Minnesota's Starter Homes Act was voted down 7–5 in March
Minnesota's Starter Homes Act was voted down 7–5 in March
2026-09-12 · Minnesota · Legislation · Did not pass
What happened. Minnesota's Starter Homes Act — the lead bill of the Yes to Homes coalition and the biggest zoning-reform vehicle of the biennium — was voted down on a 7–5 roll call in the House Elections Finance and Government Operations Committee on 23 March 2026. The Senate companion never got a hearing.1
It is not law. It died in a committee, not on a floor, which is a distinction that matters for what happens next.
The HOA provision
The revised 2026 version imposed three mandates on every Minnesota city: allow accessory dwelling units in residential areas; eliminate certain design and aesthetic standards including porch requirements, shutters and garage minimums; and prohibit mandatory homeowners associations.
Around that sat a menu of eleven zoning-reform options from which large cities would pick six, mid-sized cities four, and smaller cities three — options including eliminating parking minimums, allowing eight-plexes, or offering subsidies.
The HOA half is now largely moot
This is the part readers should not miss. The prohibition on cities requiring an association as a development condition passed anyway, in the other bill.
Section 14 of Laws 2026, ch. 82 creates Minn. Stat. § 515B.5-101, barring a local government from conditioning approval of a residential building permit, conditional use permit, subdivision, planned unit development or other residential development permit on the creation of an HOA, on common features necessitating one unless the developer requests them, on terms in the governing documents, or on the adoption or revocation of association rules. Effective 1 January 2027 for communities created on or after that date.
So the Starter Homes Act's HOA provision failed and the policy is law. What did not pass is the rest: the ADU mandate, the design-standard preemption, and the tiered zoning menu.
Who was for and against
The bill was carried by Reps. Spencer Igo (R-Wabana Township) and Michael Howard (DFL-Richfield), a deliberately bipartisan pairing, with Rep. Larry Kraft (DFL-St. Louis Park); the Senate companion was Sen. Lindsey Port (DFL-Burnsville).
Backers included Neighbors For More Neighbors, Housing First Minnesota and the Minnesota Housing Partnership. The League of Minnesota Cities opposed it.2
Why a zoning bill is association news
Because the two systems govern the same decisions from different directions, and Minnesota spent 2026 adjusting the boundary between them.
A city's zoning code and an association's covenants both regulate what may be built on a lot and what it may look like. Where they conflict, the stricter generally governs in practice — a city that permits an ADU has not overridden a covenant that forbids one. That is the gap the Starter Homes Act's design-standard provisions were aimed at, and it is the gap that remains open.
The clearest illustration is the accessory dwelling unit. Minnesota enacted no statewide ADU mandate in this biennium — Minn. Stat. ch. 462, the municipal planning chapter, was not amended at all in the 2025 regular session, the 2025 special session, or the 2026 session. And even where a Minnesota city does permit ADUs by ordinance, an association whose declaration prohibits detached accessory structures or additional dwelling units is not affected by that ordinance.
Owners routinely read a permissive city ordinance as permission. It is not, and Chapter 82 did nothing to change that.
What Chapter 82 does and does not do to architectural authority
From 1 January 2027 an association with approval authority must establish a written procedure by rule, provide it to an owner who asks, and decide within 90 days of a complete application — in writing, reasonably, and under the director standard of care.
That is a procedural constraint on a substantive power the Legislature left intact. An ADU application to a Minnesota association in 2027 must get an answer in 90 days. The answer may still be no.
The coalition's own account of what comes next
Neighbors For More Neighbors published a recap of the 2026 session listing a 2027 agenda — Right to Renew, Source of Income protections, suburban and Greater Minnesota outreach, and a State Policy Task Force launched in August 2026.3
Worth flagging precisely: the group asserts continued momentum. A Starter Homes Act refile in 2027 is not a scheduled filing with a bill number, because no 2027 Minnesota bill numbers exist yet — they do not open until the session convenes. Treat the refile as reported intent, not as a fact.
The variable is the November election, not the argument
The bill failed 7–5 in committee. Going into the 3 November 2026 election, the Minnesota Senate is DFL by one seat and the House is tied 67–67 — which is why several housing bills died in committee rather than on a floor this biennium.
All 201 legislative seats are on the ballot. The governorship is an open seat: Gov. Tim Walz ended his re-election bid in January 2026, and the 11 August 2026 primary produced Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL) against House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R).4
Committee chairs and the veto pen are both unsettled until then, which is why nothing in Minnesota's 2027 housing pipeline yet has a named sponsor.
The related funding bill that also failed
Worth knowing because it is the one with a dollar figure attached. H.F. 4223 / S.F. 4632 (Rep. Erin Koegel, with Reps. Elkins and Kraft) would have appropriated $35 million in FY2026 for grants to reinforce roofs to the IBHS FORTIFIED standard against hail and wind, extended the project completion window from three months to six after grant approval, and prioritised households at or below 115 percent of area median income.
It was introduced 12 March 2026, amended and re-referred to Ways and Means on 20 April 2026, and did not pass.5 The underlying Strengthen Minnesota Homes programme at Minn. Stat. § 65A.299 was seeded with $1 million in 2023 and remains subject to appropriation.
The association relevance is indirect — the grants run to homeowners rather than to associations — and should be treated that way. Minnesota's insurance task force separately recommended funding the programme, and separately recommended amendments to MCIOA. Those are two different recommendations, and neither is law.
What to watch next
The 95th Legislature convenes 12 January 2027 and must adjourn by mid-May. Everything above must be refiled from scratch.
For association boards, the practical watch item is narrower than the zoning debate: whether any 2027 bill attempts to reach covenants directly, as S.F. 3418 would have done. Nothing in the 2026 session did.
This describes filed bills, recorded votes and reported intent. It does not predict what the next Legislature will pass.
Related Minnesota HOA Topics
- “Revised Starter Homes Act gets informational hearing,” Minnesota House Session Daily (3 Mar. 2026) ↩
- “The Starter Homes Act: Explained” — Neighbors For More Neighbors ↩
- “2026 Legislative Session Recap” — Neighbors For More Neighbors ↩
- “Who is running for Minnesota governor in 2026, with Tim Walz out” — MPR News ↩
- Minnesota House Session Daily (27 Apr. 2026) — Strengthen Minnesota Homes funding bill ↩
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