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Bill Summary · HB 306

HB 306 — Affordable Housing for Local Employees (Summary)

Status: Withdrawn from calendar (most recent procedural status). Introduced: 2025 (various versions/dates listed in bill history).
Subject areas: Local government authority; housing; municipal property; employees; school boards.

Purpose / Intent

HB 306 authorizes specified local governments to develop, convey, finance, lease, and sell affordable housing units specifically for their employees (and in some versions, public school teachers). The bill is intended to help localities address workforce housing shortages by enabling use of public land and public–private partnerships to create housing affordable to municipal and county employees.

Key provisions

  • Authorizes specified local government units (in the primary text: Towns of Blowing Rock and Boone; Watauga County; Watauga County Board of Education; committee substitute versions added Dare and Durham Counties) to:
    • Construct and provide affordable housing for their employees either directly or through partnerships, joint ventures, land trusts, or similar entities.
    • Convey property owned by the local government to such partner entities for construction/maintenance of affordable housing. (Exception: property acquired by eminent domain on or after the act’s effective date may not be conveyed.)
    • Contract with private or nonprofit entities to finance, construct, or maintain the housing.
    • Rent or sell units exclusively to local government employees, with authority to set reasonable rents/sales prices, charge below‑market rates, offer below‑market financing, and impose resale restrictions or buy‑back provisions to preserve affordability.
  • Any units constructed under the act must comply with applicable building codes, zoning ordinances, and other state/local regulations governing residential construction.
  • Effective upon becoming law (no delayed effective date in the versions shown).

Who is affected

  • Primary beneficiaries: municipal and county employees named by the bill (and in some versions, public school teachers and school board employees).
  • Local governments named in the bill gain new explicit statutory authority to use public land and partner with private/nonprofit developers for employee housing.
  • Potential partners: developers, land trusts, lenders, and nonprofit housing organizations.
  • Residents and taxpayers in the affected jurisdictions may be indirectly affected through use of public property, changes in local housing supply, and any fiscal commitments.

Procedural / timeline notes

  • Multiple jurisdictional drafts and committee substitutes exist; some versions differ in which counties or school boards are included.
  • Legislative history in the provided materials shows committee action and a committee substitute but the most recent status recorded is "Withdrawn From Cal" (withdrawn from the calendar). The bill is not enacted as law in the materials provided.
  • If enacted, the act would take effect immediately upon becoming law (per text).

Potential impacts and considerations

  • Enables targeted workforce housing creation, which can improve employee recruitment/retention in high-cost or limited-supply housing markets.
  • Allows creative financing and long-term affordability tools (below-market rents/financing, resale restrictions).
  • Use of public land and conveyances raises procurement, transparency, valuation, and public‑purpose considerations; the eminent‑domain conveyance prohibition limits some disposals.
  • Fiscal impacts depend on project scale; the bill itself does not appropriate funds. Local units may incur costs or enter into obligations when financing or subsidizing projects.
  • Implementation will require coordination with zoning, building, procurement, and housing policy frameworks.

Note: Multiple variant drafts circulated (including earlier language referencing school teachers and later drafts adding other counties). Consult the finalized local/jurisdictional text for the operative list of local units and exact authorizations.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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