HB 871 Montana House · 2025 Regular Session

Revise requirements to connect to municipal water/sewer system

HB 871 aimed to prevent municipalities from requiring a zoning change, specifically from single-family to multi-family, for parcels of land located outside city limits to connect to municipal water or sewer systems. It would have amended existing law to explicitly prohibit this requirement. The bill also included a $1,000 appropriation to the Department of Environmental Quality for updating related documents. This measure would have primarily affected property owners outside city boundaries seeking to access municipal utility services.

Issues: ✓ Housing

Bill status died 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Apr 2025

House Passage

Apr 2025

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Mar 26, 2025 Last action May 20, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB0871_1(6).pdf → HB0871_2.pdf · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill adds a new restriction preventing cities from forcing single-family landowners to rezone their property to multifamily zoning just to connect to city water or sewer systems. This change protects existing low-density land use rights by requiring that any such rezoning must be consistent with current county zoning rules, rather than being mandated by the city. The bill also includes a small appropriation to update related documents and sets an effective date of July 1, 2025.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded to include a new eligibility restriction for cities regarding zoning changes required for utility connections.

REQUIREMENT

Added a prohibition on cities requiring single-family parcels to change to multifamily zoning solely to connect to municipal water or sewer systems, unless the parcel is already zoned for higher density under county regulations.

FISCAL

Added a $1,000 appropriation from the general fund to the Department of Environmental Quality to update documents related to municipal water and sewer systems.

TECHNICAL

Modified the bill header and page numbering to reflect a new version of the document, though these are primarily formatting changes.

Floor votes · House Apr 4, 2025

How they voted

57–43

Passed

Total votes 100

Apr 4, 2025

D Democratic42

42 Nay

100% Nay

R Republican58

57 Yea 1 Nay

98% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 4, 2025

House · Passed

House Vote: pass (57-43)

house

Apr 2, 2025

Lower · Passed

(H) Committee Report - (H) Local Government

lower

Apr 2, 2025

Lower · Passed

(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Local Government

lower

Mar 26, 2025

Committee

(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Local Government

lower

Mar 26, 2025

Introduced

(H) Introduced

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors