7 New Affordable Housing Triumphs for Wisconsin Families


How our leadership and influence shaped the most recent legislative session.

Our most recent legislative successes help create more affordable housing in Wisconsin.

The recently completed legislative session is a huge win for more affordable housing for Wisconsin families. From streamlining wetlands housing development regulations to prohibiting building codes from exceeding statewide uniform standards, the leadership and influence of our members are making a powerful impact on Wisconsin’s building industry.

Here are 7 of our recent successes!

1. Reduced building or remodeling claim exposure period (April 2018)

One of the recent legislative successes includes reducing the exposure period for a building or remodeling claim from ten to seven years. This reduction will:

  • Decrease burdens and costs associated with investigating factual allegations from the distant past
  • Promote fairness to builders who must defend themselves from such claims
  • Protect property owners by providing ample time to bring an action against a builder

Working in conjunction with the Wisconsin Civil Justice Council (WCJC), we advocated for this common-sense change to improve the legal climate and promote affordable housing in Wisconsin.

2. Streamlined wetlands housing development regulation (March 2018)

Developing in areas that contain low quality, state-regulated wetlands has been a big challenge for property owners since 2001. Many times, property owners have no flexibility to build or expand on their land because of the overregulation.

We worked to streamline the process for housing development in wetland areas that will ultimately:

  • Drive down development expenses
  • Increase flexibility to build or expand
  • Reduce housing costs

We worked with the authors of this legislation, State Senator Roger Roth, a WBA builder member, and State Representative Jim Steineke on this bill starting in mid-2017. Our efforts also called on members to contact their state representatives and state senators to pass these money- and hassle-saving reforms.

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AdvocacyAlicia Naleid