Housing and disaster prevention task forces present final recommendations

As Kentucky heads into the 2026 legislative session, two major task forces have delivered final recommendations on issues that touch every community in the Commonwealth: housing and disaster resilience. From easing the housing shortage to strengthening protections against floods, tornadoes and wildfires, the proposals released this month outline changes that could directly influence local governments and shape legislation in the year ahead.

Legislative task forces are established by the General Assembly and begin meeting each June and run through November or December. They are meant to focus on a critical issue that requires more time than a legislative session can devote to the topics. Typically, at least one item addressed during a task force becomes a bill and is passed the following session.  

This group was originally established in the 2024 session and reauthorized in the 2025 session. Task force members worked throughout the summer and fall on the issues surrounding the housing crisis facing Kentucky. Two bills from their 2024 interim work passed during the 2025 session: HB 160 on qualified manufactured homes and SB 25 allowing industrial revenue bonds to be used for housing development.

The full report can be viewed here. While it remains to be seen if any will result in legislation, some of the fourteen recommendations for 2026 could impact local governments:

• Allow qualified third parties to conduct required inspections during the construction of housing units.
• Implement changes to local land use polices including reduction in minimum lot size, setback, parking, and single stair requirements.
• Require local governments to conduct any plan review in a timely manner.
• Adopt legislation allowing religious developers to bypass local requirements to construct affordable housing on their property.
• Allow development and redevelopment of property that matches the existing characteristics of an area and encourage urban infill and conversions of commercial space to residential.
• Secure the rights of housing developers at the time they apply for permitting from a planning unit.
• Adopt legislation that will provide local governments with additional tools, including incentives to developers and special assessments, to promote housing construction.
• Strongly consider state appropriations to address housing issues by directly supporting housing construction, including appropriations to a residential infrastructure revolving loan fund or a state matching low-income housing tax credit.

This group was established to address risk assessment, strategic planning, prevention of natural disasters, response efforts, temporary housing, and relief strategies in Kentucky.

Data shared in the final report point to the increased severity and occurrence of disasters: “an average of more than 28 tornadoes per year since 2021; rainfall in excess of the historical average since 2011, resulting in sometimes catastrophic flooding in both eastern and western Kentucky; nearly 1,500 wildfires per year, and earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 to 5.0 about every five to six years.

Kentucky also faces other disaster threats, including infectious diseases that have impacted humans, wildlife, and agricultural animals in recent years. Kentucky ranks among the most disaster-impacted states in the nation, with eight of the ten counties with the highest number of federal major disaster declarations between 2011 and 2023 located in the Commonwealth.”

The full report can be found here but includes the following recommendations impacting county governments:

• Establish a state revolving fund to invest in tornado and flood protection infrastructure and other solutions.
• Maintain Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) funding for all 61 local health departments.
• Promote public education and awareness by supporting local emergency management agencies with training, exercises, and resource sharing.
• Review and encourage the implementation of appropriate land-use policies to prevent overbuilding in high-risk areas such as floodplains and wildfire zones.
• Encourage measures to hire and maintain a trained first responder work force
• Maintain readiness of Urban Search and Rescue and swift water teams
• Identify opportunities to expand or establish new Long-Term Recovery Groups (LTRGs) in regions of the state where the data demonstrate that they are needed, using the Graves County model
• Expand community resilience and mitigation efforts by identifying current state resources and existing local resilience hubs, and by creating new hubs as needed to support preparedness, resilience, and mitigation projects at the local level.
• Incorporate flood risk reduction into local and regional transportation and comprehensive plans.
• Utilize existing regional operations centers for forecasting, crisis management, and agency decision support.
• Establish a state resiliency office.

Reach out to Shellie Hampton or Kayla Smith with any questions at shellie.hampton@kaco.org or kayla.smith@kaco.org .