024 Planners Day on Capitol Hill Wisconsin Planners Advocate for Federal Housing Programs

Four Wisconsin planners joined over 150 colleagues from around the country for 2024 Planners Day on Capitol Hill to meet virtually with congressional offices to advocate for adoption of legislation to advance local housing priorities. Becky Binz (Sun Prairie), Dennis Lawrence (NCWRPC), Mellisa Huggins (Urban Assets) and Josh Clements (Sun Prairie) met together with staffers from Senator Baldwin and Senator Johnsons' offices, and separately with Representative Pocan and Representative Tiffany's staff.

In total, APA members met with 99 house and senate offices comprising 25 states throughout the day.

APA advocates asked their congressional representatives to approve the proposed increase in Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) program from $75 to $100 million. The program provides competitive grants for communities to update zoning codes, comprehensive plans, and other policy activities to enable more housing production. The announcements of the first round of grants is expected in the coming days.

Advocates asked for the approval of the Housing Supply and Affordability Act, the provisions of which had been included in the Build Back Better Plan and has since been introduced as stand-alone legislation. The Act creates new grant program that would provide funding to help localities develop and implement comprehensive housing policy plans, and to provide technical assistance to help states, localities, and regional coalitions increase housing supply, improve housing affordability, and reduce barriers to new housing development while avoiding the displacement of current residents.

Third, advocates asked for support of the Reducing Regulatory Barriers to Housing Act, which would improve resources for HUD to assist local communities in improving housing policies and zoning codes, seen as a policy complement to the PRO Housing Act. These provisions were part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act but were removed as part of the compromises to approve that sweeping funding package. Information about these three items are summarized on the Planners Day 2024 webpage.

The Wisconsin team found that our Senators are supportive of these housing-focused bills, each of which have bipartisan sponsors and momentum in the current Congress. Collectively, we came away optimistic that most or all of these expanded federal resources for community planning will be adopted.

Planners Day provided an example to share the experiences of our local professionals in Wisconsin communities on how these are relevant to the legislation and programs currently considered in Congress. It is an opportunity to connect the challenges and opportunities planning practitioners encounter at the local level to inform legislation.

To learn how to get involved in advocating for the adoption of these and other pro-planning legislation, visit https://planning.org/policy to join the APA Policy Advocacy Network, read up on professionally-produced summaries of policy proposals, and find many opportunities to contribute to advocacy efforts in ways big and small.

APA Policy Advocacy Network